dsp@ptsfa.UUCP (David St.Pierre) (11/01/84)
I've had a chance to use the newest version of Crosstalk for the last few days. I'm primarily interrested in how well it works in the UNIX environment as a VT-100 emulator. The following observations are notable differences between this release and the previous: The older version did support vt102/vt132 emulation (insert/delete modes) but I encountered problems in insert mode in vi when a line was wrapped to the next line. This problem has been fixed. Crosstalk however, does not "stick" in column like the real vt-100, but rather supports true "am". If you use the SUPPLIED vt100-type definition, you'll have turn off xn/xenl to make XTALK work correctly. I did try just turning off both am & xn (from Doug) and it seems to work fine. It probably is simpler to support a vt100 and XTALK with one termcap and no "am" capabilities than two separate ones. The cursor keys are finally supported. Press NUM_LOCK after you start the session, and off you go. This is a distinct improvement. Standout, underline and bold worked fine on a monochrome with a Hercules board. On a color monitor, you can actually get 3 colors! (I like cheap thrills). Underline is dark blue, normal and bold are under user control (the SC command). Inverse video is annoying in that you get inverse, FLASHING video as a default. Use the SC command to make sure that both the foreground and background colors as designated in lower case. There are also occasional problems with standout turning on the entire line even though no characters have been entered. If you have a licensed copy of Crosstalk, the update is free through their hot line. A new manual is $20. We've also heard that version 4.0 may be available at the end of the year. No details.