APPLICATION NOTE: AN OPTICAL MARK CARD DESIGN FOR HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE ENCODING.

The Province of Manitoba is constructing a terminal network to provide computer facilities to high schools. In order to minimize costs, optical mark card readers have been installed. The authors have designed an optical mark card with specific emphasis on coding programs in FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, and ALGOL. The card uses an encoding scheme designed to minimize marking effort. In particular, most keywords are included and may be obtained by a single column marking which can be determined from the keyword. A correction facility permits modification to an existing optical or keypunched card by the addition of a correction card. A right and left tabbing facility similar to the typewriter tab is included. A first approximation to this card design has been used at the University of Manitoba in 1972-3 and the revised card is being used in both the University and in the Manitoba High School system in 1973-4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]