RE: 9999

["Neil, David M" <neildm@id.doe.gov>]

Yes I remember (and used) Hollerith cards.  

9999 was the upper limit of the system for line numbers, and was often used
as a default, that way.  It was also used as an end of file or end of record
marker by some programmers (not the system). An end-of-file would have been
an ASCII control character in hexadecimal, probably "null" (FFFF 0000).

Dave Neil
neildm@id.doe.gov

On Thursday, September 09, 1999 11:24 AM, Glen.Vickers@ucm.com
[SMTP:Glen.Vickers@ucm.com] wrote:
> If I think back 20 years or so ago, I believe that 9999 was commonly a
> default for the last line in a program where you could put your "end"
> statement.  That way you always knew what the last line of the code would
be
> while you were developing the code.  I don't recall if 9999 was an
arbitrary
> number such that you would never envision writing that many lines of code,
> or if that was the upper limit for numbering with respect to the
limitations
> of that program language.  I don't recall the actual number 9999 meaning
> something in those older codes such as fortran or basic.
> 
> Does that sound about right?  I'm sure somebody out there has a better
> memory.  Does anyone remember punch cards?
> 
> Glen
> glen.vickers@ucm.com
> 
>
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