... an example, a very large Oil Company first wrote its accounting software n 1961 in Fortran, using integer arithemetic and separate tracking of cents or pennies, on an IBM 1401 (after using plugboard hardware). This included payroll. Later, following IBM advice they took the PL/1 route after first deviating via Cobol (and RPG and Mark4 !). Very much later, Cobol, PL/1 and...

.... As an example, a very large Oil Company first wrote its accounting software n 1961 in Fortran, using integer arithemetic and separate tracking of cents or pennies, on an IBM 1401 (after using plugboard hardware). This included payroll. Later, following IBM advice they took the PL/1 route after first deviating via Cobol (and RPG and Mark4 !). Very much later, Cobol, PL/1 and Fortran ...

... the last eight columns. (I would hate to write the code that converted that into columnwise data.) The unit record equipment on the 704/709/7090 (and presumably 7094 as well) used plugboards to map the interface to specific column positions, but regardless of how you set the plugs the hardware interface processed 24 words of data for the card reader or punch, which with the usual ...