[Simh] Question about card readers.

[Quentin North]

I wonder whether OP is referring to a situation where there is a 96 character line, such as a programming language statement, and that the first 80 characters would be on a card and then the remaining 16 characters would be on the next card but with a continuation character in, say, column 1. I seem to recall that this was common in RPG-ii, Fortran and cobol when I was a kid. 

Found a reference at http://www.edwardbosworth.com/MY3121_LectureSlides_HTML/IBM370_ProgrammingEnvironment.htm

Here is a card with column markings appropriate for FORTRAN programs.
Again, it has 12 rows, ten of which are labeled.

Note the division of columns into fields appropriate for the language
        Columns 1 – 5:       Either a “C” for comment or a five digit statement label
        Column 6:               Any nonblank character to indicate a continuation card
        Columns 7 – 72:     The FORTRAN statement
        Columns 73 – 80:   The card’s collating sequence.

Sent from my iPad

On 26 May 2016, at 20:29, Rich Alderson <simh at alderson.users.panix.com> wrote:

>> Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 19:54:22 -0400
>> From: Richard Cornwell <skyvis at sky-visions.com>
> 
>>>> Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 18:07:15 -0400
>>>> From: Richard Cornwell <skyvis at sky-visions.com>
> 
>>>> I am asking for feedback on how to handle Punched card input. I am
>>>> wondering about how to handle the case of reading a greater then 80
>>>> character record on a 80 character punch card. Should characters beyond
>>>> the end of the card be truncated, or should they continue on the next
>>>> card.
> 
>>>>   Any ideas?
> 
>   [I wrote:]
> 
>>> Would you mind expanding on the query a bit?  Since an 80-column card
>>> can't store more than 80 characters' worth of data, how can there be
>>> anything to be truncated or continued in a read?
> 
>>  Sometimes there is extra stuff in a line, or sometimes records come
>>  from other sources. For example the IBM 7090 used 84 character
>>  records on tape. But the native reader could only read in 72 columns.
>>  Sometimes when editing a file, you end up putting blanks at the end
>>  of the line, that you might miss.
> 
>>  One use for producing longer then 80 character records at a punch
>>  would be to include the stacker information at the end of the record.
>>  The deck could then be read directly back in without manual editing.
> 
>>  I am going to be adding card reader/card punch support to my KA10
>>  simulator soon now and wanted to get some feedback on how to handle
>>  this.
> 
> "Extra stuff in a line"?  "Records on tape"?  Color me confused.
> 
> I began my programming career on an IBM 1401 using 80-column Hollerith
> cards and a 132-column 1403 printer, so I have some experience with fixed-
> width devices.
> 
> A card is 80 columns wide.[1]  (OK, there were special purpose 51-, 60-, and
> 66-column cards, but the data on them would fit into 80 columns.)  There is
> no way to put more than 80 columns of data onto a Hollerith card.
> 
> Tape is a different medium, and has nothing to say about how cards behave.
> (By the way, I had a look at the IOCS manual for the 7090, and the only
> reference I see to "84 character records" on tape refers specifically to
> tape labels, which are metadata on the tape, and not even required.)  The
> fact that the card reader only passed 72 columns' worth of data to the
> processor again has nothing to do with how many columns of data are present.
> 
> I agree with Bob about adding metadata to the card image, so nothing's
> needed for that.  Recording "column binary" data in 160 characters is an
> implementation decision, but it does not mean that there are more than 80
> columns on the physical card which is represented.
> 
> So what do you mean by "extra stuff on a line"?  There are no lines, only
> 80-column cards.  What are you trying to represent here?
> 
>                                                                Rich
> 
> [1] OK, there are the Univac "90-column" cards, which are the same
>    dimensions as the IBM Hollerith card.  They record 90 6-bit characters
>    across 45 columns, upper and lower halves of the card.  The holes are
>    circular and larger than the rectangular IBM holes.  They would have to
>    be special-cased in SimH.
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