Difference between revisions of "Category:Tektronix"

From HypertWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 2: Line 2:


All of the designs are based on wide-interval samplings<ref name=note2 /> of sine waves plotted in various different ways. This was a technique I discovered more or less by accident when I mistakenly had the trig functions set to "RAD" (radians) with a plotting program that was designed to work in degrees.
All of the designs are based on wide-interval samplings<ref name=note2 /> of sine waves plotted in various different ways. This was a technique I discovered more or less by accident when I mistakenly had the trig functions set to "RAD" (radians) with a plotting program that was designed to work in degrees.
I wrote the plotting program in BASIC, because that's what was available (I think that was probably the first programming language I actually used successfully: I had tried to write in {{l/wp|FOCAL-69}} in 1972, second grade, but I misunderstood the line-numbering system and my programs all executed out of order. (Also, it's difficult to create any output worth looking at when your output device is a teletype<ref name=note3 />.) I wanted to see what shapes you got when plotting various complex sine functions in polar coordinates.
==Footnotes==
==Footnotes==
<references>
<references>
<ref name=note1>I think the model number was something like 3017, though Wikipedia indicates that it was the [[wikipedia:Tektronix 4010|401x series]] which was active at that time -- so maybe it was 4017, 4016, 4015? I don't know if there are any photos... (Update: 4015 is starting to ring a bell, so I think that's what it probably was.)</ref>
<ref name=note1>I think the model number was something like 3017, though Wikipedia indicates that it was the [[wikipedia:Tektronix 4010|401x series]] which was active at that time -- so maybe it was 4017, 4016, 4015? I don't know if there are any photos... (Update: 4015 is starting to ring a bell, so I think that's what it probably was.)</ref>
<ref name=note2>Feel free to ask me to explain what I mean by this.</ref>
<ref name=note2>Feel free to ask me to explain what I mean by this.</ref>
<ref name=note3>A {{l/wp|VT52}} was later added, for those occasions when you didn't actually need a complete printed record of your entire debugging session.</ref>
</references>
</references>


[[Category:Computers|Tektronix]]
[[Category:Computers|Tektronix]]

Revision as of 00:58, 31 March 2017

These were plotted using a Tektronix graphics computer[1] sometime between 1975 and 1978 or so.

All of the designs are based on wide-interval samplings[2] of sine waves plotted in various different ways. This was a technique I discovered more or less by accident when I mistakenly had the trig functions set to "RAD" (radians) with a plotting program that was designed to work in degrees.

I wrote the plotting program in BASIC, because that's what was available (I think that was probably the first programming language I actually used successfully: I had tried to write in FOCAL-69 in 1972, second grade, but I misunderstood the line-numbering system and my programs all executed out of order. (Also, it's difficult to create any output worth looking at when your output device is a teletype[3].) I wanted to see what shapes you got when plotting various complex sine functions in polar coordinates.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ I think the model number was something like 3017, though Wikipedia indicates that it was the 401x series which was active at that time -- so maybe it was 4017, 4016, 4015? I don't know if there are any photos... (Update: 4015 is starting to ring a bell, so I think that's what it probably was.)
  2. ↑ Feel free to ask me to explain what I mean by this.
  3. ↑ A VT52 was later added, for those occasions when you didn't actually need a complete printed record of your entire debugging session.
wiki file: https://hypertwins.org/mw/index.php?title=Category:Tektronix&oldid=17795