5 May
2006
5 May
'06
11:20 p.m.
On 5/5/2006 at 10:42 PM ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
All I can say is that I've had so many buygy PC
terminal emulators that
I'm darn glad to haev the real terminals still in operation. I remember
one so-called VT100 emulator for Windows (this would be about 10 years
ago) that gaev a very interesting display when used with EDT on a VMS
box...
Have programmed the firmware for a couple of VT100 and VT220 terminals, I
don't see the difference, myself. Regardless of whether it's a PC or a
terminal, you still have a CPU, a CRT controller, serial interfaces, and a
bunch of programming. Often the devices used in one are the same as the
ones used in the other. The big difference is that PCs have disks and
allow one to choose what emulation software to use.
I take no responsibility for others' buggy software. :)
To my mind, this is somewhat akin to the business of PCs displacing word
processing systems. While it might be true that the software on a Harris
Lanier or Artec box was pretty well shaken out when it was deployed, there
is no reason that the software to run on a PC could not also have been.
And--this is important--a PC allowed the customer to change WP software at
will, rather than being tied into one manufacturer's product.
I imagine that the old 8" floppy-based dedicated word processors are even
harder to locate than terminals--and that no one really misses them.
Cheers,
Chuck