5 Sep
2018
5 Sep
'18
8:17 a.m.
In the 1990s a computer terminal standard "AlphaWindows" was proposed by the
Display Industry Association (DIA).
Sort of X-Windows for the poor.
A few terminals appeared which supported multiple text windows following the
this standard. Some limited global facts can be found in Wikipedia.
I learned that for example the TeleVideo 995 and 9089 or the HP 700/70
terminals supported AlphaWindows.
Obviously there were several implementation levels like:
(1) Basic AlphaWindow
(2) Mouse Operations
(3) Decorations
(4) AlphaWindow Credits Flow Control
Unfortunately I cannot find any information on the protocol resp. escape
sequences and the DIA is long gone.
Does anyone have a manual with escape sequences for one of the terminals
mentioned?
Or other material describing this protocol?
Note that other terminals of the similar types (e.g. HP 700/71) do not
support this feature.
Martin
5 Sep
5 Sep
10:39 a.m.
On 9/5/18 5:17 AM, Martin Hepperle via cctalk wrote:
In the 1990s a computer terminal standard
"AlphaWindows" was proposed by the
Display Industry Association (DIA).
Sort of X-Windows for the poor.
Very poor... only text in the windows.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.terminals/ielBYV-mNLM
This is kind of interesting to me, because I helped get TVI 990/995 working in MAME.
We obviously never had the windowing protocol information either.
I wondered why a terminal needed a 68000 inside it.
I'm obviously interested in anything you come up with.
I guess a place to start is getting a copy of Multiview Mascot and watching the
serial protocol between it and a terminal.
--
Related.. I worked on a similar product in the mid-80's, except it could do Tek 4015
graphics in terminal windows. A friend just revived one of the board sets over the
weekend.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/aed/colorware_cards/pictures/screen.jpg
This was a board-level VME or Qbus product you talked to directly through a shared memory
queue of virtual terminal connections.
10:57 a.m.
a little more info here
ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/shuford/terminal/alphawindows_news.txt
On 9/5/18 7:39 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 9/5/18 5:17 AM, Martin Hepperle via cctalk wrote:
In the 1990s a computer terminal standard
"AlphaWindows" was proposed by the
Display Industry Association (DIA).
Sort of X-Windows for the poor.
Very poor... only text in the windows.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.terminals/ielBYV-mNLM
This is kind of interesting to me, because I helped get TVI 990/995 working in MAME.
We obviously never had the windowing protocol information either.
I wondered why a terminal needed a 68000 inside it.
I'm obviously interested in anything you come up with.
I guess a place to start is getting a copy of Multiview Mascot and watching the
serial protocol between it and a terminal.
--
Related.. I worked on a similar product in the mid-80's, except it could do Tek 4015
graphics in terminal windows. A friend just revived one of the board sets over the
weekend.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/aed/colorware_cards/pictures/screen.jpg
This was a board-level VME or Qbus product you talked to directly through a shared
memory
queue of virtual terminal connections.
1:47 p.m.
On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 11:57 AM Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 9/5/18 5:17 AM, Martin Hepperle via cctalk wrote:
Interesting stuff. I just (a few weeks ago) saw a boxed copy of FacetTerm
for Unix at a store with a lot of old electronics and computer stuff. I see
now that FacetTerm worked with the AlphaWindows standard (although I think
it could do its own thing too). Looks like it's still available for Linux.
--
Eric Christopherson
In the 1990s a computer terminal standard
"AlphaWindows" was proposed by
the
Display Industry Association (DIA).
Sort of X-Windows for the poor.
Very poor... only text in the windows.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.terminals/ielBYV-mNLM
This is kind of interesting to me, because I helped get TVI 990/995
working in MAME.
We obviously never had the windowing protocol information either.
I wondered why a terminal needed a 68000 inside it.
I'm obviously interested in anything you come up with.
I guess a place to start is getting a copy of Multiview Mascot and
watching the
serial protocol between it and a terminal.
--
Related.. I worked on a similar product in the mid-80's, except it could
do Tek 4015
graphics in terminal windows. A friend just revived one of the board sets
over the weekend.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/aed/colorware_cards/pictures/screen.jpg
This was a board-level VME or Qbus product you talked to directly through
a shared memory
queue of virtual terminal connections.
2181
days inactive
2181
days old
3 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
echristopherson＠gmail.com -
Martin.Hepperle＠MH-AeroTools.de