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I remember someone who was acutely familiar with the design of my first computer (the Ohio Scientific Superboard II, an awesome 1970s 6502 machine! http://oldco
by dannyobrien 4y ago
I remember someone who was acutely familiar with the design of my first computer (the Ohio Scientific Superboard II, an awesome 1970s 6502 machine! http://oldcomputers.net/osi-600.html http://oldcomputers.net/osi-600.html ) saying that he spotted the same hardware being used, in its entirety, as a printer buffer a few years later. (A printer buffer was basically a device used to cache the output of a computer to a slow printer so the original machine didn't have wait for the printer to finish. A glorified cable, in other words.)
- reaperducer 4y agoI'm very sad to live in a world where "printer buffer" has to be explained to the "tech" community.
- dannyobrien 4y agoWell, I was pre-emptively explaining it, because I realised in mid-anecdote that printers don't need that kind of thing these days. Maybe you are right, and it is obvious to someone skilled in the arts, as the patent applications say!
- reaperducer 4y agoThey do need them, it's just that the buffer is built in to the printer now because memory and integration are so cheap. The giant Kyocera printer at work has a little screen where it shows you it not only loading up the print buffer, but purging the information from the disk afterward so there is no trace of PII remaining.
- leereeves 4y agoThey have them, because, as you said, it's so cheap. But I think dannyobrien is correct; they probably don't need them, because modern OSes have print queues and the computer is no longer useless while printing.
- krallja 4y agoIt’s nice to be able to run off a long document, pack up your laptop, and pick up the document on your way out the door to the (courtroom|client|boardroom|exam hall|___etc___).
- Someone 4y agoEven if the printer is dumb and doesn’t interpret a page description language such as PostScript, I don’t think it’s feasible to get the timing right to drive modern printing hardware when the buffer is on some random other piece of hardware whose OS you don’t even control, even if the connection is by cable.
- ngcc_hk 4y agoThe main reason why we have network is not for pc to pc communication but sharing printer and hard disk. Communication comes later. Do not underestimate the productivity gain of printer buffer. Those were the days my friend.
- K0balt 4y agoI cut my computing teeth on a sibling of that machine, an Ohio Scientific C2-8P that my brother and I bought in 1979. I was 12, and reverse engineering the games that came on the cassette tapes with the machine are how I got started in software. The arduino uno (atmel/microchip AT328p) is a much more powerful computer lol.