For a long time equipment to get graphics off the screens were very expensive Had to learn to use cameras to take pictures of the screen. Experts on filters etc.
On Sun, 17 Jun 2018 14:15 Robert Bernecky, <[email protected]> wrote: > A few points: > > - The BGT (Blasted Goldball Terminals) were indeed noisy, but > they did make a better carbon copy than the 327X screens. > > - I wrote what was the first "teletype support" for SHARP APL, > I think in 1972 or 1973, for our University of Toronto in-house site. > Character mapping, was a nightmare, and none of us (Roger Moore > and I) were never happy with any of the schemes we used for them. > > - The APL-ASCII terminals came along later, in two flavors - "bit-paired" > and "typewriter-paired", due to the terminal manufacturers' inability > to agree on anything. These were either dot-matrix terminals > or "print wheel"-based ones. I think the latter were made possible by > the advent of small, inexpensive stepping motors. > > - We did have APL print trains on the 1403N1 printers with UCS. > The earlier 1403 printers, with print chains, did not have APL, > so this was A Great Advance. The print chains were not amenable > to local mods, but the trains had print slugs that you could replace, > to make a custom character set. > > Bob > > On 2018-06-17 04:18 AM, Ian Clark wrote: > > At the IBM Scientific Centre in Peterlee we had 3270-series terminals for > > APL characters from 1975, I'm pretty sure. But I learned my APL around > 1973 > > on an EBCDIC-only 3277. No, I didn't use that absurd curly bracketed > > notation – the first mainframe APL I used was APLSV, which had separate > > 256-byte input- and output-tables as editable text files. If you had a > > spare afternoon you could customise them however you liked, and I > > cobbled-up a usable APL alphabet (small-e for epsilon, small-i for iota, > > etc) omitting the rarer characters like domino and covering them if > needed, > > or copy/pasting the character from quadAV. > > > > When at last I was able to type real APL characters I didn't take to them > > at all – I couldn't read the code. > > > > But nobody ever read the code. APL was proud of being a Write-Only > > language. But I felt the shame. There I was, able to read assembly code > as > > fluently as a newspaper, but I couldn't read an APL program I had just > > written. > > > > Fortunately I never had to use one of those blasted golfball terminals > > which sounded like a tommy gun. They were in heavy use by our project > > partners ADSS Mohansic for prototyping software (in APL) intended for the > > hush-hush FS (Future-Series) mainframe. When you walked into their lab, > > with a hundred APL programmers all beavering away, the noise was > deafening. > > > > In those days computers were IPL-ed daily (Initial Program Load-ed) – and > > the FS prototype took longer and longer to IPL as emulation piled on > > emulation (I think they were using APL to emulate the instruction set!) > > Eventually it exceeded 24 hours, at which point the project was > cancelled, > > to great staff and customer consternation. > > > > So the story goes. > > > > Shortly afterward, on one of my regular transatlantic jaunts, I referred > > airily in conversation to an "Iverson Ball". My interlocutor, a > born-again > > evangelical, curtly informed me it was called the Iverson Printing > Element. > > > > Ian > > > > > > On Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 10:26 PM, Don Guinn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Other problems. Never heard of a print train with APL characters for > high > >> speed printers. Had to have a special type ball for Selectric > typewriters. > >> It wasn't until the late 1970's that teletype matrix terminals started > >> supporting APL characters. Likewise for 3270 monitors. > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > -- > Robert Bernecky > Snake Island Research Inc > 18 Fifth Street > Ward's Island > Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 > > [email protected] > tel: +1 416 203 0854 > text/cell: +1 416 996 4286 > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
