The first machines I ever wrote programs for were manufactured by ICL (later part of Fujitsu). The programs were written in Fortran, PLAN (ICL mainframe assembler) and Algol. They were written on coding sheets (different for each language) or directly onto punched cards (using a card punch machine or just a hand punch) or paper tape (using a tape punch machine or just a punch and template). This is computing from a previous millennium, like much of the computing we do today. This page recalls some vital information from those days :)
| Symbol | Name | Card Punching |
Symbol | Name | Card Punching |
Symbol | Name | Card Punching |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | F | 10/6 | - | minus/hyphen | 11 | ||||
| 1 | 1 | G | 10/7 | " | quotes | 11/0 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | H | 10/8 | / | solidus | 0/1 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | I | 10/9 | + | plus | 10/2/8 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | J | 11/1 | . | stop | 10/3/8 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | K | 11/2 | ; | semi-colon | 10/4/8 | ||||
| 6 | 6 | L | 11/3 | : | colon | 10/5/8 | ||||
| 7 | 7 | M | 11/4 | ' | apostrophe | 10/6/8 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | N | 11/5 | ! | exclamation | 10/7/8 | ||||
| 9 | 9 | O | 11/6 | [ | left bracket | 11/2/8 | ||||
| space | NONE | P | 11/7 | $ | dollar | 11/3/8 | ||||
| & | ampersand | 10 or 10/0 | Q | 11/8 | * | asterisk | 11/4/8 | |||
| # | number | 3/8 | R | 11/9 | > | greater than | 11/5/8 | |||
| @ | 4/8 | S | 0/2 | < | less than | 11/6/8 | ||||
| ( | left parenthesis | 5/8 | T | 0/3 | ↑ | 11/7/8 | ||||
| ) | right parenthesis | 6/8 | U | 0/4 | £ | pound | 0/2/8 | |||
| ] | right bracket | 7/8 | V | 0/5 | , | comma | 0/3/8 | |||
| A | 10/1 | W | 0/6 | % | percentage | 0/4/8 | ||||
| B | 10/2 | X | 0/7 | ? | question | 0/5/8 | ||||
| C | 10/3 | Y | 0/8 | = | equals | 0/6/8 | ||||
| D | 10/4 | Z | 0/9 | ← | 0/7/8 | |||||
| E | 10/5 |
These will not all work as intended in your browser.
The names are what they were called, not what anyone (least of all you or I) calls them today.
The code (excluding shift characters) is shown in octal form
| 0 | #00 | space | #20 | @ | #40 | P | #60 | |||
| 1 | #01 | ! | #21 | A | #41 | Q | #61 | |||
| 2 | #02 | " | #22 | B | #42 | R | #62 | |||
| 3 | #03 | # | #23 | C | #43 | S | #63 | |||
| 4 | #04 | £ | #24 | D | #44 | T | #64 | |||
| 5 | #05 | % | #25 | E | #45 | U | #65 | |||
| 6 | #06 | & | #26 | F | #46 | V | #66 | |||
| 7 | #07 | ' | #27 | G | #47 | W | #67 | |||
| 8 | #10 | ( | #30 | H | #50 | X | #70 | |||
| 9 | #11 | ) | #31 | I | #51 | Y | #71 | |||
| : | #12 | * | #32 | J | #52 | Z | #72 | |||
| ; | #13 | + | #33 | K | #53 | [ | #73 | |||
| < | #14 | , | #34 | L | #54 | $ | #74 | |||
| = | #15 | - | #35 | M | #55 | ] | #75 | |||
| > | #16 | . | #36 | N | #56 | ↑ | #76 | |||
| ? | #17 | / | #37 | O | #57 | ← | #77 |
#24 should be a UK Pound Symbol; #76 an upwards arrow; #77 a backwards arrow.
This page is maintained by Martin Ansdell-Smith