VT100's

[Paul Koning]

> On Sep 6, 2018, at 12:22 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On 09/06/2018 09:37 AM, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote:
>> cause it's the simples, I guess
> 
> I used to naively think that the VT100 was the lowest end Video Terminal.  Then I subsequently saw references to VT50 and VT52.  So now I have no clue.
> 
> Maybe it was just the fact that so many things claimed VT100 compatibility helped escalate VT100 in popularity.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I can think of a bunch of reasons.

1. For its time, the VT100 was pretty compact.
2. It was the first DEC terminal with a detachable keyboard (not counting the GT-40) and if you needed an extension cord, you could just get a headphone cord at Radio Shack.
3. It was the first DEC terminal to implement a standard for control sequences (ANSI controls).

Before then, the VT52 was certainly attractive, same screen size (24 by 80) and upper/lower case (English only, give or take some national variants).  But it's much bigger and doesn't have a separate keyboard.  VT50 seems like it was someone's mistake -- 12 lines, what were they thinking?  Even the VT05 had 20.

	paul