> Much like how curly braces in C are placed because back in the day you needed ...

noosphr · 2025-09-22T15:11:43 1758553903

Each punch card was it's own line of text.

By putting the final curly brace on it's own card, and hence line, it meant you could add lines to blocks without having to change the old last line.

E.g. the following code meant you only had to type a new card and insert it.

     for(i=0;i<10;i++){         /* Card 1 */
          printf("%d ", i);     /* Card 2 */
     }                          /* Card 3 */

     for(i=0;i<10;i++){         /* Card 1 */
          printf("%d ", i);     /* Card 2 */
          printf("%d\n", i*i);  /* Card 3 */
     }                          /* Card 4 */

But for following had to edit and replace an old card as well.

     for(i=0;i<10;i++){         /* Card 1 */
          printf("%d ", i);}    /* Card 2 */
     
     for(i=0;i<10;i++){         /* Card 1 */
          printf("%d ", i);     /* Card 2' */
          printf("%d\n", i*i);} /* Card 3 */

This saved a bit of typing and made errors less likely.

jcranmer · 2025-09-22T16:43:23 1758559403

I'm dubious of this explanation because C itself largely postdates punched cards as a major medium of data storage, and some quick searches doesn't produce any evidence of people using punch cards with C or Unix.

noosphr · 2025-09-22T22:24:37 1758579877

Ed was also line oriented.

Using regex to edit lines instead of typing them out was a step up, but not much of one.

Also my father definitely had C punch cards in the 80s.