A word-processing system based on an input/output printer and mass storage recorder/player for data storage. The system employs a multiple-character main shift register for a buffer memory and a pair of single-character subsidiary shift registers connected in series to the output of the buffer memory. The input of the main register is connectable to the output of the second of the subsidiary registers, or to the output of the printer or to the output of the recorder/player. The output of the main register is connectable to the input of either the printer or the recorder/player. The system is operative in several modes wherein data can be readily inserted or deleted into or from the data already stored in the main register according as the registers are clocked to transfer information between them and the printer and player/recorder.

An installation for the electronic control of knitting machines from a pattern to be reproduced comprises a memory for storing in the form of coded information a limited quantity of elements from the pattern, means for inscription of said elements into the memory and means for interrogation of the memory as a function of the characteristics of the knitting machine and of the pattern. Means are provided for decoding and switching-over coded information from the memory and for transformation of the decoded information into electrical signals for the control of the knitting machine. The memory and the transformation means are connected by two channels: a direct channel for direct transfer of the contents of the memory to said transformation means; and an indirect channel for transfer of several times the contents of the corresponding memory by means of an intermediary information carrier corresponding to several sub-divisions of the pattern, the number of elements of which is greater than the capacity of the memory.

A method for sequentially obtaining an exact point-to-point correspondence between output and memory. The memory will automatically be rearranged in accordance with line length and/or format determinations. The system is comprised of an electronic dynamic shift register and associated control logic, and an input/output device. Control codes stored in the shift register along with text data codes determine the initial format. This format is altered and at the completion of output the memory will correspond to the output. For example, if a stored line length is 100 units defined by carrier return codes and the measure set on an output printer is 80 units, the memory will not correspond to the printed output. With the system of this invention, during an output operation a carrier return code will be inserted into memory at a point in the line less than 80 units from the line beginning and the carrier return code in memory defining the original 100 unit line will be removed.

A typesetting terminal adapted for operating a photo typesetter includes a data processor with a plurality of peripheral devices coupled thereto, such as a keyboard, cathode ray tube display, cursor control and a plurality of tape transports. Information from the keyboard and selected tape transports is read into the data processor memory for access and display by the cathode ray tube and outputting to a further tape device. Desired information can be searched in the various input tapes for display, editing and combination with information derived from another input.

A real-time communications system in which a dynamic memory recirculates character address information for an entire frame of information for display in a line raster on a cathode ray tube and in which a plurality of selection switches aligned with the individual lines of the raster permit an operator to select new frames of character information from a central memory for display and recirculation in accordance with the character information contained in the individual line selected.