:golf-ball printer: n. The IBM 2741, a slow but letter-quality
printing device and terminal based on the IBM Selectric
typewriter. The `golf ball' was a little spherical frob bearing
reversed embossed images of 88 different characters arranged on
four parallels of latitude; one could change the font by swapping
in a different golf ball. This was the technology that enabled APL
to use a non-EBCDIC, non-ASCII, and in fact completely non-standard
character set. This put it 10 years ahead of its time --- where it
stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until character displays
gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the flexibility to
support other character sets.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
printing device and terminal based on the IBM Selectric
typewriter. The `golf ball' was a little spherical frob bearing
reversed embossed images of 88 different characters arranged on
four parallels of latitude; one could change the font by swapping
in a different golf ball. This was the technology that enabled APL
to use a non-EBCDIC, non-ASCII, and in fact completely non-standard
character set. This put it 10 years ahead of its time --- where it
stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until character displays
gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the flexibility to
support other character sets.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
- golf-ball printer n. obs.
The IBM 2741, a slow but
letter-quality printing device and terminal based on the IBM
Selectric typewriter.
The `golf ball' was a little spherical frob bearing... - bit-paired keyboard n.,obs.
(alt. `bit-shift
keyboard') A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have
originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several
years on early computer equipment.
The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (see EOU), so... - EBCDIC:: /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, or /eb'k*-dik/ [abbreviation,
Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code] n.... - EBCDIC /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, or /eb'k*-dik/ n.
[abbreviation, Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange... - pastie: /pay'stee/ n. An adhesive-backed label designed to be
attached to a key on a keyboard to indicate some non-standard
character which can be accessed through that key.
Pasties are likely to be used in APL environments... - frogging: [University of Waterloo] v. 1. Partial corruption of a
text file or input stream by some bug or consistent glitch,
as opposed to random events like line noise or media... - line starve: [MIT] 1. vi. To feed paper through a printer the
wrong way by one line (most printers can't do this).
On a display terminal, to move the cursor up to... - tty: /T-T-Y/ [UNIX], /tit'ee/ [ITS, but some UNIX people say it
this way as well;
this pronunciation is not considered to have sexual... - splat: n. 1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for
the asterisk (`*') character (ASCII 0101010).
This may derive from the `squashed-bug' appearance...
