golf-ball printer
n. obs.
The IBM 2741, a slow but letter-quality printing device and terminal
based on the IBM Selectric typewriter. The golf ball was a little
spherical frob bearing reversed embossed images of 88 different
characters arranged on four parallels of latitude; one could change
the font by swapping in a different golf ball. The print element spun
and jerked alarmingly in action and when in motion was sometimes
described as an infuriated golf ball. This was the technology that
enabled APL to use a non-EBCDIC, non-ASCII, and in fact completely
non-standard character set. This put it 10 years ahead of its time --
where it stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until character
displays gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the
flexibility to support other character sets.