[Mike0001]

I met a novel problem yesterday. A friend has finally decided to convert from a typewriter to using a computer, and I have been showing him PCs and printers. The problem is that he wants a printer that is like a typewriter, namely, the text appears as you type.

Does anyone know of any printer that does that? I guess he doesn't necessarily have to use Word as it is such a simple operation. He doesn't need colours either, just black on white.

(Sorry, posted this under software but it could be hardware.)

[Cew27]

hmmm why would you want to print as you type and no i don't think there is as the typewriter does sweeps from left to right to and say it takes about 1 second to go back and forth the printer wouldn't keep up with the typing anyway

[zerocool]

I am not aware of any printer that can do that and why would he want a printer to do that anyway.

[spot]

http://www.a14electronics.com/produc...ertype-330.htm

Beautiful piece of kit, that.

It's exactly what he needs by the sound of it. Normal character-at-a-time print, line at a time print, justified print and a disk store to print a document at a time. Global and restricted search and replace, copy, move, print and delete block text, the things you'd look for in a word processor. It highlights the last 40 characters typed on a LCD as you go, the files can be written directly to a computer. The whole thing can be thought of as a £350 PC keyboard with a built-in printer if you use it that way though I suspect all the functions you listed in your OP can be managed without the PC at all. It can print lots of different fonts, all extremely clearly.

[Cew27]

that a little (massively) pricey

[spot]

You get what you pay for, it's a great thing to type on. If money were irrelevant I'd use that as my computer keyboard and really feel good about it. My aunt used to drive one of those at 220 words a minute for a half hour at a time, it's that good.

[Mike0001]

I forgot to mention he wants to backspace and delete print too.

[gaza14]

why not just use word and spell check before he prints?

[Cew27]

now thats impossible (realistically) why does he want to do this mike if you dont mind me asking?

[spot]

Originally Posted by Mike0001 I forgot to mention he wants to backspace and delete print too.

That's built into the model I highlighted. "500 character multiline correction memory".

[gaza14]

ok im begining to be impressed by this machine now but what is it used for?

[spot]

Originally Posted by gaza14 why not just use word and spell check before he prints?

I can think of several reasons. He might have a requirement for a permanent audit trail required for safety reasons where the loss of even ten seconds worth of typing might invalidate the legality or safety of what he's doing. No level of autosave can do that. I had programming quandaries associated with keeping a hard copy audit trail on the stock exchange where huge deals were legally binding once they were struck but equipment was capable of freezing or power failure. This was the answer we came up with, as a high quality hard copy input terminal.

[Mike0001]

Thanks for all the help.

In the end I showed him an old teletype terminal and he fell in love with it! (Must be the noise!)

I set him up a Cray XT5 in his study and he is the happiest person in the world! He is even going to learn to touch type.

[philthomas]

... I was going to suggest an old Teletype terminal, but I thought you might think I was being sarcastic

If I recall correctly. my company used these for Telex back in the 60's or 70's .

How old is this guy ?

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by philthomas ... I was going to suggest an old Teletype terminal, but I thought you might think I was being sarcastic If I recall correctly. my company used these for Telex back in the 60's or 70's . How old is this guy ?

Oh, mid nineties I should think. He looks no older than 80 though.