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grind crank: n., // A mythical accessory to a terminal. A crank on the side of a
monitor, which when operated makes a zizzing noise and causes the computer
to run faster. Usually one does not refer to a grind crank out loud, but
merely makes the appropriate gesture and noise. See
grind. Historical note: At least one real machine actually had a grind crank
— the R1, a research machine built toward the end of the days of the
great vacuum tube computers, in 1959. R1 (also known as ‘The Rice
Institute Computer’ (TRIC) and later as ‘The Rice University
Computer’ (TRUC)) had a single-step/free-run switch for use when
debugging programs. Since single-stepping through a large program was
rather tedious, there was also a crank with a cam and gear arrangement that
repeatedly pushed the single-step button. This allowed one to
‘crank’ through a lot of code, then slow down to single-step
for a bit when you got near the code of interest, poke at some registers
using the console typewriter, and then keep on cranking. See http://www.cs.rice.edu/History/R1/.
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