HollerithCard

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Hollerith cards (commonly called "punch cards") were 80 columns long on IBM equipment (96 column ones existed, e.g. on IBM's System/3). Most manufacturers used rectangular punches and some (Honeywell?) used round holes...)

Either way, it seems the 80 column limit has been with us for a long time. From DEC VT100 terminals with 80 columns (and 24 to 25 lines), Hazeltine's, Wyse, and others all the way to modern Unix/Microsoft? Windows systems, the 80 column limit rears its ugly head.

We even tried 132 columns for a while (some DEC terminals supported this) but the 80 column rule was hard to fight. Some programming languages (notably COBOL and FORTRAN) have the 80 column limit built into the language. The need to have to collate/sort cards brought the need for line numbers to be punched in columns 73-80 on a punched card -- which is why COBOL and FORTRAN don't go beyond column 72.


The 80-column limit no longer exists in "legacy" languages, even on the mainframe (though if the mainframe system administrator is lazy one might find that one's terminal connection is only 80-column capable); also with the demise of the keypunch, all uppercase is no longer a restriction, either. --JLTurriff
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Last edited February 20, 2021 11:02 pm (diff)
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