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

On Wed, 25 Nov 1998, Tony Duell wrote: Yes, in fact it's basically an IBM electric typewriter. From Bob Mast: << The Flexowriter was first manufactured by IBM , during WWII, to be used as an automatic letter writer. After the war several IBMers bought the rights and formed Commercial Controls, Inc. They manufactured same in the old IBM ?Electric typewriter building in Rochester NY. In the late fifties, Friden bought Commercial Controls. Mine doesn't have the connector; it was apparently hacked to be used as a microcomputer terminal in the 70's. Those relays were also used to generate interrupts for some of the first timesharing systems: http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/timesharing/timesharing.html That sounds easier than using Microsoft Word. It looks like RCS has one: http://users.loa.com/~darwin/dave/fl4.jpg Another very interesting use from Bob Mast: << Friden later developed 6,7 & 8 channel tape punches and readers. They also used the Flexowriter to develop their Computypers, which consisted of a Flexowriter connected to one or more Friden calculators, in a desk. These units had the ability to multiply, accumulate, apply discounts, added taxes, etc as the Flexowriter typed a document. Eight Channel card punches were developed to allow reading of individual documents. As an example, it was possible to have a punched card for each customer and each item in stock. With programming, a customer card could be inserted into the card reader, press the start read bottom, and the heading of the invoice would be taped automatically. Insert an item card, manually type in the quantity, press the start read and the description was automatically typed. Friden also attached an IBM card reader so IBM cards could be read. They also could connect the Flexowriter, by cable to an 026 IBM Card Punch to produce IBM cards for statistical data processing, thereby eliminating the key pucnh operation. -- Doug