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> It looked a lot like that ULTRASystem photograph. I was a little confused, before I realized that name only appeared in one of photos. After trying to resol

by tivert 3y ago

> It looked a lot like that ULTRASystem photograph. I was a little confused, before I realized that name only appeared in one of photos. After trying to resolve my confusion, I found this, which appears to be a document from 1985 enumerating all these types of systems then in existence: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2018/09/102740425-05-02-acc.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201... It says the > AM Varityper 4800 (a Harris 2200 product) There's a few stock image of those in use at the Austin American-Statesman newspaper: https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa-1980-newspaper-employee-typing-ad-typing-advertising-copy-into-computer-system-in-backshop-production-room-bob-daemmrich-image349060336.html?imageid=BA8478A5-122D-492D-A6C7-5FCBAE91F34D&p=86492&pn=1&searchId=11e1e93d3385308187ce50c72105bd07&searchtype=0 https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa-1980-newspaper-... https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa1983-backshop-at-the-austin-american-statesman-newspaper-where-a-typesetter-uses-a-harris-corp-video-display-terminal-vdt-for-electronic-page-makeup-or-pagination-newsrooms-across-the-country-were-replacing-typewriters-with-electronic-systems-in-the-newsrooms-lead-type-slugs-with-phototypesetting-systems-in-the-composition-rooms-bob-daemmrich-image437470502.html https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa1983-backshop-at... The hardware is different than in the movie, but the software appears to be similar. Scanning the document, I saw a mention of Interleaf, which some people at my employer were still using until recently (http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm). The comments on that page about the file format ring true, since we decided to not even try conversion and just have the users re-key their documents into our home-grown system for that content.

ghaff 3y ago
Compugraphic was another big company at the time. I think that was the manufacturer of our headline producing machine. (Another organization on the same floor used a much older and more manual machine for doing display text.) Don't know the system that did the body copy output. The machine I was thinking of (Page 16 of the PDF https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pdf https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pd...) is similar but it's definitely different. Interesting that the trackball is on the left side.

by tivert 3y ago

ghaff 3y ago

Compugraphic was another big company at the time. I think that was the manufacturer of our headline producing machine. (Another organization on the same floor used a much older and more manual machine for doing display text.) Don't know the system that did the body copy output. The machine I was thinking of (Page 16 of the PDF https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pdf https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pd...) is similar but it's definitely different. Interesting that the trackball is on the left side.