Batch 04 · Verified · Do not fold

COLUMN 80
Field notes from
the paper era.

A quarterly for people who still think in fixed-width fields. Every article below is printed on its own 80-column card — and every hole you see is really punched: the grid is generated from the typed line above it, in genuine Hollerith code.

Issue
Vol. 7 — No. 2
Deck size
6 cards + 1 blank
Keypunch
IBM 029 layout
Corner cut
Upper left

Blank card

Type up to eighty characters. The keypunch below interprets your line along the top edge and drives the punch dies in real time. Letters, digits and most punctuation are supported; anything else rides through as a blank column.

Code reference

Twelve rows, numbered from the top edge down: 12, 11, 0, then 1 through 9. Rows 12 and 11 are the zone punches — they have no printed digit, which is why old operators called them "the quiet rows".

Hollerith punch assignments — abridged
CharacterRows punchedZoneNote
0 – 9nnoneA single digit punch, nothing more.
A – I12 + 1…912The high zone; top edge of the card.
J – R11 + 1…911Also written as the minus zone.
S – Z0 + 2…90Starts at 2 — S is 0-2, not 0-1.
SpacenoneAn unpunched column. Structurally load-bearing.
. , - /12-3-8 / 0-3-8 / 11 / 0-1mixedPunctuation borrows the 8-row heavily.
Col Rows