punchcard

/PUNCH-kard/ · noun · Hacker Culture · Origin: 1890

Definitions

  1. A stiff card with holes punched in specific positions to represent data or program instructions, used as the primary input/output medium for computers from the 1890s through the 1970s. A standard IBM card held 80 columns of data — a constraint that influenced everything from COBOL line lengths to terminal widths.

    In plain English: A stiff paper card with holes in it that old computers used to read data and programs — drop the stack and you'd have a very bad day.

    Example: The entire payroll program was 2,000 punchcards, and the intern famously dropped the unsorted deck in the stairwell.

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