rbt@sftig.UUCP (R.Thomas) (11/01/84)
[bug food] [] Does anyone have a termcap entry for an Apple ][e running the extended memory, 80-col card? Please mail directly to me (I imagine this is the nth time someone has requested this.) Also, someone complained in private mail that the above card is too slow for effective 1200 baud use. Does anyone else have any experience with this card at 1200 baud? I briefly glanced at the Rom listing for the card and it does look slow for page scrolling. -- Mike Eve Boeing Aerospace, Seattle ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ssc-bee!eve I assume you are talking about the 'dumb terminal' program that comes in the firmware for the super serial card from Apple. I have successfully used this combination (Apple SSC and extended 80 column card) as a terminal at 1200 baud to a VAX running system V. I had to specify 'stty nl1 cr3' to get it to work. (In case you are running BSD, that translates to the maximum possible delay for both carriage returns and new-lines.) It is painful to watch the lines zip out and then scroll soooo slooowly, but it does work. However, I have a complaint about this 'program'. When you run it in 80 column mode, the cursor seems to be stuck in column 2. This problem doesn't happen in 40 column mode. I called Apple tech support, and they told me that this is a known problem, and an updated ROM should be available sometime in the spring. They did not promise that it would fix the slow scroll problem though. All in all, I recommend against trying to rely on this firmware for using the Apple IIe as a terminal. Buy a commercial terminal emulator instead, (or do what I am planning on doing, write your own) Most of the commercially available programs can handle 1200 baud and 80 columns just fine. Along those lines, The guy I talked to in Apple tech support suggested that I bug my dealer for a thing called the 'Apple II Programs Disc' which the dealer could get a (presumably free) copy of by writing to Apple Tech support. He said that it had been described in a newsletter for dealers called 'Apple View'. He said this disc has a dumb terminal emulator program that fixes the column 2 cursor problem. He said it did not scroll fast enough for 1200 baud operation, but I expect that suitable delays from the host would make it usable. He also said that this disc contains a lot of useful and/or fun programs that the dealer could use as demos. Unfortunately, I asked both of my local dealers, and neither of them had even heard of either the Apple II programs disc, or the Apple View newsletter. One of the people at one dealer remarked 'We get so much @#$ from Apple, that nobody has the time to read it. We just throw away most of it.' I asked them both to look into getting the disc, but I don't hold out much hope. If you have better luck, let me know. To answer your original question, I dont think the terminal emulator in the firmware has enough smarts to make it useful with vi or anything else that requires cursor motion sequences. I specificly asked about this when I talked to the tech support person, and he said that the firmware dumb terminal did not support cursor motion sequences, even in 40 column mode. Rick Thomas {ihnp4, akgua, houxm, nearly any backbone site}!btlunix!rbt (201)-522-6062 PS If anybody knows of a public domain terminal emulator for the IIe with an 80 column card, please let me know before I start to write my own.