Typesetters in the '80s - Computerphile
Computerphile1 HN recommenders · 2015–2020
105K views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2014-01-17
Professor Brailsford of the University of Nottingham describes how the university set out to print its own mathematics exam papers in the 1980s. The story centers on getting a Mergenthaler Linotron 202 typesetter to work with their own software.
HN commenters point to it as the history of phototypesetters and a story about the freedom to control your own hardware.
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3 comments from Hacker News
Computerphile interviewed one of the writers of this paper in a series of videos, who explained the brilliant and exiting history of this paper and its recreation, as well as the history of Phototypesetters. 1. [LINK] 2. [VIDEO] 3. [LINK]
I've never seen Stallman speak, but that sounds like a similar situation to this anecdote from Nottingham in the 80s: [VIDEO] It's a somewhat tedious story but it's all about the freedom to control your own hardware.
0:16:40 For those who haven't seen it before, there's a Computerphile video [LINK] (related video: [VIDEO] ) about the hacking of the typesetting machine, a Mergenthaler Linotron 202. 0:24:31 The photo must be the one at [LINK] (probably the webpage, on Dennis Ritchie's old website, that made it famous recently).