TRW Acquisitions, VCF

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Mon Feb 2 10:30:05 1998

allisonp_at_world.std.com (Allison J Parent) wrote:
> < I'd like to get away from having to use a terminal. The only terminal
> <I have are big HP things and I don't know if they would work with the
> <Altair (too fast?, block mode instead of character mode?)
>
> The hp thing would not work. Try and scrounge up a vt100 or other more
> commonplace terminal vt100, vt220, heath/zenith h19, PC running Procomm
> or other term program.

Remember complaints about programmers thinking "all the world's a
VAX"? Now it's time to work on the ones who think "all the world's a
VT100."

I used to use an HP2645 as a terminal on a Compupro CP/M system, so
am sure it can be done. But it definitely depends on the expectations
of the software running on the computer. If it isn't assuming
anything more capable than a Teletype, things will be fine. If your
BIOS or other terminal I/O support wants the terminal to do ^S/^Q flow
control it will be disappointed (264xs don't, 262xs and later can be
configured to do so but don't by default). If your applications
expect the terminal to act like a VT100 by way of responding to VT100
or ANSI escape sequences (i.e. suffering from "all the world's a
VT100" disease) then the easiest thing to do is to get a VT100-alike
as Allison suggests.

All that said, if you want help getting the HP terminal working feel
free to ask. If you'd sooner use a terminal emulator on some other
computer, that's OK too and probably more functional.

-Frank McConnell
Received on Mon Feb 02 1998 - 10:30:05 GMT