Humpty Dumpty

[Ethan Dicks]

On 2/8/07, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
> As near as I can tell, there are like 3 people who care about
> terminals: myself, Paul Shuford (who is the only source of online
> information about many kinds of terminals) and Paul Williams (who runs
> and maintains vt100.net).

4.  I have a collection of terminals, 90% of which are various DEC
models (VT-50 through about VT-320), but a couple of Tektronix, couple
of Planar, Heathkit, CiTOH, etc.

> Most terminals do not have graphics capability, just character
> capability.  Color graphics terminals are even scarcer.

I'd have to check the stack, but the Tektronix terminals are color
graphics + text (local printer port, etc.), and of course, the VT241
is color graphics + text, as is the DEC GIGI.  I agree - they are
rare.  Rarer are the applications to drive them.  I don't know of many
color Tek apps, but there were quite a few for the GIGI under TOPS-20.


>  Terminals that have 3D graphics builtin are even scarcer than that.

Indeed.  I don't know if I've ever seen one.

>  The Visual
> 500 therefore is of interest to me because it is older and has
> graphics.  (Not all Visual terminals have graphics, but the 500 does.)

Interesting.  Shame the seller was too cheap/ignorant to package
things properly.  I have to wonder how he got them to accept it - I've
been to the UPS depot and seen them turn away customers with boxes
that had heavy, shifting loads (improperly packaged computer bits).

-ethan