[vcf-midatlantic] Greenbar printout DONE!

[Jeffrey Brace]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 1:32 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> On 2/28/21 1:13 PM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> > Just to be clear- when you say they are line printers, that means that
> they have pins across the entire width of the paper/platen - and can print
> an entire line at a time, right? There is no moving print head...
>
>    It depends.  "Line printer" is one of those terms that became
> successively more abused as time went on.  It used to mean "prints a
> whole line at a time", but later that definition became somewhat distorted.
>
>    Kinda like architects using big floor-standing HP ink-jet printers,
> calling them "plotters", to the point where HP themselves calls them
> "plotters".  They are not plotters; they are ink-jet printers.  But they
> replaced pen/vector plotters, so they kept calling their output devices
> "plotters".
>

Thanks for sharing Dave. I love hearing about specific history like this.
Especially where terminology gets distorted, muddled and people keep going
with incorrect terminology, yet it becomes commonplace enough that every
starts to accept it even though incorrect and/or inaccurate.


>    We have a big Tally/Genicom 4490XT printer at LSSM.  This 1400 LPM
> printer prints an entire line at a time, but how it does it does
> actually involve a moving print head.  The print head is the width of
> the paper, but it has columns of pins in groups with spaces between
> them.  While printing, that head moves back and forth at great speed,
> you can barely see it move, with a total reciprocating lateral travel of
> maybe 1/4".  It moves the groups of pins back and forth to fill in the
> gaps between the groups.  But it's still called a "line printer".
>
>                 -Dave
>
> --
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA
>