This Teletype-Inspired Thermal Printer Terminal Offers a Permanent Record of Your Console Sessions

Pseudonymous maker and retrocomputing enthusiast "kotofey_magnus" has reinvented the classic teletype terminal by combining a thermal receipt printer with a classic IBM Model M keyboard — ideal for the hacker who isn't in a hurry.

"I made the best terminal ever," Magnus modestly writes of the build, which does not appear to have been called the "Therminal" but definitely should have been. "It's my almost 30 years old IBM Model M 122-key Terminal RJ45 [keyboard, with] some random printer from AliExpress."

Inspired by the teletype terminals from the early days of computing, including the well-known output of the Teletype Corporation prior to the genericization of the term, the Therminal works as both input and output device for a connected computer. The command prompt, and any output from commands executed, is printed to the thermal paper; keystrokes entered on the keyboard are echoed to the paper too, providing a permanent record of a given terminal session.

"The biggest mistake," Magnus jokes, "was to run 'vi' for fun," showing off a stream of gibberish spat out from the printer as it fails to make any effort to interpret the terminal control codes the vi text editor uses to provide an editing interface. "I was aware that it is a bad idea."

More details are available in the project's Reddit thread, including the one-liner which launches the teletype-style terminal session: while true; do read cmd && echo "$> $cmd" > /dev/usb/lp0 && $cmd > /dev/usb/lp0 && echo "" > /dev/usb/lp0 ; done.