On Sat, 29 Nov 2025, Peter Brown via cctalk wrote:
I have recently acquired a Flexowriter. It looks very much like the one shown on this page - https://moca.ncl.ac.uk/iomedia/pt4.htm The identifying points are - blue color keys - tape punch and reader (both appear to be 8 bits) - white and red lamps on the front panel beneath the Friden logo The serial number plate shows F_V as the model and S P E C as the coding. Is anyone familiar with what this model is? What does the coding refer to?
I have no qualifications to answer. But could "S P E C" mean "special", and indicate a non-standard character set? Or that its interface was neither ITA2/International Telegraph code (often incorrectly called "Baudot"), nor ASCII, RS232, HPIB, etc.
I seriously doubt that they had an APL model :-) (that was the realm of Selectric terminals), but in the financial markets, there might be a need for some of the other currency symbols.
Some of my students asked why the default character set (keyboard and video ROMs) on the 5150/5160 PC did not have a Yen symbol, nor UK pound. (and now, Euro) One student said that IBM's choices to leave those out, and put in silly stuff, was a good argument for workplace sobriety testing.
-- Grumpy Ol' Fred [email protected]
