Discussion:
Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC
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Marco Scholz
2021-03-28 08:23:19 UTC
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Jozef Bogins blog:
http://boginjr.com/it/hw/8inch-drives/
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Jeff Gaines
2021-03-28 09:12:54 UTC
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Post by Marco Scholz
http://boginjr.com/it/hw/8inch-drives/
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made, can't
remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I think.
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Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
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who don't.
Jeff Gaines
2021-03-28 10:09:46 UTC
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Post by Jeff Gaines
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made, can't
remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I think.
Found it, Displaywriter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Displaywriter_System
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Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
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Dave Garland
2021-03-29 06:04:37 UTC
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Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Jeff Gaines
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made,
can't remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs
I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Displaywriter_System
Hey, I got one (or maybe two) of those in the attic. But the
capacitors are probably gone bad by now.
Questor
2021-03-31 06:41:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Jeff Gaines
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made, can't
remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Displaywriter_System
IBM later used the name Displaywriter for their PC-based word processing
software.
Dave Garland
2021-03-31 06:55:43 UTC
Permalink
Post by Questor
Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Jeff Gaines
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made, can't
remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Displaywriter_System
IBM later used the name Displaywriter for their PC-based word processing
software.
Indeed. That program was a nice try, but wasn't very good It may have
been hobbled by the inability to generate the special screen
characters of the original for a CGA-compatible program (CGA was
horrid,, the poor resolution caused typists to claw their eyes out),
or maybe the lack of the dedicated keyboard keys. I don't remember why
I thought it was crap, but in those years worked as a D'wr typist and
PC consultant.
Questor
2021-03-31 20:22:14 UTC
Permalink
Post by Dave Garland
Post by Questor
Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Jeff Gaines
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made, can't
remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Displaywriter_System
IBM later used the name Displaywriter for their PC-based word processing
software.
Indeed. That program was a nice try, but wasn't very good It may have
been hobbled by the inability to generate the special screen
characters of the original for a CGA-compatible program (CGA was
horrid,, the poor resolution caused typists to claw their eyes out),
or maybe the lack of the dedicated keyboard keys. I don't remember why
I thought it was crap, but in those years worked as a D'wr typist and
PC consultant.
Displaywriter, Wordstar, Multimate, and two or three other names that I can't
remember now... all were wiped off the map by WordPerfect 5.1 around 1990.
Kerr-Mudd,John
2021-04-01 09:49:00 UTC
Permalink
On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 01:55:43 -0500, Dave Garland
Post by Dave Garland
On 28 Mar 2021 10:09:46 GMT, "Jeff Gaines"
Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Jeff Gaines
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM
made, can't remember what it was called now but used before they
made PCs I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Displaywriter_System
IBM later used the name Displaywriter for their PC-based word
processing software.
No it was DisplayWrite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_DisplayWrite

I hacked together a naive asm converter program from EBCDIC to ASCII [to
extract info from lost edits].
Post by Dave Garland
Indeed. That program was a nice try, but wasn't very good It may have
been hobbled by the inability to generate the special screen
characters of the original for a CGA-compatible program (CGA was
horrid,, the poor resolution caused typists to claw their eyes out),
or maybe the lack of the dedicated keyboard keys. I don't remember why
I thought it was crap, but in those years worked as a D'wr typist and
PC consultant.
Displaywriter, Wordstar, Multimate, and two or three other names that
I can't remember now... all were wiped off the map by WordPerfect 5.1
around 1990.
--
Bah, and indeed, Humbug.
Ahem A Rivet's Shot
2021-03-28 10:21:54 UTC
Permalink
On 28 Mar 2021 09:12:54 GMT
Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Marco Scholz
http://boginjr.com/it/hw/8inch-drives/
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made,
can't remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I
think.
They were also used on a good many CP/M machines up until the early
1980s and at the Altos offices I once saw a homebrew unix machine with four
8" drives, labelled /, /etc, /usr and /home IIRC.
--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:\>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/
Marco Scholz
2021-03-28 12:40:07 UTC
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Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
They were also used on a good many CP/M machines up until the early
"Update Complete: U.S. Nuclear Weapons No Longer Need Floppy Disks"
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/nuclear-weapons-floppy-disks.html
Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
1980s and at the Altos offices I once saw a homebrew unix machine with four
8" drives, labelled /, /etc, /usr and /home IIRC.
Hilarious. A filesystem spread over four 8" floppy drives.
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Charlie Gibbs
2021-03-28 16:07:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by Marco Scholz
Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
They were also used on a good many CP/M machines up until the early
"Update Complete: U.S. Nuclear Weapons No Longer Need Floppy Disks"
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/nuclear-weapons-floppy-disks.html
Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
1980s and at the Altos offices I once saw a homebrew unix machine with four
8" drives, labelled /, /etc, /usr and /home IIRC.
Hilarious. A filesystem spread over four 8" floppy drives.
You gotta do what you gotta do.

I'll have to take another crack at getting my IMSAI going -
I have a lot of 8-inch disks I'd love to be able to read.
--
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\ / <***@kltpzyxm.invalid> | has stolen their car and parked
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | a taxi in their driveway.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Mayayana
Vir Campestris
2021-03-28 20:47:27 UTC
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Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
They were also used on a good many CP/M machines up until the early
1980s and at the Altos offices I once saw a homebrew unix machine with four
8" drives, labelled /, /etc, /usr and /home IIRC.
Altos.... that disturbed some dust. Pretty sure many years ago I used an
Altos machine with a hard disc and an 8 inch floppy. It would have been
a commercial machine too, and may have been running Unix. NOT Linux. But
that's a long time ago.

I'm certain however that ICL used them in some devices...

Ah...

<http://www.ampyx.org.uk/vcomp/index.html>

The 7502 comms unit. There was a word processor derivative.

Andy
Ahem A Rivet's Shot
2021-03-28 22:44:32 UTC
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On Sun, 28 Mar 2021 21:47:27 +0100
Post by Vir Campestris
Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
They were also used on a good many CP/M machines up until the
early 1980s and at the Altos offices I once saw a homebrew unix machine
with four 8" drives, labelled /, /etc, /usr and /home IIRC.
Altos.... that disturbed some dust. Pretty sure many years ago I used an
Altos machine with a hard disc and an 8 inch floppy. It would have been
a commercial machine too, and may have been running Unix. NOT Linux. But
that's a long time ago.
That sounds like quite an early Altos box, probably the 8086/Z80
based series in which case it would probably have been running XENIX III,
by the time they got to 80286/80186 based boxes the floppy had been
replaced by a quarter inch tape cartridge (aka QIC) drive, they also went
to a System V variant on the later machines.
--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:\>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/
Vir Campestris
2021-03-29 20:30:03 UTC
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Post by Ahem A Rivet's Shot
That sounds like quite an early Altos box, probably the 8086/Z80
based series in which case it would probably have been running XENIX III,
More dust disturbed.

I have a feeling we were looking into a source for a project that ended
up using a Rair Black Box much modded to become the ICL PC. Which was
not an IBM clone.

Andy
Ahem A Rivet's Shot
2021-03-29 23:09:14 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:30:03 +0100
Post by Vir Campestris
Rair Black Box
Now there's a name I've not heard in a *long* time.
--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:\>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/
Peter Flass
2021-03-28 22:54:38 UTC
Permalink
Post by Jeff Gaines
Post by Marco Scholz
http://boginjr.com/it/hw/8inch-drives/
8" floppies were used on the dedicated word processor that IBM made, can't
remember what it was called now but used before they made PCs I think.
Displaywriter, but you’ll probably get lots of replies on this.
--
Pete
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