My VMS Conundrums... [long - multiple replies]

Rumor has it that pat(a)cart-server.purdueriots.com may have mentioned these words: Well, I've rescued a Wyse sumthinorother terminal, unknown condition but with an RJ-11 interface for the keyboard, and over the winter, I've finally found an RJ11-based Wyse keyboard... but with the move, I've not had time to actually test it... let alone I don't have a serial adapter that will work for it (or at least I'm not sure...) so that's something else I'd have to do... However, up until now I didn't have a terminal to use -- I kinda thought that a 2Mbyte 8-plane grafix framebuffer would have been good enough... :-/ Thanks for the tip... I'll check it out once the system is set up again (prolly in a couple of months, if I'm lucky...) Well, I also have one of the latest versions of Ultrix for it, and I had installed it to see what it was like... and I found it slow - but it did install *very* easily (unlike my trials & tribulations with VMS...) ============= and ============== Rumor has it that Carlini, Antonio may have mentioned these words: I don't have a terminal, but I'll try this when I get the system set up again - but I tried everything in the "help set terminal" and "set terminal xxxxx" most everything, and I couldn't get the framebuffer to recognize anything useful to get an editor working... ============ and ================== Rumor has it that Geoff Roberts may have mentioned these words: VMS 7.1... As others has stated, too... but it's tough to take those into the 'loo' for a little 'light reading...' ;-) I tried to do that 'till I was blue in the face (at *least* 16 hours worth) -- it just doesn't work with a framebuffer... :-( Working, yes... working usefully... alas, no. :-( Sure, the display is working great - until you try to start a text editor. Then I get something to the effect of (it's been a long time): Unknown Terminal. It 'just works' to display text -- lots of it (110+ columns at 58 lines or somesuch - looks bitchin' on the 17" monitor that it came with!) And it works great in Ultrix. Just won't let VMS run a damn text editor... :-( I pieced together 2 3100's to get the right mix of memory, hard drives, framebuffer & monitor, but the framebuffer & monitor were a matched pair; I just raided the second box for mem/HD. I installed it myself - I think it took 2 tries, but once I got the hang of it it wasn't unusually difficult... it's trying to make it do something without a text editor afterwords that's been the PITA... ============== and ==================== Rumor has it that Eric Dittman may have mentioned these words: Yea, but the "SET TERMINAL" part does... I've used SET TERMINAL this, that & the other, to no avail... graphic <Sarcasm> Holy-my-goodness... Why not just use EDLIN? </Sarcasm> <Really-Rude-Sarcasm> I've spent more than 6 years on this list, and all I hear is VAX this... VMS that... Ya Wanna Real System? VAX is the Only Way... VMS is the *only* Real OS... So I *finally* got one for myself - and I have to use a _line_ _editor_??? It was easier getting a full-screen text editor running on my CoCo, for crimeny sakes... [[and it has a real OS, to... ;-) ]] </Really-Rude-Sarcasm> The sarcasm is just letting off a little steam - I'm joking, really! Honestly, the hardware's great - and I'm sure VMS is all it's cracked up to be, if a little wordy (SET DEFAULT [000000] versus cd / ... thank god I top out at 110wpm... ;-) but I really wish it would have been a little easier to get working without having to hang a termainal off of it... And to be perfectly honest, at first all I really wanted to do with it: Write & run BASIC programs! I'd figured *hopefully* the BASIC was much more powerful than anything in the PeeCee world, and I wanted something faster than my CoCos... ... And learn VMS, in the process. *do* I wondered if anyone would pick up on that... ;-) As always, I've appreciated any & all advice that comes from the list, but the framebuffer/terminal issues seem like they're a rather tough nut to crack. To be honest, I think I'm going to mothball the VAX/VMS combo for now, and try installing VMS on my wife's retired DEC 3000/300 machine. It's only got 64M RAM, but if at least I can get DECWindows to install right off on the machine, it might give me a better "taste" of VMS to tinker with before I dive headlong into the VAX again... But I'm not giving up! ;-) Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig. If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.