Subject: Re: Humpty Dumpty
From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:50:16 -0500
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
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.
I have VT100 series and VT320 and VT340 along with a VT1200.
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.
Error! VT100 had sixel graphics as did VT220, 320 and 340 added color,
VT1200 as full graphics (xterm).
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).
The V500 and others postdate the VT220 and it was the VT100 and VT220
that were a strong influence on the high end ANSI compatable terminal
market. Even the Heath H19 has VT52/ANSI(VT100 subset) compatable modes.
Allison