RPG Rules – aka – When Rulers helped you program
A few years ago, moving house for the umpteenth time, I found my old RPG Ruler from way back in the day.
I think this is from the late 1980’s when I was learning to program RPG2 and RPG3 on the first IBM Machine I worked with – the venerable IBM System38:
The trusty old steel RPG Rule served programmers for years helping them plan old RPGII and RPGIII programs. The stainless steel ruler is acid-etched and enamel-filled, giving a real old world beauty. Why arent rulers made like this anymore?
Charts are embossed on it showing:
- Edit Codes
- Hexadecimal to Character Conversion
- 96-Column Card Codes
- Header Specifications
- File Description Specifications
- Input Specifications
- Calculation Specifications
- Extension Specifications
- Line Counter Specifications
- Output Specifications
- Telecommunications Specification
- One side has a 10CPI and a 6LPI scale, the other has inches and punch card volumes
Ah those were the days ?
I have one within arms reach of my keyboard right now.
I’ve had more than one of these since they first came out
– somehow they kept “walking away”
until I ordered one with my name etched in the box just below the 1 inch mark.
These days I just keep it as a memento
(: and for those times when I need a 14-inch ruler ):
PS: My first computer job was on a Model 10 with 96 column cards for input
(: I still have some of those around somewhere in my basement 🙂
I remember coding forms, printer layout sheets, and my own favourite – the RPG Debugging Template, along with 132 column printouts…