Printers used with Altair

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Mon Jul 30 16:03:21 2001

> So, here's the question. If I were a purchaser of an Altair in 1977,
> which printer would I have purchased? What control code would it have
> interpreted? Were the early printers sophisticated enough to recognize
> "bold", "underline" or "italic"?

The only certainty I can think of is Control-L (FF) == FormFeed,
e.g. top-of-form.

In '77, you got underline by backing up the carriage and putting
underlines underneath the text you'd just printed... you got boldface
by backing up the carriage and reprinting what you'd printed.

Italics required an minimum 80 proof software upgrade of the operator...

<hic!>

-dq
Received on Mon Jul 30 2001 - 16:03:21 BST