Tom smiled while reading that man page: "It is assumed that the TN print train is being used."

I have to wonder how many younger programmers know what a print train is, much less what it looked like (or how heavy they were when you changed them). Also, with the loss of the use of real lineprinters, you have to wonder if those same folks understand why the asa(1) program that POSIX.2 requires is there (although IIRC later *.2 revisions moved it to the "FORTRAN Runtime Utilities" as an option POSX2_FORT_RUN - but we had it there in the original draft).

Paul -- you left out the other "feature" -- the noise, which was still deafening even with a model N1 and its cover.

I equate four sounds to my early computing days: the ASR33 printing, a 1403 printing, a 1402 reading card, and finally, the constant fan noise in the machine room, plus the smell of light machine oil [definitely in a terminal room of ASR33s].

ᐧ

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 1:07 PM Tom Lyon <pugs78@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, Amdahl UTS supported the 1403 from earliest days.
There even seem to be some mods to 'tbl' to support it.

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 9:40 AM Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com> wrote:
On 12/18/23, Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Dec 2023, Paul Winalski wrote:
>
>> The 132-character screen width was for displaying files originally
>> formatted to be printed on a line printer. Compiler listings and linker
>> maps, for example.
>
> Such as the mighty 1403 :-)
>
> Hint: never leave your cup of coffee on top of it, as the lid will open
> automatically when it runs out of paper...

The 1403 was the best line printer ever made. It was originally the
printer for the IBM 1400 second-generation (discrete transistor-based)
computer. It continued to be the line printer for S/360. The deluxe
model, the IBM 1403 N1, had a power cover that could be operated under
computer control. The OS/360 operating system would raise the
printer's cover if an error condition occurred, such as out of paper
or a paper jam. This was a very useful feature in large data centers
where there were several line printers, to indicate which printer had
a problem.

The cover of a 1403 N1 also provided a convenient and attractive flat
surface on which to place things. But a dangerous one. Many a card
deck magtape reel, coffee cup, or pizza box has been unceremoniously
dumped on the floor.

When our shop upgraded from a S/360 model 25 to a S/370 model 125, our
1403 was replaced by a 3203 line printer. It was not as good as the
1401 had been.

There was a business in Massachusetts in the 1980s that bought and
sold old IBM computer gear. A company asked them for a quote on their
IBM 1400 system (1401 processor, 1402 card read/punch, 1403 printer).
They were offered $18,000 for the whole system, or $15,000 for the
1403 printer alone. That's how valued those printers were.

To bring this closer on-topic, was there Unix support for the IBM 1403?

-Paul W.