28 Jan
2005
28 Jan
'05
11 a.m.
I wonder what percentage of classic systems insists on
real terminals vs.
terminal emulation.
I've found so many bugs in certain so-called 'VT100 Emulators' (not
running on any of my machines, I hasten to add!) that I feel the only
thing I can actually trust to work on a PDP11 or VAX is a real DEC
terminal. At least I like to have them around to determine if
mis-formatted output is due to problems on the DEC side or yet another
bug on the PC side...
That said, I do find terminal emulators useful. I use my HP95LX Palmtop
as a 'pocket terminal' when sorting out a minicomputer. It's easier to
stick that on top of the CPU cards than find somewhere to balance a VT52
:-) . I like ot have some kind of terminal emulator, even just a dumb
teletype one, on every machine with a keyboard, display, and RS232 port.
-tony