🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:23:57 -0400
Andreas Kohlbach <a...@spamfence.net> wrote:

> I was watching the season 5 episode of CHiPS from 1982 (probably shot
> in 1981) and spotted they used some terminal labeled "Braegen". I
> found incoherent information, like
> <http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102736222>
> indicating it was an US company. But also Braegen Group Inc. in
> Toronto <http://www.companylisting.ca/Braegen_Group_Inc/default.aspx>,
> incorporated also in 1981 in Canada.
> 
> I took a screenshot at <http://www.ankman.de/braegen.jpg>. Anyone
> knows what this is?

Searching Google for "The Braegen Corporation" brings up some relevant
stuff.

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 23:52:58 +0000, Rob Morley wrote:
>
> On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:23:57 -0400
> Andreas Kohlbach <a...@spamfence.net> wrote:
>
>> I was watching the season 5 episode of CHiPS from 1982 (probably shot
>> in 1981) and spotted they used some terminal labeled "Braegen". I
>> found incoherent information, like
>> <http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102736222>
>> indicating it was an US company. But also Braegen Group Inc. in
>> Toronto <http://www.companylisting.ca/Braegen_Group_Inc/default.aspx>,
>> incorporated also in 1981 in Canada.
>> 
>> I took a screenshot at <http://www.ankman.de/braegen.jpg>. Anyone
>> knows what this is?
>
> Searching Google for "The Braegen Corporation" brings up some relevant
> stuff.

I did this and came up with the two companies I mentioned. No images to
be found matching the image.

May be Braegen wasn't a big deal back in the day that no one here has any idea.
-- 
Andreas

My random toughts and comments
https://news-commentaries.blogspot.com/

On Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 2:54:07 PM UTC-6, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:

> I did this and came up with the two companies I mentioned. No images to
> be found matching the image.

The image reminded me of a different brand of computer terminal.

John Savard

On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 5:53:00 PM UTC-6, Rob Morley wrote:

> Searching Google for "The Braegen Corporation" brings up some relevant
> stuff.

Following up on that search, I found several ads for 3270-compatible terminals; 
eventually I found an ad that pictured the terminals, which did not resemble the 
ASCII intelligent terminal in the screenshot.

John Savard

On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 3:23:58 PM UTC-6, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:

> I took a screenshot at <http://www.ankman.de/braegen.jpg>. Anyone knows
> what this is?

Found this image

http://dotbu.com/PHIL/Images/Doran/Doran_Figure3b.jpg

of a terminal included with a computer by MDL Computers, a company in New Zealand. It was from this page:

http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article050106.html

As you can see, the keyboard has the same layout.

John Savard

On Friday, March 16, 2018 at 12:45:06 AM UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
> Found this image
> 
> http://dotbu.com/PHIL/Images/Doran/Doran_Figure3b.jpg
> 
> of a terminal included with a computer by MDL Computers, a company in New Zealand.

No idea about that terminal or Braegen, but I'd bet that was a Micro Switch keyboard. They were wonderful to work with and would cheerfully make anything you wanted, even if it was for a low-volume project. I'd love to have one of those today in PC style (actually, I'd prefer DEC LK463 style).

This is one I did back in the late 70's - it is Serial #00000 and I kept it as a trophy. It is a true Selectric-layout keyboard, complete with a mechanical shift-lock key that releases with a press of either shift key. Each key has TWO reed relays inside for redundancy, and keypresses move the magnet up and down.
https://www.glaver.org/transient/IMG_1952-s.jpg

On Thu, 15 Mar 2018 21:45:05 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 3:23:58 PM UTC-6, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>
>> I took a screenshot at <http://www.ankman.de/braegen.jpg>. Anyone knows
>> what this is?
>
> Found this image
>
> http://dotbu.com/PHIL/Images/Doran/Doran_Figure3b.jpg
>
> of a terminal included with a computer by MDL Computers, a company in New Zealand. It was from this page:
>
> http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article050106.html
>
> As you can see, the keyboard has the same layout.

Interesting. But what are the chances this was used in the US? Other than
if Braegen was a big "New Zealandish" company supplying also the rest of
the world.

Anyway, was removing the screenshot now.

Thanks. Suppose that might just has been a mock up.
-- 
Andreas

My random toughts and comments
https://news-commentaries.blogspot.com/

On Friday, March 16, 2018 at 1:57:44 PM UTC-6, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:

> Interesting. But what are the chances this was used in the US? Other than
> if Braegen was a big "New Zealandish" company supplying also the rest of
> the world.
> 
> Anyway, was removing the screenshot now.
> 
> Thanks. Suppose that might just has been a mock up.

The keyboard looked familiar; I remember using a smart terminal with a keyboard 
that looked similar, which is why I spent some time searching.

The 3270 results in Computerworld show that Braegen was a real company that made 
terminals, and in the United States at that.

I think that Braegen, and at least one other company that supplied terminals to 
the New Zealand computer maker, were OEM clients of one manufacturer.

Searching on the key legends, I found that the WYSE-50 terminal, with a 
completely different key layout, also had some of the unusual keys of this 
terminal. So possibly an earlier WYSE terminal is the one I remember.

The distinctive features of this terminal are:

- it is an ASCII terminal, with the full U.S. 96 character set.

- all the keys of the keyboard are black with white legends;

- it has a numeric keypad, but it also has a keypad area on the main keyboard, and the characters which apply to that area are shown in reversed white-on-black areas;

- the four cursor keys are in a horizontal row above the main keyboard area;

- the control keys along the top are:

LINE
DEL
CHAR

LINE
INS
CHAR

EOF
CLEAR
EOL

CLEAR
HOME


OFF
SPLIT
ON

OFF
FORMAT
ON

CNCL (?)
INTENS

BLINK
(num lock, inverse video?)


(up)
(dn)
(l)
(r)



LINE
LOC+

BREAK

PAGE
SEND
LINE

PAGE
PRINT
LINE


Actually, there may be a slight difference in one of the visible keys between 
the Bregen and the New Zealand one, but they clearly at least belong to the same 
family.

The fact that a WYSE terminal also had LINE DEL and CHAR DEL on a key which put 
the common part of the functions in the middle points to WYSE either being the 
supplier or at least another OEM customer of the supplier.

So someone more familiar with old terminals than I am should be able to point to 
a more popular example of this terminal type.

John Savard

On Friday, March 16, 2018 at 2:26:16 PM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:

> The fact that a WYSE terminal also had LINE DEL and CHAR DEL on a key which put 
> the common part of the functions in the middle points to WYSE either being the 
> supplier or at least another OEM customer of the supplier.

UNIVAC also tended to the "word in the middle" key design, but their terminals 
tended to have the bit-pairing keyboard.

John Savard

In article <87po434...@usenet.ankman.de>,
Andreas Kohlbach  <a...@spamfence.net> wrote:
>On Thu, 15 Mar 2018 21:45:05 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc wrote:
>>
>> On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 3:23:58 PM UTC-6, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>>
>>> I took a screenshot at <http://www.ankman.de/braegen.jpg>. Anyone knows
>>> what this is?
>>
>> Found this image
>>
>> http://dotbu.com/PHIL/Images/Doran/Doran_Figure3b.jpg
>>
>> of a terminal included with a computer by MDL Computers, a company in
>New Zealand. It was from this page:
>>
>> http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article050106.html
>>
>> As you can see, the keyboard has the same layout.
>
>Interesting. But what are the chances this was used in the US? Other than
>if Braegen was a big "New Zealandish" company supplying also the rest of
>the world.

<snip>
>Andreas

IIRC Braegen also made disk subsystems using Calcomp drives that
attached to DEC PDP11's.  The had both Unibus drives and Massbus
attached drives.  The Massbus was patented by DEC so there came the
necessary corporate lawsuit.

A Google search pulled a bit about a VT100 work-a-like.
https://archive.org/stream/computerworld1449unse/computerworld1449unse_djvu.txt
and some disk drive subsystems...
https://archive.org/stream/computerworld1449unse/computerworld1449unse_djvu.txt


Bill