4 Aug
2011
4 Aug
'11
11:30 a.m.
[PCs as terminals]
The big advantage over a conventional terminal was the
capability of
capturing output to a file or sending a file to the VAX. And the
YEs, that was one of the reasons I bought my first PC. Although I had
other machines tht could emulate a terminal, an MS-DOS floppy disk was by
then a de-facto standard, and beign able to transfer files between one of
my machines and such a disk was very handy.
Icidentally, the first pC I owned was a genuineb 5160 PC/XT (It still
runs, it's in front of me now). I tracked down that model because I had
access to the TechRef (well, you know me by now...)
keyboard was better than that on the C. Itoh VT220
terminals that
everyone else was using. This allowed me to do my editing off-line--
or even take my work home.
Reminds me of the tremrinal emiulator ROM for th HP9830, whcih allowed
you to transfer a file between the 9830's memory and the communcation
link and to store/retrieve it from an HP9830 tape. HP advertised this as
being able to save on timesharing system storage charges.
-tony