Floor Sort

Posted Thu Apr 3, 2008 in

I sat at my desk working this morning when I heard a loud rustle of papers — the sound of papers dropping to the floor. I laughed “That didn’t sound good!”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” came the reply.

I was reminded of a term we used in the computer center where I worked in the late 1970’s. The term was floor sort and referred to what happened when a box of Hollerith cards were dropped to the floor.

It’s a play on words because one of the most useful programs computers run is a simple sort. When I studied programming, I learned how to do several varieties of sorts — bubble sort, quick sort, insertion sort, and a couple of others. A floor sort is really no sort at all, but somehow the idea is funny.

There were two basic types of floor sorts. The first is referenced above — one or more boxes of cards are dropped and scatter across the floor. That nearly always brought barely-stifled snickers from those around, particularly those who’ve done a floor sort.

The other type occurred when a card hung in the output hopper of the hallway card reader. The remaining cards in the job were shot from the reader to drift to the floor. If the operator was quick, the job was stopped and no more cards read. However, most of the users of the hallway card reader were amateurs and couldn’t find the stop button quickly enough. A few hundred cards might escape before the machine was shut down.

This also brought muffled snickers from bystanders, so long as they weren’t within striking distance.

I managed to escape execution of a floor sort… somehow.