--- Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 2/12/2006 at 2:12 PM Mo wrote:
There are still quite a few PDP-11, VAX, and Alpha
end-users out
there,
who need replacement parts. I happily sold my
Decwriter IV two
years
ago for a king's ransom to a gentleman with an
alarm monitoring
system.
Those needing KSR units don't have many
options.
Is there any reason that a dumb terminal with a printer attached
wouldn't
have worked?
Several. Depends on your intent.
In my case, most of the teleprinters served as journals for alarms and
operator intervention, critical database update logging, access control
logging, and electronic funds transfers. Introducing a CRT would not
only allow for mischief, but given the varying competency of the
personnel, but in my experience, it is impossible to keep an attached
printer printing 100% of the time. (Not that Decwriter IV's work 100%
either - II's and III's, bottom-fed, and TI820 KSR's were optimal.)
Retaining the console-ish logs, stacked neatly in their original
3000-sheet fanfold form, in the paper box, in a vault facility, proved
useful many times, versus machine-readable methods, when client's
customers, They weren't the easiest to search if you don't have a
good time reference, but were virtually indisputable.
In today's Windoze-client environs, such a direct approach would not be
accepted, as it would be considered unfair to deny the operator(s) the
right to play Solitaire, chat on AIM, or "surf". Do I sound grumpy?
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