Terminals...

[Johnny Billquist]

Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
> In article <AANLkTikXa9qgOFhFazHp-MguLeJXzbO7L5AXxbJGZSRU at mail.gmail.com>, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> writes:
>> > I haven't seen a VT525 in the wild, but now I know what to do to show
>> > it off if I do get one (but now I'm also wondering what it would take
>> > to get what you have working on a Tektronix 4105 since I have a couple
>> > of those).
> 
> It shouldn't take much with a proper termcap/terminfo entry for the
> 4105.  If you need escape codes, consult the 4105 programmer's
> reference on bitsavers:
> <http://bitsavers.org/pdf/tektronix/410x/070-4526-01_4105_PgmrRef_Sep83.pdf>


Whoa! I know you mean well, Richard, but you are making huge assumptions 
here, which are very wrong.

First of all, you assume that termcap can actually do this stuff, which 
it cannot. Termcap have no clue about user defined fonts. Termcap is 
rather limited in some ways. There are plenty of things I can do with a 
terminal that cannot be done properly within termcap.

But even adding the word "termcap" here, is making a big assumption 
about my software. In fact, my software is not using termcap, so adding 
information to the termcap database would not help at all. Even assuming 
this is a Unix system is making a mistake. It is, in fact not.

And, when all that is said and done, do you really think that the 
tektronix terminals aren't already in the termcap database? In fact, 
they are... (as are just about any terminal you ever never heard of)

And to make a long story short - the software I'm talking about is my 
Z-machine implementation, written in MACRO-11 for RSX, RT-11 and RSTS/E. 
It can (should) handle all V1 to V8 games, but it do not handle sound, 
nor full graphic games. All the rest should be fine, and it should work 
with most any terminal, although some fancy stuff is not possible with 
simple terminals. If anyone wants to take it for a test drive, just 
telnet mim.update.uu.se, log in as guest/guest, and when you have logged 
in, type ZEM <game>, or ZEM /LI (to list which games there are).
And this is a publicly available RSX system.

	Johnny