allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) wrote:
  <   I'd like to get away from having to
use a terminal.  The only terminal
 <I have are big HP things and I don't know if they would work with the
 <Altair (too fast?, block mode instead of character mode?)
 The hp thing would not work.  Try and scrounge up a vt100 or other more
 commonplace terminal vt100, vt220, heath/zenith h19, PC running Procomm
 or other term program. 
Remember complaints about programmers thinking "all the world's a
VAX"?  Now it's time to work on the ones who think "all the world's a
VT100."
I used to use an HP2645 as a terminal on a Compupro CP/M system, so
am sure it can be done.  But it definitely depends on the expectations
of the software running on the computer.  If it isn't assuming
anything more capable than a Teletype, things will be fine.  If your
BIOS or other terminal I/O support wants the terminal to do ^S/^Q flow
control it will be disappointed (264xs don't, 262xs and later can be
configured to do so but don't by default).  If your applications
expect the terminal to act like a VT100 by way of responding to VT100
or ANSI escape sequences (i.e. suffering from "all the world's a
VT100" disease) then the easiest thing to do is to get a VT100-alike
as Allison suggests.
All that said, if you want help getting the HP terminal working feel
free to ask.  If you'd sooner use a terminal emulator on some other
computer, that's OK too and probably more functional.
-Frank McConnell 
   Thanks Frank.  I have two HP 2626s coming. I'd like give them a try just
for kicks. I understand that they'll support up to four sessions
simultanously. Seems stange to think of running the Altair via something
like that.
   I do have some junk VT-320s that I had forgotten about.  I'll see if one
of them works in the mean time.
  Joe