@rl_dane @mwl @thorstenzoeller @seere @dmoonfire @davefischer

Strictly speaking: no.

"paper tape" was deprecated, and "punch tape" given as the correct terminology, by FIPS 11-2 a.k.a. ANSI X3/TR-1-82 in 1982. In the 1977 edition of the ANSI Dictionary, it was "perforated tape".

"punch tape" can be found in some 1960s literature and was formal then. If, say, you look at issue 100–16 (June 1967) of the U.S.A. Air Force Manual, in particular the glossary of terms that is attachment 2, you'll find "punch tape", and an explanation that it was a subset of "paper tape" since paper tape could be printed on, carbonized, or chemically treated, not just perforated.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/103062201

Plus: I'm not aware of any computer in the home computer era that had punch tape. It was already in the museum item category even back then. Home computers had *compact cassette* magtapes. (-:

#retrocomputing #RealProgrammers #cassettes #PunchTape

@rl_dane @mwl @thorstenzoeller @seere @dmoonfire

Ah. How to explain this to the Pimply-Faced Youths Of Today?

Punch tape is like a 1-column XTerm window with infinite scrollback, and a font that only has the Unicode Mayan Numerals block. It is a passive-rotation air-cooled solid-state system with a special wood-based screen technology; that operates in permanent Light Mode. It is a portable storage device, which you can exchange between your floor-top computers, using adapters.

I hope that these modern referents have made things clear.

(-:

#retrocomputing #RealProgrammers

@mwl @thorstenzoeller @rl_dane @seere @dmoonfire

Line printers are for the quiche eaters who can only alternate between 80 and 132 columns.

Real programmers know that one can just unroll the punch tape to whatever width one likes.

#RealProgrammers

@lkundrak [Exclamation of extreme profanity] He didn't just port Unix to the Interdata; he wrote a hypervisor and ported Unix to that first.

All on the same sub-MHz machine that was time-shared with six other users.

#RealProgrammers

@kithrup @cstross

Real Programmers don't use languages that computers can *output*. Systems that don't require a keyboard with at least 15 extra non-USB keys, and a specialized foot-pedal connected to the GPIO pins, are mere children's toys used by web developers and JavaScript vapers.

And Real Programmers don't interpret figures like 52/100 in anything other than octal.

(Heh! It has been a while since someone set up a Real Programmers joke.)

#RealProgrammers