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.
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