ASCII art pictures

From: McFadden, Mike <mmcfadden_at_cmh.edu>
Date: Wed May 24 09:28:30 2000

There was "actual" work done using ascii art. We used to plot growth curves
of bacteria using ASCII characters. We looked at the growth patterns of
1000's of samples with varying concentrations of antibiotics included. This
was very cumbersome and slow. We then purchased a Versatec printer to speed
the process. Still ASCII plots but faster. One research run would consume
an entire box of versatec paper. For recreation I developed a raster
plotting version on the Versatec but it was much slower and computer
intensive, it did do b/w pictures nicely. The next refinement after plain
ASCII printer art was output on a Printronix P300 or P600. You could print
raster pictures. The sound of the printer tipped off the staff to the
production of a picture. Afterhours was always available.
I may try and read my old tape and recover the images. I know it was
scanned using a vidicon tube over a light box at 256 X 256 resolution 8 bits
grayscale. I have kept and moved the tape for the last 25 years.

Mike
"Old computer guy"
Received on Wed May 24 2000 - 09:28:30 BST