Kyle Davis on Nostr: Of all the #retrocomputing stuff I see online, there was one device from my childhood ...
Of all the #retrocomputing stuff I see online, there was one device from my childhood that I've yet to see discussed.
The Radio Shack PTC-64 Print Controller.
It was a miracle. Back in the day, you had to wait for your computer feed your printer data, preventing it from doing anything else.
With the print controller (we called it a 'print spooler') you just sent jobs off to print and your computer rapidly would return to do other stuff.
1/2
https://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/models/printers/ Published at
2024-06-11 18:41:04Event JSON
{
"id": "b2fb567244d80b835821b54911ac629600f165cef038afb8034e5e71fb2a575e",
"pubkey": "5f2dac217c35680cbce574baa0ae609373a356ef1de1ab2ed0a920abb9db3fff",
"created_at": 1718131264,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://fosstodon.org/@linux_mclinuxface/112599450554657300",
"web"
],
[
"t",
"retrocomputing"
],
[
"imeta",
"url https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/599/429/369/201/912/original/b9117aebdeef7868.png",
"m image/png"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://fosstodon.org/users/linux_mclinuxface/statuses/112599450554657300",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://fosstodon.org/users/linux_mclinuxface/statuses/112599450554657300",
"pink.momostr"
]
],
"content": "Of all the #retrocomputing stuff I see online, there was one device from my childhood that I've yet to see discussed.\n\nThe Radio Shack PTC-64 Print Controller. \n\nIt was a miracle. Back in the day, you had to wait for your computer feed your printer data, preventing it from doing anything else.\n\nWith the print controller (we called it a 'print spooler') you just sent jobs off to print and your computer rapidly would return to do other stuff.\n\n1/2\n\nhttps://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/models/printers/\nhttps://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/599/429/369/201/912/original/b9117aebdeef7868.png\n",
"sig": "d6e2cc2f25e8e9392b9984e88b06aa9d914f65870179627b3c7400a30b14ad5fd46585a07392bda678d2864535cd5df1a39b81fddf1440a4dd8b827609c4d438"
}