what I want to know is how did they do those electronic signs in the
50's or 60's, with lightbulbs. was it some kind of punched card
triggering a mechanical switch?

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 02:49:02 +0000 (GMT), Howard Winter
<HDRW@h2org.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Carey,
> 
> On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 08:43:02 -0500, Carey Fisher - NCS wrote:
> 
> > Back in 1973, at Georgia Tech (USA), a buddy and I wrote programs in Fortran
> > and Algol that
> > would print a banner on computer printout paper.  We'd submit the programs
> > on Hollerith card decks
> > with the Data cards being the message we wanted printed.  Each letter in the
> > banner would
> > print in a 5x7 matrix using the same letter for each dot.  So, the letter A
> > would print with
> > letter "A"s, the B would print with the letter "B", etc.
> 
> There's a coincidence - I wrote a program to do this in Fortran, in about 1975!  I was an operator on an IBM
> 370/135 (at the lower end of medium sized mainframes at the time), and did this just for the fun of it during
> quiet night shifts.  It was also useful for printing posters...  I tried various formats and the 5x7 matrix
> "looked right" when printed on a line-printer, and gave 16 characters across, 6 lines per page.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 
> Howard Winter
> St.Albans, England
> 
> 
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