where have all the keypunch operators gone, long time passing

[toml_12953]

(07-15-2022 11:21 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  to paraphrase an old Peter, Paul, and Mary song.

I recently acquired an old keypunch operator training book from 1970. Here is a paragraph from the book:

"It is important that all punctuation marks such as hyphens and commas be punched exactly as written by the programmer. Sometimes well-meaning keypunch operators with a good understanding of the English language change the punctuation marks to make the COBOL statement grammatically correct; this can be disastrous."

Indeed!

When I worked as a contractor for the Army at Ft. Lee, VA, we had two IBM systems, one running OS and one running DOS. I'd submit coding forms to be punched by the operator, who happened to be Puerto Rican. She was so good at her job that if I deliberately made a mistake in the data, for testing, she'd punch it exactly as written but also type a card "correctly" and insert it sideways with a note. We had to write either OS or DOS at the top of the coding form to let the keypunch operator know what color job control cards to use so the computer ops would run the job on the correct system. When I submitted forms for the OS system, I'd get back one deck but when I submitted forms for the DOS system, I'd get back two decks! The keypunch operator thought DOS meant we wanted two decks! I don't know what she thought OS meant (you?)