terminal inventiveness (was Re: an odd question

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Thu Aug 16 19:15:54 2001

The question at hand:

> > Which leads to this question. Anybody know who
> > invented the video terminal?

At 06:34 PM 8/16/01 -0500, Lawrence LeMay wrote:
>Impossible to answer unless you define the question much more precisely.
>For example, what is a video terminal? A video tube version of a
>printing terminal, with no cursor positioning? Or is it the first
>cursor positioning in a stand alone terminal? etc, etc.

This used to differentiate between "dumb" terminals and "smart" terminals.
However, many systems (even the PDP-1) often had a CRT of some sort
attached to the main system that was eventually used to display some
messages. Further, there was the plethora of "glass TTYs" that came out in
the late 60's with the advent of TTL logic.

So here are some specific questions that might be interesting to answer:

Lets define a TERMINAL to be a cathode ray tube that displays characters
and a keyboard input unit that communicates through a serial channel (can
be coax, RS-232, current loop, etc.)
         1) What was the first example of a TERMINAL (See above)?

         2) When was a processor (micro, bit-slice, whatever) first
            DEDICATED to operating a terminal?

         3) What is the first terminal that could manipulate its own
            buffer memory in response to a "control" code?

         4) What is the first terminal that could display graphics and
            text? (either alternately or simultaneously)

I'm guessing that the Lear-Seigler machines were near the front...

--Chuck
Received on Thu Aug 16 2001 - 19:15:54 BST