5 Nov
2007
5 Nov
'07
3:14 p.m.
For me, the reason is simple. Terminal emulators
are too damn
much trouble...emulation problems, key mapping, etc. I've used
Tell me aout it !. About 10 years ago I used one particularly bad
emulator under Windows which couldn't even get VT100 cursor positioning
right....
pretty much all of them over the years, I think...the
best one I've
used was SmarTerm 240, and even that is far from perfect. Sometimes
what one really needs is an APPLIANCE...not an emulation of said
appliance built upon an unstable and problematic platform.
I feel the saem way about electronic test gear. I want a 'scope. Not a
disguised PC pretending to be a 'scope. Not something running an OS never
designed for real-time work that's liable to crash (or worse still do the
wrong thing and not warn me about it) if I look at it wrong.
Further...A VT320 terminal pulls less than half an ampere at 120V,
and is available for use within about fifteen seconds of
powerup...can anyone say either of those things for a PC running
terminal emulation software?
An HP100LX (which is PC-compatible-ish) will run for quite a time on a
couple of AA cells (I would guess therefore a lot less than 60W!). I am
pretty sure I could start up the built-in terminal emulator in well under
15s.
[Sorry, couldn't resist. I use the 100LX and 95LX quite a bit as
pocket-sized erminals when I'm sorting out serial problems]
-tony