I wonder what
percentage of classic systems insists on real terminals vs.
terminal emulation.
I've found so many bugs in certain so-called 'VT100 Emulators' (not
running on any of my machines, I hasten to add!) that I feel the only
thing I can actually trust to work on a PDP11 or VAX is a real DEC
terminal. At least I like to have them around to determine if
mis-formatted output is due to problems on the DEC side or yet another
bug on the PC side...
That said, I do find terminal emulators useful. I use my HP95LX Palmtop
as a 'pocket terminal' when sorting out a minicomputer. It's easier to
stick that on top of the CPU cards than find somewhere to balance a VT52
:-) . I like ot have some kind of terminal emulator, even just a dumb
teletype one, on every machine with a keyboard, display, and RS232 port.
-tony
I've yet to find a terminal emulator for Mac OS X that does accurate
VT100 emulation. I've found a couple that come fairly close, but
they always seem to fail to support one feature or another that I
feel that I need (usually the keypad, which I absolutely do need).
The closest I've managed to come is an XTerm when I run X-Windows
with a custom .Xmodmap.
I have a VT420 that's plugged into my OpenVMS and Unix server's
consoles, and I have another in another room that is the Console for
my PDP-11's. My problem is I don't really have room on my desk for a
VT420 :^( Still, thanks to having to replace my old monitor, I might
find almost enough room if I were to do a little careful rearranging.
I really miss having a VT420 connected to a DECserver next to my desk
that I can use for normal interaction with my VMS system.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
|
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |