<Paul_Koning at Dell.com> writes:
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
=20
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk kn=
own to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was =
it uppercase only? I don=92t remember anymore. It needed fill after the c=
arriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). =
We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, an=
d it didn=92t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of co=
urse.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do b=
idirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make tha=
t level of sophistication possible.
NOT! It's an 8080!
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk known to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was it uppercase only? I don t remember anymore. It needed fill after the carriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, and it didn t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of course.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do bidirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make that level of sophistication possible.
The LA180 receive-only printer was, I think, a derivative of the LA36, not the LA120. The 1976 Peripheral handbook seems to support that. Note that there also was an LA35, a receive-only variant of the LA36. The difference is that the LA35 had a serial interface while the LA180 had a parallel (line printer style) interface.
paul
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
-----
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."
On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 1:20 PM, Cory Smelosky <b4 at gewt.net> wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
No receive-only LA120?! ;)
(Is that was the LA180 is? I can't remember what the models number for the
receive-only LA120 was.) I like my printers big. ;)
For the "canonical" printing terminal, however, either the LA36 or
LA120 would be the most recognizable. They were to be found in nearly
every installation.
Hell, my grandpa who worked at the Ma Bell Columbus works recognises
LA120-like stuff. He probably even recognises the LA120 itself.
-Dave
--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, John Wilson wrote:
From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
For the "canonical" printing terminal, however, either the LA36 or
LA120 would be the most recognizable. They were to be found in nearly
every installation.
I forget which model has a page in the printset showing the best orientation
for loading an entire 18-wheeler full of them, but it was one of those two.
They were certainly expecting to sell a lot of them!
Considering: "The DEC LA120 DECwriter III terminal is a dot-matrix printing terminal with a maximum speed of 120 characters per second. It was introduced in November, 1978 at a price of $1,830 each in quantities of 100."
Shame the sound-dampening foam rots on 'em...
John Wilson
D Bit
--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
No receive-only LA120?! ;)
(Is that was the LA180 is? I can't remember what the models number for the receive-only LA120 was.) I like my printers big. ;)
For the "canonical" printing terminal, however, either the LA36 or
LA120 would be the most recognizable. They were to be found in nearly
every installation.
Hell, my grandpa who worked at the Ma Bell Columbus works recognises LA120-like stuff. He probably even recognises the LA120 itself.
-Dave
--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects
From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
For the "canonical" printing terminal, however, either the LA36 or
LA120 would be the most recognizable. They were to be found in nearly
every installation.
I forget which model has a page in the printset showing the best orientation
for loading an entire 18-wheeler full of them, but it was one of those two.
They were certainly expecting to sell a lot of them!
John Wilson
D Bit
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
For the "canonical" printing terminal, however, either the LA36 or
LA120 would be the most recognizable. They were to be found in nearly
every installation.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
Hello!
The last I had heard Ian you are correct. Perth is indeed one of
several cities in Australia. Western portion in fact. It's named after
a respectable city in Scotland as it happens.
-----
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."
On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 11:49 AM, Ian McLaughlin <ian at platinum.net> wrote:
I have a DEC LA210 printer sitting in my office that has to get out of here. It's free, except for shipping/pickup. It's in Kelowna, BC, Canada. I'm assuming WA is Western Australia, not Washington State.
Ian
On Jan 15, 2014, at 6:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom <snaggs at mac.com> wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
Kindly,
Daniel S derstr m
Sent from my iPad
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I have a DEC LA210 printer sitting in my office that has to get out of here. It's free, except for shipping/pickup. It's in Kelowna, BC, Canada. I'm assuming WA is Western Australia, not Washington State.
Ian
On Jan 15, 2014, at 6:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom <snaggs at mac.com> wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
Kindly,
Daniel S derstr m
Sent from my iPad
---
Filter service subscribers can train this email as spam or not-spam here: http://my.email-as.net/spamham/cgi-bin/learn.pl?messageid=EAC9CD5C7DF511E39…
On 2014-01-15 06:58, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
What are your requirements? What do you want to use it for? Connected to what?
Johnny
