Friden Flexowriter

From: Peter Kaiser <kaiser_at_acm.org>
Date: Tue Nov 24 04:41:21 1998

> What's a Flexowriter, you ask? Before the KSR33 TTY was invented around
> 1962, this was the way you got data into and out of your PDP-1, PB-250,
> etc.... I'm interested in ... emotional outbursts from veteran users.

A Flexowriter was the console IO device for the Burroughs Datatron 205 on
which I did my first programming in the early 1960s. In fact, my very
first programs were written directly in binary code punched into paper tape
for the Flexowriter; to correct a program it was necessary either to splice
in a corrected segment of tape or else to cover a hole with a little black
dot and punch in the correct bit elsewhere. The Flexowriter could also
punch tape as output from the Datatron, and duplicate tapes offline.

The same tape and much of the typing mechanism appeared in the Friden
Justowriter, a typesetting device that could accumulate a line of typing
and punch it on tape with justification codes. When the tape was read, it
could produce justified lines ready for photolithography. I set a hell of
a lot of type that way. (If you were near Cal in the mid-60s, think "Slate
Supplement" and "Spider".)

And the computer? When it was decommissioned it was offered for free to
whomever could pick it up, but I lost the chance because I couldn't borrow
the necessary size truck. Well, it wouldn't have fitted into our house
anyway, and the air conditioning alone -- for the vacuum tubes -- would
have blown my parents' electrical bill to kingdom come.

___Pete
kaiser_at_acm.org
Received on Tue Nov 24 1998 - 04:41:21 GMT