Where is its screen? *What* is its screen? Can you tell?
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There it is, in the middle of its blinking console, surrounded by a white frame – a “display” of sorts, a screen of an era where cathode ray tubes in computers were used for… memory, rather than display. (Yes!)pic.twitter.com/O2XMaMkoXV
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It’s pretty simple. Each character UNIVAC can share with you is accompanied by a simple lightbulb that would shine at the right moment.
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If it seems simplistic and inadequate, it was, even in 1951.
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Luckily at that time, and for a few decades later, people using computers who didn’t want to look at lightbulbs or spend a lot of $ for a flickering screen, had an alternative. At that time, and for a few decades later, the best computer display was still a nearby typewriter.pic.twitter.com/bAblFDLXv7
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In conclusion, if you’re interested in the history of displays, BUY MY BOOK ABOUT KEYBOARDS. But seriously, I found all of these in my research of keyboards, so I thought it’d be fun to share this parallel track!
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(It’s actually a bit sad how much of this relatively recent history is already gone – how many of those specialized computers survive today only in bad scans of old newspaper photos.)
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(And, if you’ve enjoyed it, you might enjoy the parallel thread called When Keyboards Were Desks: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/shift-happens/issues/when-keyboards-were-desks-190598 …)
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Replying to @mwichary
First computer I ever programmed was something like the HP 9830, with a one-line red led display, and a dot matrix printer on top. You programmed it in Basic with the one line display. It was owned by our high school math department in 1980 or 1981. A true one-line editor!pic.twitter.com/u7HL7lpYYn
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Line numbers make so much more sense here. :·)
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Replying to @mwichary
They make the most sense when you drop your stack of punch cards.
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