On Dec 13, 2020, at 9:37 PM, Stan Sieler via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hi,
First, apologies if I asked this years ago (I've searched my archives, no
hits :)
When was the concept of memory "above" the screen invented for terminals?
I.e., previously displayed data that had scrolled up and off the screen ...
but could be retrieved (usually by scrolling down).
(Sometimes called "scrollback", or "offscreen memory".)
(BTW, I'm talking about terminal-local memory, not a scrollback implemented
by the computer to which the terminal is connected.)
The HP 2640A, 1974, had (IIRC) several pages of memory available ... the
user could scroll
backwards and see what had been on the screen before it scrolled off (as
long
as it hadn't been lost by having too much subsequent output).
I suspect the DEV VT100, 1978, had it, but I can't find definitive proof
online (sure, I can find VT102 emulators that have scrollback, but reading
an old VT102 manual doesn't make it clear that it has it.)
Definitely not any of the DEC plain terminals. However, the VT71/t (a.k.a., VT72), an
LSI-11 based smart terminal that did local editing of a whole file, had a lot of memory
only a small part of which was displayed. And before that was the VT20, a very similar
device controlled by an 11/05 (one for two "heads"). The VT71 dates to around
1977.
Depending on how loose your definition of off-screen memory is, the console display of the
CDC 6000 mainframes (from around 1965) might qualify.
paul