Friden Flexowriter

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(a)acm.org