History of computing

   In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard developed a loom in which the dice determined by punch cards. A series of cards could be replaced, and the changing pattern did not require changes in the mechanics of the machine. This was a milestone in the history of programming.

   In 1838, Charles Babbage moved from the development of the Difference Engine to the design of more sophisticated analytical engine, the principles of programming which directly back to the card Jaccard.

   In 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau used punch cards and sorting mechanisms (tabs [1]), developed by Herman Hollerith to handle the data stream decennial census mandated by the Constitution. The company Hollerith eventually became the core of IBM. This corporation has developed a punch card technology into a powerful tool for business data and produced an extensive line of specialized equipment for their records. By 1950, IBM had become ubiquitous in industry and government. The warning printed on most cards, "not collapse, does not curl up and not tear," became the motto of the postwar era.

   In many computer punch cards solutions used before (and after) the end of 1970. For example, students of engineering and scientific disciplines in many universities around the world to send their software team to a local computer center in the form of a set of cards, one card on the program line and then had to queue for processing, compilation and execution of the program. Subsequently, a printout of any results, marked with the submitter's identification, they were placed in an output tray outside the computer center. In many cases, these results are included only printing error in the syntax of the program, requiring another cycle editing - a compilation - performance.