: 4bf2725b$1@news.povray.org...
> Does anybody know approximately when this time was?

I actually typed one single punch card in 1983 just before the machine was 
sent to greener pastures. IIRC it was an Olivetti wih a red diode display 
(no CRT) but I can't find the model right now.
In 1986 I worked in a lab where the punch card computer had just been 
replaced by a mini-computer with CRTs (so there were stack of cards laying 
around). The old tech guy who had been the punch card operator was being 
retrained and had a hard time adapting to these new-fangled "monitors". 
Before, when he was using the cards, launching a program consisted in 
finding the right batch of cards, moving it *** very carefully *** to the 
computer room (there were stories about him spilling programs on the floor) 
, loading it in the computer and press a button. Now he had to use a regular 
keyboard just like a secretary and type lists of foreign-looking commands 
that didn't make any sense. He hated that.

G.

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