arnold@emory.UUCP (Arnold D. Robbins {EUCC}) (07/09/86)
This article has two separate, but related pieces of information, concerning
software for DMDs (ATT Teletype 5620s).
1) The University of California at San Diego ported the XT driver to 4.2 BSD.
They are NOT distributing it. Instead, ATT Teletype is. (NOTE: the
licensing people in N.C. don't know about this, don't ask them.) You do need
to have the DMD source licenses for System V from the people in N.C. Once
you do, contact Dan Wolski, at ATT Teletype, at (312) 982-3453,
ihnp4!ttrdc!dew. If you send him a copy of your license and your mailing
address, he will send you a tape, with the source, for 4.2 BSD. That's all
there is to it.
(Yes, I know about the availability of the DMD stuff from BRL. Their stuff
runs in user mode, while what I am describing is based on the XT device
driver. I am not arguing for one or the other, either way, just informing
the general Unix world about the availability of different options if they
have DMDs.)
2) The AT&T Toolchest has a new package called dmd-pgmg, which costs $125.
It has a new layers program, called "myx", that allows a number of things,
including running myx inside a window, and the ability to change the current
character font w/in a window. I do not remember all the details, but at
$125 for source, it looked like a pretty good deal.
(It indicated that it only ran on System V. I expect it that is dependant
on having the XT driver, but that is no longer a problem for BSD sites.)
Appendix A: Phone numbers:
Unix Licensing in N.C.: 1-800-828-8649 (UNIX)
ATT Toolchest, login as guest: 1-201-522-6900
ATT Toolchest, voice: 1-201-522-6698
Dan Wolski, at ATT Teletype: 1-312-982-3453
Enjoy,
--
Arnold Robbins
CSNET: arnold@emory BITNET: arnold@emoryu1
ARPA: arnold%emory.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
UUCP: { akgua, decvax, gatech, sb1, sb6, sunatl }!emory!arnold
"All this digital stuff is just a fad. Analog is the way to go."
-- William M. Robbins, 1984gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP (07/12/86)
In article <1668@emory.UUCP> arnold@emory.UUCP (Arnold D. Robbins {EUCC}) writes: > (Yes, I know about the availability of the DMD stuff from BRL. Their stuff > runs in user mode, while what I am describing is based on the XT device > driver. ...) This is true at present; we use ptys and select() in a fairly nice version of "mpx" originally obtained from CWI. Doug Kingston (soon to return to BRL from sabbatical at CWI) recently posted an implementation of "xt" and corresponding "mpx" ("layers") program that we are likely to install soon. The "xt" approach is certainly more efficient although uglier. Of course, 8th Edition's "mux" is the way to go; does anybody know whether this will be available now that UNIX System V has streams? Another drawback to the BRL DMD software is that it is currently based on Release 1.2 (with the usual slew of local bug fixes); we expect Release 2.0 "any day now". One advantage (in my opinion) is that our host programming environment for the DMD is based on the BRL UNIX System V environment rather than on the native C implementation. (Of course, once developed, applications may be used from either environment.) Whether you consider this a plus or a minus is partly a matter of taste, but if you're developing code for export it may be significant. > It has a new layers program, called "myx", that allows a number of things, > including running myx inside a window, and the ability to change the current > character font w/in a window. I'm not 100% sure, but from the description it may be that this requires the newer (Rel 2.0) terminal firmware "8;7;5" rather than the older "8;7;3" firmware that some DMD sites may have. I recommend upgrading to the newer firmware anyway (it doesn't cost much), so this is no big deal.