4 ms·

This is like the difference between a bow, and a crossbow. One takes years to be an expert, the other weeks or months. Same with a typewriter, vs a wordproces

by b112 4y ago

This is like the difference between a bow, and a crossbow. One takes years to be an expert, the other weeks or months. Same with a typewriter, vs a wordprocessor + printer. Imagine, typing entire documents fast, with no typos, whiteout, or correction capability. That's expertise, that's learned skill. No wonder a word processor, even in the early days of dot matrix or daisy wheel printing, was preferred.

ggm 4y ago
The daisywheel printer was a scarce resource at work, the first daisy wheel typewriter was pretty much coveted by the few cogniscenti who were already up to speed with changing the head on an IBM golfball. We were expected to proofread the living bejesus out of our stuff from RUNOFF (the pre-troff but very similar word processor which was on a Dec-10 amongst other things) on lineprinter, before queueing up to print it out on daisywheel. The paper was very satisfying fanfold with increadibly fine edge strips with the sprocket feed, tearing it back into loose sheets before binding was great. Well.. right up until you spotted a typo and had to go back and adjust the markup.
- b112 4y ago
  As a kid, I was stuck with a dot matrix, as were all I knew. Yet at school, the head office secretary had a daisy wheel, and we all coveted that crazy clean and perfect output. Graphics output be damned, it was perfection. So I can well imagine the resource constraint where you worked.
  - criddell 4y ago
    Same here. My first printer was made by Roland and it was a fantastic piece of hardware. Really beautiful. My second was an Okidata and it was an amazing printer. I was thinking about them the other day and got nostalgic for the tractor feed fan fold paper and dot matrix printers. Then I checked Amazon and saw how expensive they are now and the nostalgia faded quickly.

4 ms·

This is like the difference between a bow, and a crossbow. One takes years to be an expert, the other weeks or months. Same with a typewriter, vs a wordproces

by b112 4y ago

ggm 4y ago
The daisywheel printer was a scarce resource at work, the first daisy wheel typewriter was pretty much coveted by the few cogniscenti who were already up to speed with changing the head on an IBM golfball. We were expected to proofread the living bejesus out of our stuff from RUNOFF (the pre-troff but very similar word processor which was on a Dec-10 amongst other things) on lineprinter, before queueing up to print it out on daisywheel. The paper was very satisfying fanfold with increadibly fine edge strips with the sprocket feed, tearing it back into loose sheets before binding was great. Well.. right up until you spotted a typo and had to go back and adjust the markup.
- b112 4y ago
  As a kid, I was stuck with a dot matrix, as were all I knew. Yet at school, the head office secretary had a daisy wheel, and we all coveted that crazy clean and perfect output. Graphics output be damned, it was perfection. So I can well imagine the resource constraint where you worked.
  - criddell 4y ago
    Same here. My first printer was made by Roland and it was a fantastic piece of hardware. Really beautiful. My second was an Okidata and it was an amazing printer. I was thinking about them the other day and got nostalgic for the tractor feed fan fold paper and dot matrix printers. Then I checked Amazon and saw how expensive they are now and the nostalgia faded quickly.