Dumb terminals and many sessions (was Re: VAXen and minimal memory)

On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 12:11 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: I have no doubts that was true when selling systems, but I remember seeing the paperwork from when we were growing, so 10 new employees meant 10 new terminals (and sometimes one more CS21)... Eventually, we stopped growing, then started shrinking, so it was feasible to log into two systems at once by having two terminals on your desk. We also had structured wiring from Nevada Western (DB25 modular adapters on each terminal, 6-pin silver satin cables to the wall, and several 3U "switchboard" panels with blocks of jacks and 25-pair telco cables back to the VAXen) so it was also easy to employ 2-line switch blocks at our desks. Eventually, we had "modern" terminals like the CiTOH 101e that supported a second session over the "serial printer" line (we never used the second line for hardcopy). Now, I use computers with bitmap screens to maintain multiple simultaneous character-based sessions. Same workflow, less wire and fewer large hunks of plastic and metal on my desk. -ethan