On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, robin wrote:
> > Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 10:01:16 +0200
> > From: Jörg Stiller <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Isn't it obvious that
> >
> > (1) ** was selected in early Fortran because the character set
> > of the early input devices was constrained.
>
> No, it was because printing devices were constrained.
> Being tabulating machines, they were restricted to the digits,
> alphabetic characters, and a few special characters such as . , / *
> or % ( ) and the like.
> Input was punch cards, and any code could be punched.
Well, you could punch anything you wanted to, but that does not mean it
would be recognized, nor that it was a standard character on the 026 key
punch. I just checked an old IBM 1401 computer manual containing a table
of Card code - BCD (internal) representation. There is no ^ in the table.
(Nor do I remember its being on the 026 key punch. Nor, for that matter, on
the later 029 EBCDIC key punch.)
When FORTRAN was first invented, I think there was only one input device
that mattered, the 026 key punch. Apart from the console, what else was
there for an IBM machine?
Cheers, Wes
Dr. W. J. Metzger Experimental High Energy Physics Group
tel. +31-24-3653127 Faculty of Natural Sciences
+31-24-3652099 (secr.) University of Nijmegen
fax. +31-24-3652191 Toernooiveld 1
telex 48228 wina nl 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands
e-mail: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
http://home.cern.ch/metzger/ or http://www.hef.kun.nl/~wes
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