I'm pretty sure the DEC VT100 didn't have it.? It was very memory
-limited - the standard was 80x 24 and if you wanted 132 x 24 you had to
buy the advanced video option.
There was a demo program that made it look like it recovered data that
had been scrolled off the top of the screen, but I think it was just
re-sent form the computer.
cheers,
Nigel
Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype: TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at
ieee.org
On 2020-12-13 9:37 p.m., Stan Sieler via cctalk wrote:
Hi,
First, apologies if I asked this years ago (I've searched my archives, no
hits :)
When was the concept of memory "above" the screen invented for terminals?
I.e., previously displayed data that had scrolled up and off the screen ...
but could be retrieved (usually by scrolling down).
(Sometimes called "scrollback", or "offscreen memory".)
(BTW, I'm talking about terminal-local memory, not a scrollback implemented
by the computer to which the terminal is connected.)
The HP 2640A, 1974, had (IIRC) several pages of memory available ... the
user could scroll
backwards and see what had been on the screen before it scrolled off (as
long
as it hadn't been lost by having too much subsequent output).
I suspect the DEV VT100, 1978, had it, but I can't find definitive proof
online (sure, I can find VT102 emulators that have scrollback, but reading
an old VT102 manual doesn't make it clear that it has it.)
thanks,
Stan