<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings about a topic . Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style . (September 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> From the invention of computer programming languages up to the mid-1970s, many if not most computer programmers created, edited and stored their programs line by line on punched cards . The practice was nearly universal with IBM computers in the era . </P> <P> A punched card is a flexible write - once medium that encodes data, most commonly 80 characters . Groups or "decks" of cards form programs and collections of data . Users could create cards using a desk - sized keypunch with a typewriter - like keyboard . A typing error generally necessitated repunching an entire card . In some companies, programmers wrote information on special forms called coding sheets, taking care to distinguish the digit zero from the letter O, the digit one from the letter I, eight from B, two from Z, and so on . These forms were then converted to cards by keypunch operators, and in some cases, checked by verifiers . The editing of programs was facilitated by reorganizing the cards, and removing or replacing the lines that had changed; programs were backed up by duplicating the deck, or writing it to magnetic tape . </P> <P> A typical corporate or university computer installation would have a suite of rooms, with a large, access - restricted, air conditioned room for the computer (similar to today's server room) and a smaller adjacent room for submitting jobs . Nearby would be a room full of keypunch machines for programmer use . An IBM 407 Accounting Machine might be set up to allow newly created or edited programs to be listed (printed out on fan-fold paper) for proof reading . An IBM 519 might be provided to reproduce program decks for backup or to punch sequential numbers in columns 73 - 80 . In such mainframe installations, known as closed shops, programmers submitted the program decks, often followed by data cards to be read by the program, to a person working behind a counter in the computer room . Many computer installations used cards with the opposite corner cut (sometimes no corner cut) as "job separators", so that an operator could stack several job decks in the card reader at the same time and be able to quickly separate the decks manually when he removed them from the stacker . These cards (e.g., a JCL "JOB" card to start a new job) were often prepunched in large quantities in advance . This was especially useful when the main computer did not read the cards directly, but instead read their images from magnetic tape that was prepared offline by smaller computers such as the IBM 1401 . After running a program, the computer operator would return the card deck and any hardcopy printed or punched output, typically to one of a set of alphabetically labelled cubby holes, based on the programmer's last initial . This was all batch - mode processing, as opposed to interactive processing . </P>

How were computer programs put into computers in the 1970s