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▲Virtual Punch Card Creator (masswerk.at)
79 points by eniac111 4 days ago | 16 comments
timonoko 3 days ago [-]
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.

masswerk 1 days ago [-]
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/

nils-m-holm 3 days ago [-]
Here is a postscript file that generates punch card images: http://t3x.org/lfn/punchcard.eps

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

amenghra 22 hours ago [-]
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/

teddyh 21 hours ago [-]
It seems that you have not yet gotten to the part of actually reading from the tape.
amenghra 20 hours ago [-]
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/).
masswerk 3 days ago [-]
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.)

teddyh 21 hours ago [-]
bcd(6)

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

ChrisArchitect 4 days ago [-]
Fun.

Related:

Tristan Davey's Punch Card Archive

https://punchcards.tristandavey.com/

mncharity 17 hours ago [-]
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

GnarfGnarf 23 hours ago [-]
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.

teddyh 21 hours ago [-]
It’s missing a card reader to jam by feeding your lace card into it.
acrophiliac 15 hours ago [-]
Oh my gosh, the flashbacks this triggered. It was the audio that did it. Amazing.
thih9 1 days ago [-]
It’s possible to draw a heart:

    /KCDEOXOEDCK/
Wider:

    /KLCDDENOXONEDDCLK/
teddyh 21 hours ago [-]
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|
  |________________________________________________|
MisterTea 22 hours ago [-]
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.
22 hours ago [-]
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