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> > > Uh, why? There isn't a maximum row-width, is there?
> >
> > I usually figure 80 columns is the max,
> > unless a line is required to go longer.
>
> The legacy of punched cards :-(
Tell me about it. Sheesh. :-P
Trivia note:
Punch cards are the size that they are because that was the size
of the U.S. bills printed by the U.S. Treasury at the time that
punch cards were invented. What decade/era was this? (Answer
is below...)
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Punch cards were _first_ invented in the 1880s!
The first mechanical computer was invented to help the U.S. Census Bureau
tabulate the results of the 1880 Census. Since the U.S. Treasury had quite a
lot of hoppers and sorters (designed to move, sort, and collate the various
denominations of U.S. bills), the Census Bureau copied the Treasury's machinery
(in an all-too-rare example of Government effieciency!), and thus had to create
the new punch cards in the same size as the dollar bills.
Franklin
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