<story><title>How did people deal with punch cards?</title><url>https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2023/11/in-bad-old-days-we-had-punchcards-how.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kens</author><text>People complaining about punch cards? I started programming with optical mark cards which were much, much worse. I&amp;#x27;d fill in bubbles on each card to make the program, mail the program to the Waterloo computer center, and get my output back in a week or so. After fixing the errors (either the bubble wasn&amp;#x27;t dark enough or a coding error), I&amp;#x27;d send the program back. It took me &lt;i&gt;weeks&lt;/i&gt; to get my first program to run. Compared to that, punch cards were like living in the future.&lt;p&gt;By the way, if you want to experience punch cards in person, come to the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, CA) on Wednesdays or Saturdays for demos of the IBM 1401 and the opportunity to punch your own cards. You can also see a high-speed card sorter in action.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Waterluvian</author><text>Ah my dad has the same story about his time in the Math and Computer building at UW. Though he said it got a lot better in later years when he could just show up at 4am and run things pretty much right away because nobody wanted to be there at 4am. That part I find hard to believe based on my time at UW.</text></comment>
<story><title>How did people deal with punch cards?</title><url>https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2023/11/in-bad-old-days-we-had-punchcards-how.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kens</author><text>People complaining about punch cards? I started programming with optical mark cards which were much, much worse. I&amp;#x27;d fill in bubbles on each card to make the program, mail the program to the Waterloo computer center, and get my output back in a week or so. After fixing the errors (either the bubble wasn&amp;#x27;t dark enough or a coding error), I&amp;#x27;d send the program back. It took me &lt;i&gt;weeks&lt;/i&gt; to get my first program to run. Compared to that, punch cards were like living in the future.&lt;p&gt;By the way, if you want to experience punch cards in person, come to the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, CA) on Wednesdays or Saturdays for demos of the IBM 1401 and the opportunity to punch your own cards. You can also see a high-speed card sorter in action.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>renegade-otter</author><text>I just love these ancient programming war stories!</text></comment>