phr (08/05/82)
We just got some SUN workstations from CadLinc, and the terminal roms stink (can't run at reasonable speed, no cursor control as far as we can tell, rotten fonts, etc). Does anyone 1) know more about the CadLinc software (like whether it emulates an existing terminal), or 2) know where we can get some good terminal software for the workstation? Anyone have any other nifty downloadable programs? We don't have any disks yet. I'd also be interested in hearing from other SUN users. --Paul Rubin BTL Murray Hill
grunwald (08/05/82)
#R:allegra:-44200:uiucdcs:23900003:000:1285 uiucdcs!grunwald Aug 5 11:57:00 1982 Wonderful! Someone else to share our problems! We also have a Cadlinc SUN workstation, and we have noticed the same trouble as you have when using the thing as a "terminal" -- it is very slow once it starts scrolling and the character set does look very strange. The scroll problem really can't be helped, as such. It stems from the fact that scrolling the screen requires you to move about 100Kb of memory, or about 50,000 iterations of a loop to move the screen memory. We've come up with several possible solutions to this problem, but they are kind of on hold right now. One involves just erasing the screen everytime it reaches the bottom margin, or perhaps moving the bottom half to the top half and then erasing the bottom half, so that you have at least 1/2 of your screen sitting around. Another alternative would be to use the smaller character set (the z1 set,or a home-made version thereof) and then have a smaller window on the screen, which would require moving less memory. This would eliminate the slow scroll, but it out also kill your eyes in short order. I would be interested in hearing what software & documentation they sent you. We might be able to arrange sharing some utilities and whatnot. Send mail to "pur-ee!uiucdcs!grunwald" if you're interested.