20 Nov
2007
20 Nov
'07
8:52 p.m.
Richard wrote:
The naplps stuff is fairly regular, but escape codes shift out/in
terminal or line/graphics codes. Byte I think was the best reference
I have seen.
I use a USB<->RS232 dongle (they're cheap)
and talk to terminals with
my PC. I write code that generates the appropriate escape codes to
make the terminal do something interesting. You can also use a
terminal emulator program and have it talk to your terminal like its a
modem. I haven't needed any "null modem" cables in order for this to
work so far.
Just keep away from escape and SI/SO control codes for now.
I had some stuff on that about 10 years ago, but that is now
all History. One thing about the terminals I have used is that
they are DOG slow regarding text updates.Also I don't think
they do local echo.
I have at
least found an online source for the NAPLPS encoding itself:
http://netghost.narod.ru/gff/vendspec/naplps/naplps.txt
The only reference I know of is that there was a big article on NAPLPS
in BYTE magazine back in the early 80s. I believe it was mentioned on
the cover, but I couldn't find any mention of it here
<http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/csbib/Misc/byte>