[COFF] Commodity hardware for paper terminal experience

[Chris Hanson]

On Jul 17, 2024, at 11:20 AM, Sijmen J. Mulder <ik at sjmulder.nl> wrote:
> 
> I'd like to try replicating the experience more closely but I'm not
> interested in acquiring collector's items or complex mechanical
> hardware.

Are you sure? :) A DECwriter IV or a DEC Correspondent makes for a *great* printing terminal about the size of an old-style electric typewriter, and ribbons are still available for them. (One of their advantages is that they’re impact printers that use plain paper and an inked ribbon. Though it’s not like thermal FAX paper such as the portable Silent 700 uses is hard to come by…)

They’re still large and somewhat complex mechanical hardware, but they’re at least desktop-sized rather than floor-standing, and the Correspondent is even “portable…” I was actually going to take my Correspondent to Toorcamp this year, before I realized I didn’t have a new ribbon for it and my old one was out.

You could probably also throw together something with an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, a serial printer, and a PS/2 keyboard to get the feel of a printing terminal. It’d probably be a fun and straightforward project, too since it’s just a couple of serial ports and a state machine, and you could make it as simple or featureful as you want.

  -- Chris