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There was computer life long before COBOL became widely used (in the
mid-late 60's) when memory and disk capacities and costs reached a point
where bloated COBOL compilers could be widely deployed. It was common for
AutoCoder (IBM 1400 series) programmers to place 9's in a branch to address
to signify that the final instruction had been reached. This practice
undoubtedly arose from the wide use of 9's to signify the end of punched
card files with were the only form of data processed by the IBM accounting
machines, the early 1400 series computers, and in the low-end 360 (e.g.
360/20 MFCM) series computers. The MFCM was IBM's moniker for
Multi-Function-Card-Machine, however the proclivity of the machines to jam,
brought new meaning to the initials.
Earl
----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Fritz <fritz@xxxxxxxx>
To: RealTraders Discussion Group <realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 1999 1:12 PM
Subject: Re: Arch Crawford 9/9/99
> > One of the most fascinating dimensions of Arch Crawford's
> > prediction of an imminent downdraft in the financial markets is the
> > fact that 9/9/99 corresponds to the line of code ("9999") many
> > programmers used to signify the end of a program -- are we going to
> > get a taste of Y2K earlier than expected?
>
> I can't speak to the coding habits of COBOL programmers in the 50's,
> who may have used arcane things like that. But overall I would be
> very surprised if any programs used a "9999" date as an end test.
> For one thing, both the month and date fields had to support two
> digits, even *BEFORE* Y2K. :-)
>
> Gary
>
>
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