Monday, December 5, 2016

Who remembers these? RPG coding sheets

When I posted pictures of the IBM print charts I had found, Kevin Adler sent me pictures of some of the RPG history he has, RPG coding sheets.

Looking closely at them I think they may have been sheets used in the days of punch cards.

When I asked Kevin how he came to possess them he replied: "I got them from a former team leader before he retired."

Click on images below to open a larger version

If you have any RPG or IBM midrange memorabilia you would like to share send me a message via the Contact Form, on the right.

9 comments:

  1. Of course I remember, I used them to transcribe the RPG programs through a dual IBM 3742 with 8-inch floppy disk in basic data format (128 Bytes per record) and then use the TRANSFER procedure to download it to a 64 MB fixed disk Which weighed 40 KGS. Installed in an IBM System 32 and / or System 34 year 1977

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  2. I remember these sheets. Yes there were used to originally to be entered on punch cards (80-column) Originally learned on System 3, then used a System 34, then System 38, then AS/400.

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  3. what no Calc sheets? Or Output layout sheets?

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  4. I USED THEM FOR YEARS I EVEN HAVE A 16 INCH RULER WITH THEN ENGRAVED ON IT TO LAY ON YOU PRINT OUTS

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  5. I still have some in the office. Just couldn't toss them.

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  6. The RPG-rule had all the coding sheets plus the EBCDIC hex symbols. It even let you measure card volume up to approximately 2,000 cards. In addition, it had line spacing for 6 LPI and print positions at 10 CPI up to a max of 150 characters. I even had my name engraved on it. Far outlasted the S/3 Model 10 I was working on at the time.

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  7. I lost my RPG programming ruler years ago. And I don't have a 132 column printer. And the local Staples doesn't carry green-bar. We've come down a long ways since the golden days of computing!

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  8. Anyone have these in a PDF format?

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  9. The first computer I ever worked on was an IBM S/3 Model 10 with 4k of memory, a 5444 disc drive, an IBM 5203 printer, and a 5424 card reader. I programed in RPG II using these sheets and then had the programs punched into 96 column cards using an IBM 3741 data recorder. Those were the days! I still have my original IBM System/360 Reference Data card and Hewlett-Packard RPG II pocket guide when we moved to the HP 3000 series II.

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