1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2015–2020score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters point to it as the history of phototypesetters and a story about the freedom to control your own hardware.
Professor Brailsford of the University of Nottingham describes how the university set out to print its own mathematics exam papers in the 1980s. The story centers on getting a Mergenthaler Linotron 202 typesetter to work with their own software.
“explained the brilliant and exiting history of this paper and its recreation, as well as the history of Phototypesetters.” (HN, 2015)
Computerphile interviewed one of the writers of this paper in a series of videos, who explained the brilliant and exiting history of this paper and its recreation, as well as the history of Phototypesetters. 1. [link] 2. [this video] 3. [link]
Interview with a paper's author on phototypesetter history and the paper's recreation.
I've never seen Stallman speak, but that sounds like a similar situation to this anecdote from Nottingham in the 80s: [this video] It's a somewhat tedious story but it's all about the freedom to control your own hardware.
0:16:40 For those who haven't seen it before, there's a Computerphile video [link] (related video: [this video] ) about the hacking of the typesetting machine, a Mergenthaler Linotron 202. 0:24:31 The photo must be the one at [link] (probably the webpage, on Dennis Ritchie's old website, that made it famous recently).
Covers the hacking of the Mergenthaler Linotron 202 typesetting machine.
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