[HECnet] Which is THE dec printer?

[Dave McGuire]

On 01/15/2014 01:20 PM, Cory Smelosky wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?

I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.

My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer.   My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.

No receive-only LA120?! ;)

(Is that was the LA180 is?   I can't remember what the models number for
the receive-only LA120 was.)   I like my printers big. ;)

  There is in fact a receive-only LA120.   There's one here at my place,
though it belongs to someone else.   I've forgotten the model suffix.

  The LA180 is one that I've always thought of as an independent device.
It is considerably faster than the LA36 (180 CPS vs. 30 CPS) for
starters...so I'd doubt it was derived from the LA36.   But then why
would it have been derived from the LA120, when the LA120 family already
has a print-only version?   And it tops out at 120CPS, and prints
bidirectionally...the LA180 is unidirectional.   The LA120 is also FAR
"smarter", with runtime-configurable setup options, escape sequence
processing for settings, etc.   The LA180 does none of that.

  I'm fairly certain (though have not verified) that the ONLY interface
available on the LA120 family is serial.   The LA180 uses a much more
system-friendly LP[v]11 or LS11 interface.   That may be the
difference...target market, etc.

                            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA