24 Jun
2016
24 Jun
'16
9:22 a.m.
On Fri, 24 Jun 2016, Paul Koning wrote:
By contrast, a Tex 401x is a storage tube, which puts
it at the other
extreme: once you draw a character or line, it would stay without any
further action. You can't erase it; the only erase available is a full
screen erase.
That reminds me vaguely of RIP at the end of the BBS era. It probably
could do a partial-refresh/erase, but if you watched it "paint" images,
that's how it appeared. I was glad that the Internet-era came along, but
it's sad RIP didn't come along earlier.
I also remember some kind of BBS terminal emulator that I only saw over
someone's shoulder. It was for the Amiga and appeared that it could
transmit/receive sprite-based graphics over the modem connection. I just
remember watching a friend of a friend connect to a BBS overseas and I
they had some kind of welcome screen with a little sprite-based unicorn
running across the screen. I dunno, maybe it was a rigged demo, but it
showed me that "terminal emulation" could be all kinds of awesome stuff.
-Swift