bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca wrote: I/O Selectrics were an IBM OEM product. DEC used them in a RAND contract to build JOSS terminals, SDS and CDC used them for console printers, for example. What you couldn't get were IBM Executive typewriters with computer interfaces, like on the 1620. This was solved by a mechanical kludge that Soroban added to them, which was killed off by the release of the Selectric, and by how unreliable the Soroban adapter was. DEC only used Sorobans on the PDP-1, switched to TTY 28's for the PDP-4, then ASCII printers afterwards. Other alternatives for typewriters were Flexowriters and 5-level Teletypes (ASCII and the model 33/35 hadn't been invented yet).

On 10 Oct 2009 at 11:46, bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca wrote: Different animals entirely. The 1620 Model B typewriter is old-style typebars. But was the 1620 a true "Executive"? The Executive that I used during the 70's was a proportional-spacing beast with a split spacebar ("em" and "en" spaces). Using correcting paper (little slips of paper with white waxy pigment on them) could be very challenging... On the other hand, the typed output was magnificent--not really surpassed until laser printers. --Chuck

Something that has itched at the back of my mind for decades, related to this topic: What was used to produce many of the S/360 "programming" manuals? An example is the DOS F-level assembler: http://tinyurl.com/yhcd59n These are clearly typewritten (not typeset) in a monospaced font. My own copy dates from a couple of years earlier (than this 1968 copy) but has a similar appearance. Anyone know for certain? Even these "programmer's manuals" were superbly done, when compared to some of the Univac documenation of the same period, run off on a badly-timed drum printer (made my eyes hurt to read it). --Chuck

--- On Sun, 10/11/09, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote: OK, that's a PLM, and they got less care than the customer ref manuals. The reference manuals were written and edited generally on a 2741 (or equivalent) terminal (i.e., a Selectric terminal), (though before that was available it would have been an electronic terminal such as an Executive, or in smaller operations the Mag-Card Selectric - which was semi-popular in some of the smaller programming environments). The file could have been printed camera-ready as you said on an N1 train printer with whatever train was desired. The next generation of manuals (S/370) looked a lot prettier, using a variable type face. IIRC (40 years takes its toll on memory, and grey hair leaches out brain cells), the standard was a non-serif, but I'd have to go find the H Assembler manual to be certain. (And I still can't find all my stuff.) Produced though initially on the Selectric terminal, then translated to whatever typeface became standard. Never saw the print shop, doubt it would have rivaled the GPO, but I can believe it was huge. Pity the quality of the content wasn't as high as the number of pages. Vern Wright