Category:Tektronix
These were plotted using a Tektronix graphics computer[1] starting sometime after 1975 or so[2].
All of the designs are based on wide-interval samplings[3] 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[4].) I wrote the program in the first place because I wanted to see what shapes you get when plotting various sine functions using polar coordinates. (Sine waves are fun. Polar coordinates are also fun.)
Footnotes
- ↑ Based on what's in Wikipedia, I'm pretty sure it was a model 4051 (see also Terminals wiki). It had an integrated QIC tape drive, and the screen was a bit smaller than the ones used on the original version of Battlestar Galactica.
- ↑ One of the plots is dated 1983; not sure if this is accurate.
- ↑ Feel free to ask me to explain what I mean by this.
- ↑ : 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... and it's difficult to create any output worth looking at when your output device is a teletype. (A VT52 was later added, for those occasions when you don't actually need a complete printed record of your entire debugging session.)
Media in category "Tektronix"
The following 12 files are in this category, out of 12 total.
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1983-01-01 1414 Tektronix vaguely figure-8ish shape - felt-tip.1200pxw.jpg 1,200 × 1,803; 1.05 MB
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Tektronix 16-pointed star - Rapidograph.1200pxw.jpg 1,200 × 1,194; 549 KB
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Tektronix cardioid Rapidograph slow.1200pxw.jpg 1,200 × 1,043; 604 KB
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Tektronix folded shape - felt-tip.png 2,102 × 1,629; 2.75 MB
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Tektronix folded tetrafoil Rapidograph slow.crop.png 1,866 × 1,249; 4.49 MB
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Tektronix folded tetrafoil Rapidograph slow.green-on-black.png 1,972 × 1,315; 4.38 MB
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Tektronix split tetrafoil Rapidograph slow.jpg 2,196 × 2,586; 1.73 MB
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Tektronix tetrafoil Rapidograph slow.2015-crop-adj.jpg 2,065 × 2,076; 3 MB
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Tektronix tetrafoil Rapidograph slow.original.jpg 2,137 × 2,137; 1.99 MB
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Tektronix xmas star - red felt-tip.cleaned.xp.png 2,208 × 1,925; 1.83 MB
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Wooz-dev-logo.take 1.crop.1200pxw.png 1,200 × 823; 1.59 MB
