Tektronix 4107

From: Charles P. Hobbs <transit_at_lerctr.org>
Date: Thu Apr 13 11:45:24 2000

On Thu, 13 Apr 2000, John Allain wrote:

>
> -- Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip)
>
> > This was a rather neat little graphics terminal (CRT). You could draw all
> > sorts of shapes on the screen by issuing commands such as "Square
> > 0,0,10,10" or "Line 4,4,20,20", etc.
>
> > They were pretty exciting back in 1984 or so (when I first saw one), but
> > probably long since outdone by VGA/SVGA graphics ...
>
>
> I helped sell an installation of 60 of these little buggers
> to G.E. back in 1984-5. The cheapest I ever saw them since

How much did they go for? I recall some outrageous number ($5K???)

> was $150 at "Wierd Stuff Warehouse" 5 years later. All I
> have today is a nice set of manuals. Tek's documentation
> rivaled H.P.'s in clarity and construction (I'd actually put
> them slightly ahead of DEC).
>
I only got to see the 4107 manual once (like most of the "good stuff" at
our school, it was secreted away so that only the high muck-ee-mucks could
use it). But there was, if I recall correctly, a "help" command that
displayed most, if not all of the command syntax...

[...]
>
> Ask me sometime about their ink-jet printer... If you
> ever had to clean one of them you really got to to play
> 'Joe Surgeon'.

I remember one of these in the computer lab, connected to a larger Tek
graphics terminal (a 4105?). The main purpose was, I think, to print
output from the cifplot program (before that, we were using a Versatec
electrostatic printer). They didn't like us students using the ink-jet
for other purposes (they pasted signs all over that to that effect). Also,
they left it on all the time (perhaps if it was shut down, it took too
long to start up or required more cleaning) Of course, people tried tricks
like moving the terminal connections around so that they could log into
the printer terminal (that particular terminal line was set up so that
only selected people could log in and use it).

This was all in 1984-1985, at the Engineering computer room at UC Santa
Barbara.
Received on Thu Apr 13 2000 - 11:45:24 BST