Comment on What 5 Megabytes of Computer Data Looked Like in 1966 ~ Vintage Everyday
JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 1 week agoThe IBM 503, the last valve computer, that Cobol and Fortran, the first languages were developed had 20 bit words.
So an 80 column card could fit 4 words across. Thats why terminals had 80 coulmns of text - so they were the same size as punch cards.
Fortran only used 72 columns, so the last 8 were unused.
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I remember our first personal computer had 40 columns on the screen, but we ended up getting an 80 column graphics card for it.
I taught myself basic, but the first language I took in college was fortran, and it was on cards. A bit of an aberration: they had moved on to somewhat more modern equipment, but the lab was being upgraded, so they reverted you the card system for a semester temporarily. It was out of date, but not wildly so at the time.