[COFF] Daisy wheel printers (was: [TUHS] The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature)

[Dave Horsfall]

On Mon, 9 Nov 2020, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:

> The Qume printers seemed to have been the best round 1980 when we used 
> them in our applications.  In particular, a large choice of wheels and 
> fine-grained spacing.  I forget how the spacing worked.

Presumably some sort of a table lookup, based on which character is about 
to be hit?  Or are you referring to the micro-spacing itself?

> The golfball console for the /360 was much earlier than that, like the 
> /360 itself.  The model numbers I recall were 735, and the newer 
> generation 2731/2735.  The last digit related to the carriage width 
> (11"/15").

I once had a fine collection of goofballs (as we called them); sadly lost 
in a house move :-(

> Round the time in question I bought a second-hand 735 machine.  It had 
> an arcane interface that directly talked to the magnets.  I built an 
> interface for it to a parallel port [...]

I'd like to know a bit more about that interface...  You'd have to control 
the carriage, roller, swivel/tilt/hit etc.  How did you detect the BREAK 
key to get the 360's attention and unlock the keyboard?

-- Dave