Teletype ASR 33 Font
mza...@my-dejanews.com
Thank you for your wonderful folkore Newsgroup. I lurk every other day as it
brings back wonderful memories: of me sitting in front of green CRTs <geez,
that was state-of-the-art in 1980> and more often in front of Teletype ASR-33
machines. Do you remember those times?? Sure you do.
So I just wanted to let you know that I created an ASR-33 font back in 1995.
You can download it for FREE from my homepage (
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mzanzig/ ). The fonts are available
in Windows TrueType and Adobe Type-1 for Windows format. Maybe you want to do
silly things like replacing the Windows font and to get that old feeling...
(OK, you'll never get it as a Teletype could print just 10 cps at max.) Or
create a business card using that Teleprinter font...
Have fun, and thanks again for your Newsgroup!
-- Mark
PS: Please E-Mail me under 'mzanzig at usa.net' as I never check my dejanews
mail account.
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Joe Morris
>So I just wanted to let you know that I created an ASR-33 font back in 1995.
>You can download it for FREE from my homepage (
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mzanzig/ ). The fonts are available
>in Windows TrueType and Adobe Type-1 for Windows format.
Cute; thanks for the work!
Now, if you could only figure out how to include hints that would cause the
first character on each line to print somewhat to the right of its proper
position and overlapping the next character, simulating a misadjusted
dashpot, or perhaps printing instead as a smear because the program
didn't include enough nulls to prevent printing-in-flight problems...
Joe Morris
jmfb...@aol.com
Right. Don't forget to simulate a breakage when one's typing
speed exceeds 30 w.p.m.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Carl R. Friend
>
> Don't forget to simulate a breakage when one's typing
> speed exceeds 30 w.p.m.
If _anybody's_ typing speed on an ASR-33 could get to 33 wpm, I'd
be stunned. These were devices with _true_ key rollover - if you
pushed hard enough on the "next" key the "first" key would be shoved
upward.
Nice things about -33s? The sounds and smells. The keyboards and
speed? Are you kidding?
--
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl....@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~crfriend/museum | ICBM: N42:22 W71:47 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
cjt&trefoil
>
> jmfb...@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Don't forget to simulate a breakage when one's typing
> > speed exceeds 30 w.p.m.
>
> If _anybody's_ typing speed on an ASR-33 could get to 33 wpm, I'd
> be stunned. These were devices with _true_ key rollover - if you
> pushed hard enough on the "next" key the "first" key would be shoved
> upward.
>
As I recall, you had to push the keys pretty hard, too.
Don Stokes
>Right. Don't forget to simulate a breakage when one's typing
>speed exceeds 30 w.p.m.
How hard do you type? If you outrun the keyboard, you just stub your
fingers on the keys. Unless you really thump them of course...
And at 110 bps (10 cps) is more like 100 wpm.
--
Don Stokes, Networking Consultant http://www.daedalus.co.nz +64 25 739 724
Robert Billing
> As I recall, you had to push the keys pretty hard, too.
Not if you learned to type in step with the TX mechanics, which could
be done by listening to the mechanism.
A curious side effect of this is that if I play music while typing, I
tend to type to the beat. The Gurkha march can lead to sore fingers.
--
I am Robert Billing, Christian, inventor, traveller, cook and animal
lover, I live near 0:46W 51:22N. http://www.tnglwood.demon.co.uk/
"Bother," said Pooh, "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock
phasers on the Heffalump, Piglet, meet me in transporter room three"
jmfb...@aol.com
Robert Billing <uncl...@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>cjt&trefoil wrote:
>
>> As I recall, you had to push the keys pretty hard, too.
>
> Not if you learned to type in step with the TX mechanics, which could
>be done by listening to the mechanism.
>
> A curious side effect of this is that if I play music while typing, I
>tend to type to the beat. The Gurkha march can lead to sore fingers.
>
marching to the beat of a different drummer :-).
jmfb...@aol.com
d...@news.daedalus.co.nz (Don Stokes) wrote:
>In article <7b6ct8$6g3$5...@ligarius.ultra.net>, <jmfb...@aol.com> wrote:
>>Right. Don't forget to simulate a breakage when one's typing
>>speed exceeds 30 w.p.m.
>
>How hard do you type? If you outrun the keyboard, you just stub your
>fingers on the keys. Unless you really thump them of course...
>
>And at 110 bps (10 cps) is more like 100 wpm.
>
associate the hardness of thumping with breakage...just fastness.
I was banned from all 33s (yay!) and got to work with the few
35s that we had whenever somebody wanted a job done _fast_.
After being talked to by the field service guy and figuring
out what was happening, I could save CM costs by listening to
the terminal. So my speed was at the max for the particular
terminal that I was using (they were not all the same). I had
a favorite that let me type faster than the others.
Joe Morris
>Carl R. Friend wrote:
>> If _anybody's_ typing speed on an ASR-33 could get to 33 wpm, I'd
>> be stunned. These were devices with _true_ key rollover - if you
>> pushed hard enough on the "next" key the "first" key would be shoved
>> upward.
>As I recall, you had to push the keys pretty hard, too.
The pressure required wasn't that much, but there was a significant
key travel required to set up the encoding bails before the clutch trip
mechanism was encountered, and a noticable but not really high additional
pressure was required to trip the clutch and begin the transmission of
the character.
Remember that the entire TeleType mechanism was mechanical; offhand, I
can't think of any model before the TTY40 that used anything other
than an electromechanical design for either the keyboard or printer.
Joe Morris
Joe Morris
> d...@news.daedalus.co.nz (Don Stokes) wrote:
>>How hard do you type? If you outrun the keyboard, you just stub your
>>fingers on the keys. Unless you really thump them of course...
>No, no, no. The mechanisms broke when one typed fast. I didn't
>associate the hardness of thumping with breakage...just fastness.
>I was banned from all 33s (yay!) and got to work with the few
>35s that we had whenever somebody wanted a job done _fast_.
>After being talked to by the field service guy and figuring
>out what was happening, I could save CM costs by listening to
>the terminal. So my speed was at the max for the particular
>terminal that I was using (they were not all the same). I had
>a favorite that let me type faster than the others.
Something here needs some clarification. Unless somebody has regeared
the machine, a TTY33 and TTY35 both run at only one speed: 110 baud,
which translates to exactly 10 cps; a machine running at a different
speed would be incompatible with standard communications links because
its distributor and the distributor (or UART) at the other end must
be running at the same speed.
Of course, someone could have regeared the machine, and used a
nonstandard clock (or similar regearing) at the other end.
Joe Morris
Marco S Hyman
> Something here needs some clarification. Unless somebody has regeared
> the machine, a TTY33 and TTY35 both run at only one speed: 110 baud,
> which translates to exactly 10 cps; a machine running at a different
Plus or minus the variance allowed by the extended stop bit. It
was intentionaly longer to allow slower machines a chance to catch
up. Don't remember the stop bit length for the 33/35. The older
Murray/Baudot code units used a 31 msec stop bit (vs 22 msec start
and data bits).
In the days of the model 15 the speed was controlled by a mechanical
centrifugal governer that broke the power to the motor when it ran to
fast. As things slowed down power would be re-applied. A sparc
gap transmitter, great for killing all near by radio/tv reception.
// marc
jmfb...@aol.com
jcmo...@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) wrote:
>jmfb...@aol.com writes:
>
>> d...@news.daedalus.co.nz (Don Stokes) wrote:
>
>>>How hard do you type? If you outrun the keyboard, you just stub your
>>>fingers on the keys. Unless you really thump them of course...
>
>>No, no, no. The mechanisms broke when one typed fast. I didn't
>>associate the hardness of thumping with breakage...just fastness.
>>I was banned from all 33s (yay!) and got to work with the few
>>35s that we had whenever somebody wanted a job done _fast_.
>
>>After being talked to by the field service guy and figuring
>>out what was happening, I could save CM costs by listening to
>>the terminal. So my speed was at the max for the particular
>>terminal that I was using (they were not all the same). I had
>>a favorite that let me type faster than the others.
>
>the machine, a TTY33 and TTY35 both run at only one speed: 110 baud,
>which translates to exactly 10 cps; a machine running at a different
>its distributor and the distributor (or UART) at the other end must
>be running at the same speed.
IIRC, the mechanical mechanisms were the things that made me slow
down...not the cps. When I said that one terminal was "faster"
than the other, I meant that I could type just a teensy, tiny,
tad faster...not that the terminal ran faster. Remember how
some of the terminals would make a sound on the CRLF as if
the mechanism were traveling over gravel? There was one or
two (maybe the field service guy spent a lot of time adjusting
the mechanisms for me) that seemed to travel back on slick oil.
They were the ones that let me get out an increase of 1/2 cpm
or so.
Don Stokes
>No, no, no. The mechanisms broke when one typed fast. I didn't
>associate the hardness of thumping with breakage...just fastness.
>I was banned from all 33s (yay!) and got to work with the few
>35s that we had whenever somebody wanted a job done _fast_.
How did it break? I mean, what's *supposed* to happen if you type too
fast is that the keyboard interlock stops the key from descending until
the transmitter commutator has finished, at which point the second key
descends quite happily.
>After being talked to by the field service guy and figuring
>out what was happening, I could save CM costs by listening to
>the terminal. So my speed was at the max for the particular
>terminal that I was using (they were not all the same). I had
>a favorite that let me type faster than the others.
I found that the noise and feel of the things kinda sets the pace; there's
a sort of natural speed to type on a '33.
Edward Rice
mza...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> So I just wanted to let you know that I created an ASR-33 font back in
1995.
> You can download it for FREE from my homepage (
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mzanzig/ ). The fonts are
available
> in Windows TrueType and Adobe Type-1 for Windows format. Maybe you want
to do
> silly things like replacing the Windows font and to get that old
feeling...
> (OK, you'll never get it as a Teletype could print just 10 cps at
max.)...
Thanks for the offer. I suspect that with the fairly large talent
available here in a.f.c, we might be able to fiddle a copy of Windoze to
run as fast as 10 CPS, but even at slower speeds it would still be a nice
bit of nostalgia.
J. Chris Hausler
> If _anybody's_ typing speed on an ASR-33 could get to 33 wpm, I'd
>be stunned. These were devices with _true_ key rollover - if you
>pushed hard enough on the "next" key the "first" key would be shoved
>upward.
>
>speed? Are you kidding?
characters. The 33 (and the 35) can do 10 characters per SECOND.
Forgetting spaces (which are characters too, of course), thats 2
words per second or 120 words per minute. Add back in the spaces
and you're down to about 100 wpm. Of course I could never type
that fast for very long. You did not have to press very hard on
the 33's keyboard (I still have a couple which still, sort of, work)
to make it work. In fact you could put a little pressure on the
next key before the mechanism was ready for it and then when it
was, the key would sort of "fall away" from your finger. Made for
a very nice "feel" once you got used to it.
And yes, I keep the 33's around for the sounds and the smells (who
can forget the smell of hot oil at 3AM :-) but also for the "whole
experience" which also includes the feel.
Chris
jsa...@ecn.ab.ca
: So I just wanted to let you know that I created an ASR-33 font back in 1995.
: You can download it for FREE from my homepage (
: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mzanzig/ ).
Wonderful! I was thinking of doing one myself - but as a raster font - one
of these days.
John Savard