Re: Luxury
Floppies really didn't like factory environments. Mylar tape for CNC machines was a major advance.
In the early 80s we were building in-house a simple test machine for a variety of small semiconducting devices. For each one about 8 3-digit test parameters needed to be set. Using the edge-display BCD encoded switches of the day would have meant around 30 of them, allowing for high and low limits.
This was not really practical. Apart from the sheer quantity of wiring an I/O, machine operators just weren't reliable.
The answer turned out to be punch cards and a very simple card reader, each card clearly labelled. Turn on machine, wait for first light, feed card, green light comes on, go.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
