[cynwoody]

For the life of me though, I can’t recall how we edited errors on the tape.

Read faulty tape to the spots that needed correction. Type in the changes. Write corrected program to fresh tape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TECO_(text_editor)

How to change "Hello" to "Goodbye", from the above:

*EBhello.c$$                     Open file for read/write with backup
*P$$                             Read in the first page
*SHello$0TT$$                    Search for "Hello" and print the line
    printf("Hello world!\n");    The line
*-5DIGoodbye$0TT$$               Delete "Hello", insert "Goodbye", and print the line
    printf("Goodbye world!\n");  The updated line
*EX$$                            Copy the remainder of the file and exit

Then there were punched cards. There would be one card per line with punches to encode the characters and the characters dot-matrix printed across the top. To edit, you

• Looked throught the deck to find the card you wanted to change
• Put it in the read side of the key punch
• Used the Dup key to copy it onto a fresh card up to the point you wanted to change
• Keyed the change onto the new card
• Duped the rest of the old card onto the new card
• Put the edited card in the deck in place of the old card

At some point in the seventies, they introduced a new, improved key punch machine which had a buffer that could hold a one card in memory. It didn't have a display, however, just a two-digit position readout. However, if you realized you made a typo, you could back up and re-key. It didn't physically punch the card until you were done and hit the Release key.

[trubolotta]

Thanks. That looks right (shaking cobwebs from cerebrum). Punch cards were never a problem. Those I remember how to do.

[piytar]

I bow to superior old school knowledge!