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Is it true that plotters were the first graphical device to be controlled by computers? before oscilloscopes? Doesn't really make a difference to the point in

Is it true that plotters were the first graphical device to be controlled by computers? before oscilloscopes? Doesn't really make a difference to the point in the article. Both are "vector" devices. But I'm curious about the history.

ivanhoe 7y ago
It's probably a close call. AFAIK analog oscilloscopes were used in X-Y mode as a form of vector monitors in about the same time (end of 50s), but plotters are probably a few years older.
cr0sh 7y ago
> Is it true that plotters were the first graphical device to be controlled by computers? Do you count differential analyzers as computers? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_analyser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_analyser If so, then yes. IIRC, some of the input devices to such machines were x/y "pointer" tables - imagine a flatbed plotter, where you moved the part where the pen would go, in order to input cartesian coordinates (or a continuous value I suppose, composed of x/y values?)... Prior to oscilloscopes (but after differential analysers) - the Williams Tube was used as a memory system. It could be considered a form of bitmap display, except you'd have to only use it in a dark room (and no camera flashes, dammit!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube
nwallin 7y ago
Define computer? Before plotters or oscilloscopes, there were harmonic oscillators which could perform Fourier transforms and the reverse operation and print the result on a piece of paper. It's a vector device too, albeit a mechanical one, not digital or even electronic. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0INsTTU1k2UYO9Mck-i5HNqGNW5AeEwq https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0INsTTU1k2UYO9Mck-i5...
- euroclydon 7y ago
  That incredible!
Animats 7y ago
The first computer display seems to have been on Whirlwind I, in 1949. That was more of a demo than a useful device. Computer-controlled plotters apparently date back to 1953, but the online source for that is iffy. The Atlas Missile Guidance Computer had some, which would be around 1957. Vannevar Bush's differential analyzer had plotters, but that was mechanical, not electronic. Sketchpad, on the MIT TX-2, was the beginning of what we'd recognize today as interactive graphics. There were many early military systems. The USAF really wanted graphic displays. Preferably big ones. SAGE, the Iconorama, and other triumphs of money over the problem followed. By the late 1960s, most of the typesetting companies had some kind of phototypesetting machine. Fonts were typically on glass disks and printed onto photographic paper by firing a strobe lamp at the right time. The next stage was using a stroke-writing CRT to draw the characters. Usually the CRTs for these were about one line high but a page wide. Harris-Intertype had that approach working before 1970, long before Metafont. The font problem in that era was "given this outline, fill it in with minimal stroke movement". Strokes had a width, so you had the usual problem of machine tools - all inside corners are rounded. If the beam is too small, it takes too many strokes to do the fill, and if it's too big, there's too much corner rounding. I knew of a program called Procrustes which did that job for the Harris-Intertype Phototronic around 1970.
- aap_ 7y ago
  Why do you say the scope on the WWI wasn't a useful device? They even had a camera watching the scope to take photos (controlled by the computer) at interesting times.
_pmf_ 7y ago
I'd say looms, which would be raster devices.
- PorterDuff 7y ago
  Hah, good call. It's like a mechanical slow-scan film recorder.
- WorldMaker 7y ago
  I'd say a loom deals with vectors, it just only handles thin vectors in two directions 90 degrees rotated from each other.

ivanhoe 7y ago

It's probably a close call. AFAIK analog oscilloscopes were used in X-Y mode as a form of vector monitors in about the same time (end of 50s), but plotters are probably a few years older.

cr0sh 7y ago

> Is it true that plotters were the first graphical device to be controlled by computers? Do you count differential analyzers as computers? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_analyser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_analyser If so, then yes. IIRC, some of the input devices to such machines were x/y "pointer" tables - imagine a flatbed plotter, where you moved the part where the pen would go, in order to input cartesian coordinates (or a continuous value I suppose, composed of x/y values?)... Prior to oscilloscopes (but after differential analysers) - the Williams Tube was used as a memory system. It could be considered a form of bitmap display, except you'd have to only use it in a dark room (and no camera flashes, dammit!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube

nwallin 7y ago

Define computer? Before plotters or oscilloscopes, there were harmonic oscillators which could perform Fourier transforms and the reverse operation and print the result on a piece of paper. It's a vector device too, albeit a mechanical one, not digital or even electronic. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0INsTTU1k2UYO9Mck-i5HNqGNW5AeEwq https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0INsTTU1k2UYO9Mck-i5...

euroclydon 7y ago
That incredible!

Animats 7y ago

The first computer display seems to have been on Whirlwind I, in 1949. That was more of a demo than a useful device. Computer-controlled plotters apparently date back to 1953, but the online source for that is iffy. The Atlas Missile Guidance Computer had some, which would be around 1957. Vannevar Bush's differential analyzer had plotters, but that was mechanical, not electronic. Sketchpad, on the MIT TX-2, was the beginning of what we'd recognize today as interactive graphics. There were many early military systems. The USAF really wanted graphic displays. Preferably big ones. SAGE, the Iconorama, and other triumphs of money over the problem followed. By the late 1960s, most of the typesetting companies had some kind of phototypesetting machine. Fonts were typically on glass disks and printed onto photographic paper by firing a strobe lamp at the right time. The next stage was using a stroke-writing CRT to draw the characters. Usually the CRTs for these were about one line high but a page wide. Harris-Intertype had that approach working before 1970, long before Metafont. The font problem in that era was "given this outline, fill it in with minimal stroke movement". Strokes had a width, so you had the usual problem of machine tools - all inside corners are rounded. If the beam is too small, it takes too many strokes to do the fill, and if it's too big, there's too much corner rounding. I knew of a program called Procrustes which did that job for the Harris-Intertype Phototronic around 1970.

aap_ 7y ago
Why do you say the scope on the WWI wasn't a useful device? They even had a camera watching the scope to take photos (controlled by the computer) at interesting times.

_pmf_ 7y ago

I'd say looms, which would be raster devices.

PorterDuff 7y ago
Hah, good call. It's like a mechanical slow-scan film recorder.
WorldMaker 7y ago
I'd say a loom deals with vectors, it just only handles thin vectors in two directions 90 degrees rotated from each other.