tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post1747945432548377082..comments2023-11-03T06:32:28.410-04:00Comments on Staring At Empty Pages: Line printers and FORTRAN programsBarry Leibahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-16187666754553037632006-12-30T21:36:00.000-05:002006-12-30T21:36:00.000-05:00Thanks, Jim. You always seem to have a slightly b...Thanks, Jim. You always seem to have a slightly better memory than I do on these things, and you're right about the control codes; I've corrected the main entry.<br /><br />Yes, the 1403 had a control tape, which needed to be changed when different (vertical) sized paper was loaded, or when one wanted different forms control. There were a couple of printers at the main computer center that they did that on — we never changed the tape (except to replace it when it broke) at the remote job entry station.Barry Leibahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-23644945656220836962006-12-30T20:56:00.000-05:002006-12-30T20:56:00.000-05:00I remember 0 (zero) as double space and + as overs...I remember 0 (zero) as double space and + as overstrike. Not that it matters. Some printers (not sure about the 1403) contained a loop of paper tape that allowed the form (and "vertical tab") length to be specified differently for different forms, like checks.<br /><br />Tearing off the sprocket holes definitely made the result only marginally (heh) less geeky. If the wide format and fanfold of the paper didn't give you away, the horizontal stripes (typically green and white, 3 lines per bar) printed on the paper usually did.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05459244944209591455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-52181527433056112006-12-30T17:44:00.000-05:002006-12-30T17:44:00.000-05:00Well, I'll look forward to stepping into the way-b...Well, I'll look forward to stepping into the way-back machine again, although my experiences aren't quite 30 years old. We just had archaic equipment, apparently. ;-) You ol' dinosaur, you.<br /><br />I was the first lab assistant in the first Mac lab on campus, and they had no hard drives and only one disk drive. The big fun was having students save their "MacWrite" files. They'd have to switch the two disks fifty times* to save a one-page paper. <br /><br />*Probably an exaggeration. But not by much.Maggiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16681883169121834569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-44876672164835010432006-12-30T13:28:00.000-05:002006-12-30T13:28:00.000-05:00Thanks for the comments, Maggie. I started a long...Thanks for the comments, Maggie. I started a long response comment, but then decided to turn it into another blog post instead, for the next time I decide to take us back 30 years.Barry Leibahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-22495110552407602772006-12-29T20:51:00.000-05:002006-12-29T20:51:00.000-05:00I used to work in the computer labs at UMD when I ...I used to work in the computer labs at UMD when I was a student, and I can still hear the printers' whine as they printed line after line. It was part of the background noise of the lab. There were always the annoying kids (like you, I guess ;-) who sat there and printed out pictures during the last week of the semester when everyone else was trying to do their work.<br /><br />I also remember our mainframe was so slow that at the end of the semester, we'd often get timed out of our connection while our programs compiled. LOL. Now this semester, my students are so used to doing everything on their own computers, that they complain if they have to do something in the lab! Heaven forbid they sit in the lab and do a project! I remember driving all the way home from school once, realizing once I got home what the bug was in my program, and driving all the way back so I could fix it!Maggiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16681883169121834569noreply@blogger.com