6 ms·

I know that noone will believe me, but today as I was on the toilet, trying to wake up -- still groggy --- I just imagined something like this. I thought I wish

I know that noone will believe me, but today as I was on the toilet, trying to wake up -- still groggy --- I just imagined something like this. I thought I wish I had a 19th century typewriter, hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and make a dumb terminal (writing stdout to paper on ink!). Seeing that I probably don't have enough EE skills to do that, I hoped for something like a calculator that can't connect to internet but is programmable and has a keyboard. Next thing I know, I come to HN and see this post. I guess it's refreshing to know that I'm not the only software engineer who wants to reject modernity. I love programming, I love CS, I love mathematics; but I hate modern computers, internet and software. They're distracting, addictive, bloated, annoying, slow, broken... I just wish I could make a mechanical computer from woods and program that over the weekends.

TheCondor 6y ago
I had a funny day dream too, I was futzing around debugging some damned terminal escape codes which causes tearing when I do backspaces on some systems (specifically when the line needs to wrap..). This might make the parent feel a little ill, but in this era when we rebuild "modern" versions of everything, why has nobody updated terminal escape codes? Specifically, something that looked like a trimmed down HTML and CSS seems like it would have incredible resonance in today's world. Anyone know of a project like that?
emdashcomma 6y ago
If you haven't seen it before, you might enjoy this: https://youtu.be/2XLZ4Z8LpEE https://youtu.be/2XLZ4Z8LpEE (Using a 1930 Teletype as a Linux Terminal).
- gnulinux 6y ago
  This is like exactly what I imagined... I'll study this and see if this is something I can do in a few weekends (the answer is likely no as I don't have a lot of hands-on engineering experience, just basics of EE and soldering). Is there any consumer product like this (not necessarily typewriter, e-ink or dumb display would also be ok; I just don't want a full-fledged display that can print images). Computer distraction is killing my life and I'm currently spending Saturdays as no-screen day (no phone/computer use) but I'd be willing to use a calculator-on-steroids like this as a replacement, which I imagine is not as distracting. (Usual TI programmable calculators are what I'm eyeing right now but their keyboard is not good. I want a usual Qwerty keyboard and linux)
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    I don’t think you can build this in a few weekends, assuming you can even get all the parts in that time. I would instead get a dumb terminal from eBay from the 70s or 80s (search “terminal” or “televideo” for one of the brand names) and hook it up to a raspberry pi via rs-232. There are several projects on the web showing how to do this (hint: getty on linux) No graphics and video, but you get a good keyboard and solid ascii output.
- taylorfinley 6y ago
  I recently picked up a couple deaf tty terminals[0] for free from a local junk shop. They have a bright green vfd display and print to a roll of thermal paper, they feature a big acoustic coupler on the top for a phone handset and have a nice physical keyboard. My plan is to record the tones for each letter, then rig up a pi as a serial-to-audio adapter with a cheap 'retro phone handset to 3.5mm plug' product that can easily be found for ~$10 in the usual places. I can leave the original hardware intact and have a fun terminal. [0] https://teltex.com/ultratec-miniprint-425/ https://teltex.com/ultratec-miniprint-425/
- z2 6y ago
  Watching him use ED on the teletype, the lack of ED's interactivity and terseness suddenly makes sense! Though obvious now, it never occurred to me that the tool was designed around physical printing interfaces.
  - retrac 6y ago
    All of UNIX was. Right down to the decision for commands like cp (not copy!) to not print anything unless there's an error. A decade later MS-DOS could be profligate and waste virtual ink printing friendly messages like "2 file(s) copied."
Johnny555 6y ago
Printing console terminals were pretty popular in the mainframe days, our campus computer lab had one on our VAX Cluster. You can still find refurbished units from time to time: https://www.recycledgoods.com/dec-la120-da-decwriter-iii-decprinter-iii-terminal-printer/ https://www.recycledgoods.com/dec-la120-da-decwriter-iii-dec...
jonjacky 6y ago
> ... I wish I had a 19th century typewriter, hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and make a dumb terminal ... I just wish I could make a mechanical computer from woods ... Something like this? "A digital typewriter based on a Raspberry Pi and an E-Ink screen. ... The case has been made from a locally grown cypress. ..." https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ The code/build instructions are available on GitHub.
- gnulinux 6y ago
  This is awesome and I wanted to build this but unfortunately links to e-ink display manufacturer are broken/404. I'll see if I can find a replacement but the article claims finding a suitable e-ink display to connect to Raspberry Pi was hard.

TheCondor 6y ago

I had a funny day dream too, I was futzing around debugging some damned terminal escape codes which causes tearing when I do backspaces on some systems (specifically when the line needs to wrap..). This might make the parent feel a little ill, but in this era when we rebuild "modern" versions of everything, why has nobody updated terminal escape codes? Specifically, something that looked like a trimmed down HTML and CSS seems like it would have incredible resonance in today's world. Anyone know of a project like that?

emdashcomma 6y ago

If you haven't seen it before, you might enjoy this: https://youtu.be/2XLZ4Z8LpEE https://youtu.be/2XLZ4Z8LpEE (Using a 1930 Teletype as a Linux Terminal).

gnulinux 6y ago
This is like exactly what I imagined... I'll study this and see if this is something I can do in a few weekends (the answer is likely no as I don't have a lot of hands-on engineering experience, just basics of EE and soldering). Is there any consumer product like this (not necessarily typewriter, e-ink or dumb display would also be ok; I just don't want a full-fledged display that can print images). Computer distraction is killing my life and I'm currently spending Saturdays as no-screen day (no phone/computer use) but I'd be willing to use a calculator-on-steroids like this as a replacement, which I imagine is not as distracting. (Usual TI programmable calculators are what I'm eyeing right now but their keyboard is not good. I want a usual Qwerty keyboard and linux)
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  I don’t think you can build this in a few weekends, assuming you can even get all the parts in that time. I would instead get a dumb terminal from eBay from the 70s or 80s (search “terminal” or “televideo” for one of the brand names) and hook it up to a raspberry pi via rs-232. There are several projects on the web showing how to do this (hint: getty on linux) No graphics and video, but you get a good keyboard and solid ascii output.
taylorfinley 6y ago
I recently picked up a couple deaf tty terminals[0] for free from a local junk shop. They have a bright green vfd display and print to a roll of thermal paper, they feature a big acoustic coupler on the top for a phone handset and have a nice physical keyboard. My plan is to record the tones for each letter, then rig up a pi as a serial-to-audio adapter with a cheap 'retro phone handset to 3.5mm plug' product that can easily be found for ~$10 in the usual places. I can leave the original hardware intact and have a fun terminal. [0] https://teltex.com/ultratec-miniprint-425/ https://teltex.com/ultratec-miniprint-425/
z2 6y ago
Watching him use ED on the teletype, the lack of ED's interactivity and terseness suddenly makes sense! Though obvious now, it never occurred to me that the tool was designed around physical printing interfaces.
- retrac 6y ago
  All of UNIX was. Right down to the decision for commands like cp (not copy!) to not print anything unless there's an error. A decade later MS-DOS could be profligate and waste virtual ink printing friendly messages like "2 file(s) copied."

Johnny555 6y ago

Printing console terminals were pretty popular in the mainframe days, our campus computer lab had one on our VAX Cluster. You can still find refurbished units from time to time: https://www.recycledgoods.com/dec-la120-da-decwriter-iii-decprinter-iii-terminal-printer/ https://www.recycledgoods.com/dec-la120-da-decwriter-iii-dec...

jonjacky 6y ago

> ... I wish I had a 19th century typewriter, hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and make a dumb terminal ... I just wish I could make a mechanical computer from woods ... Something like this? "A digital typewriter based on a Raspberry Pi and an E-Ink screen. ... The case has been made from a locally grown cypress. ..." https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ The code/build instructions are available on GitHub.

gnulinux 6y ago
This is awesome and I wanted to build this but unfortunately links to e-ink display manufacturer are broken/404. I'll see if I can find a replacement but the article claims finding a suitable e-ink display to connect to Raspberry Pi was hard.