Typesetters in the '80s - Computerphile on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2015–2020.
explainer · evergreen
Professor Brailsford of the University of Nottingham describes how the university set out to print its own mathematics exam papers in the 1980s. The story centers on getting a Mergenthaler Linotron 202 typesetter to work with their own software.
HN commenters point to it as the history of phototypesetters and a story about the freedom to control your own hardware.
“explained the brilliant and exiting history of this paper and its recreation, as well as the history of Phototypesetters.”
3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
Computerphile interviewed one of the writers of this paper in a series of videos, who explained the brilliant and exiting history of this paper and its recreation, as well as the history of Phototypesetters. 1. [link] 2. ▶ this video 3. [link]
in “Experience with the Mergenthaler Linotron 202 Phototypesetter (1980) [pdf]” · View on HN
0:16:40 For those who haven't seen it before, there's a Computerphile video [link] (related video: ▶ this video ) about the hacking of the typesetting machine, a Mergenthaler Linotron 202. 0:24:31 The photo must be the one at [link] (probably the webpage, on Dennis Ritchie's old website, that made it famous recently).
in “The Birth of Unix with Brian Kernighan” · View on HN
I've never seen Stallman speak, but that sounds like a similar situation to this anecdote from Nottingham in the 80s: ▶ this video It's a somewhat tedious story but it's all about the freedom to control your own hardware.
in “A glitch in the human psyche that equates repetition with truth” · View on HN