AlphaWindows - Protocol Information?

[Eric Christopherson]

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:
> > 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.
>
>
>
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