Paper Tape

When there was a mistake in a long CNC program, sometimes it was easy to tell that it was a mistake at the beginning of the program. Rather than read the whole thing in, edit it in WordStar and then punch a whole new tape, sometimes it was easier to repair the paper tape itself.

Usually you could just create a new section of paper tape, and then you unroll the tape to the section you are looking for and splice in the change. With some practice it wasn't too hard to read the binary numbers by eye. Instead of ASCII values, CNC programs were punched to tape using EIA (Electronic Industries Association) codes.

In some instances if you didn't need to change the number of characters, but just which values (change some digits for example), you could just cover the holes with tape and punch new holes. I think I did that at least a couple of times.

So, this all seems very archaic right? On the plus side you really had control over the stored data. Today if your disk drive or your flash memory loses a bit you can't even see it let alone fix it. ;-)

A Cornucopia of Computers

So I joined the engineering group at C.F.C. Our job was to write and debug CNC programs for the Excellon drilling and routing machines. Most of the programs were written using WordStar on Osborne-1 and Kaypro CP/M machines. We did not use hard drives to do this work, and the final medium of storage was punched paper tape. Yes, really! That was the format the machines used, and we had a storage library for keeping the tapes.

There was one Macintosh in engineering for special purposes, but here again I never used it.

There was a TRS-80 used for managing job tracking in the factory. It had the standard silver expansion box and three floppy drives.

Accounting had an Epson PC clone (or was it a Leading Edge Model D?), and there were a couple of Tandy Model 100 laptops that look like Alan Kay's Dynabook prototype.

Things were about to get interesting.

A Fortunate Series of Events

In the spring of 1986 I discovered something that would change the direction of my life completely. I had been reading the Bible a lot in my teen years, but I didn't have a church community that fit what I understood from my studies until I found the Boston Church of Christ.

Late that year I decided to move in with some other young fellows from the church in Newton, but in order to do this I needed to find more regular paying work. I continued to work with Mr. Alessi but I began to look for a job. For some reason in the cold early spring of 1987 I worked for a few weeks at McDonalds and then suddenly I found an ad in the local paper. I remember the ad was titled "Programmer Trainee".

I went in for an interview. The company was called Circuitboard Fabrication Company, or C.F.C. It was hidden neatly in a neighborhood right next to a grade school in Newtonville. The president of C.F.C. was Bob Spain. He explained that this was a job programming CNC drilling and routing machines which are used to cut circuitboards out of fiberglass sheets. I told him that I was interested in developing computer programs and he responded that I may have an opportunity to do some of that at C.F.C. Small business owners like Bob Spain and Patrick Alessi are so openminded. :-) He offered me $5.50 an hour, and I accepted the job.

I began my new job taking the bus from Needham center to Newtonville because my car had broken down. Then after a few weeks I moved in with the guys from church. I only took with me what would fit in one carload. My new home just happened to be walking distance from C.F.C. It was very easy for me to see the hand of God in this arrangement.

I was surprised to learn soon after starting my new job that Mr. Alessi had used C.F.C.'s services to produce the circuitboards I had been assembling for two years. I had notice the marking CFC-1 on the boards and now I understood what it meant.