Fun.

Related:

Tristan Davey's Punch Card Archive

https://punchcards.tristandavey.com/

There's also a more advanced version that lets you experience the joys of punch-card programming with modern languages (JS, Perl, Python (mostly Python2)):

https://www.masswerk.at/card-readpunch/

(Demo-stacks are available for download on the landing page.)

Nothing fun about cards. I had my Fortran exercise in a backpack when I bicycled to to Finnish government computer centre. It was raining, so the cards turned little bit mushy and jammed the machine.

Sabotage and high treason, basically.

Here is a postscript file that generates punch card images: http://t3x.org/lfn/punchcard.eps

Context: http://t3x.org/lfn/index.html

BTW: This is from 2012.

There's also a corresponding card reader to interpret these cards: https://www.masswerk.at/cardreader/

This was a spin-off of a now long defunct custom Google search interface. Compare (while Google closed their public search API in 2016, there are a few cached search results available; users of a certain age may also try "list games"): https://www.masswerk.at/google60/

It’s possible to draw a heart:

    /KCDEOXOEDCK/

Wider:

    /KLCDDENOXONEDDCLK/

Verified:

  $ echo /KCDEOXOEDCK/ | bcd
   ________________________________________________
  //KCDEOXOEDCK/                                   |
  |  ]]]   ]]]                                     |
  | ]   ] ]   ]                                    |
  |]     ]     ]                                   |
  |]11111111111]11111111111111111111111111111111111|
  |2]222222222]222222222222222222222222222222222222|
  |33]3333333]3333333333333333333333333333333333333|
  |444]44444]44444444444444444444444444444444444444|
  |5555]555]555555555555555555555555555555555555555|
  |66666]6]6666666666666666666666666666666666666666|
  |777777]77777777777777777777777777777777777777777|
  |888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888|
  |999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999|
  |________________________________________________|
  $ echo /KLCDDENOXONEDDCLK/ | bcd
   ________________________________________________
  //KLCDDENOXONEDDCLK/                             |
  |   ]]]]     ]]]]                                |
  | ]]    ]] ]]    ]]                              |
  |]        ]        ]                             |
  |]11111111111111111]11111111111111111111111111111|
  |2]222222222222222]222222222222222222222222222222|
  |33]]33333333333]]3333333333333333333333333333333|
  |4444]]4444444]]444444444444444444444444444444444|
  |555555]]555]]55555555555555555555555555555555555|
  |66666666]6]6666666666666666666666666666666666666|
  |777777777]77777777777777777777777777777777777777|
  |888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888|
  |999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999|
  |________________________________________________|

It is possible to store three decimal digits as three groups of four bits, in every 12-row column.

You can insert and delete when duplicating cards, by pressing with your fingers on the source or target card while typing on the keyboard.

If you are into punchcards, I wrote a multipart blog post about recovering and running some 40-years old code which was originally on punch tape.

See https://www.quaxio.com/kaleidoscope_part1/

It seems that you have not yet gotten to the part of actually reading from the tape.

In part 1, I build an emulator to run the code. In part 2 I verify that the punchcard data matches the source code I found online (https://www.quaxio.com/kaleidoscope_part2/). I performed this "reading from the tape" operation using inkscape since I only have a picture of the tape, I don't actually have a copy of the tape. In part 3 I show the structure of the code (https://www.quaxio.com/kaleidoscope_part3/).

Then you did your reading of the tape without writing anything about the process of reading it, in which case your blog posts seems less than relevant to this story.

Next up is a virtual punch card dropper where you play the equivalent of 52 card pickup but with more cards and they must be shuffled in-order. Fun for all ages.

bcd(6)

<https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/bsdgames/bcd.6.en.html>

It’s missing a card reader to jam by feeding your lace card into it.

What I remember most is the sound[1][2]. chunk chunk chunk chunk

[1] typing after a restoration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWLptl0cKSc&list=PL-_93BVApb... [2] normal fast typing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnnGbcM-H8c&t=28s

Oh my gosh, the flashbacks this triggered. It was the audio that did it. Amazing.