8 Feb
2007
8 Feb
'07
11:50 a.m.
On 2/8/07, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
As near as I can tell, there are like 3 people who
care about
terminals: myself, Paul Shuford (who is the only source of online
information about many kinds of terminals) and Paul Williams (who runs
and maintains vt100.net).
4. I have a collection of terminals, 90% of which are various DEC
models (VT-50 through about VT-320), but a couple of Tektronix, couple
of Planar, Heathkit, CiTOH, etc.
Most terminals do not have graphics capability, just
character
capability. Color graphics terminals are even scarcer.
I'd have to check the stack, but the Tektronix terminals are color
graphics + text (local printer port, etc.), and of course, the VT241
is color graphics + text, as is the DEC GIGI. I agree - they are
rare. Rarer are the applications to drive them. I don't know of many
color Tek apps, but there were quite a few for the GIGI under TOPS-20.
Terminals that have 3D graphics builtin are even
scarcer than that.
Indeed. I don't know if I've ever seen one.
The Visual
500 therefore is of interest to me because it is older and has
graphics. (Not all Visual terminals have graphics, but the 500 does.)
Interesting. Shame the seller was too cheap/ignorant to package
things properly. I have to wonder how he got them to accept it - I've
been to the UPS depot and seen them turn away customers with boxes
that had heavy, shifting loads (improperly packaged computer bits).
-ethan