On Tue, 16 Apr 2024, CAREY SCHUG via cctalk wrote:
The wang calculator was hardly tiny, at least not the one I used in 1970-71. IIRC the size of a large lunchbox or maybe an attache case. AND...it could connect to four display units, an early timesharing system. I think you could have several programs on the card and choose which program to execute from any of the 4 display units. We had one in the Freshmman physics lab at Northwestern university. I was a graduate student and in charge of a lab section. I picked up one of the card readers in a junk box at a retro computer fair, minus the electronics. I figured I could connect it to some parallel ports to read tab cards in two passes (read half the columns, reverse the card and read the others). Does anybody want a picture of it?
On the one that I got achance to play with, the part on top of the table was tiny, and the rest was underneath the table, as Rick mentioned. There were probably other models.
It has been said that when Radio Shack's engineers showed the working prototype of the TRS80 to the execs, that the CEO looked under the table to try to "see where the rest of it is".
I also got one of the card readers from some junk! (at the Foothill swap) My plan was exactly the same as yours. But, life got in the way, and it never came to be. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
