info-mac@utcsrgv.UUCP (info-mac) (07/04/84)
Date: 2 Jul 1984 16:52-PDT
From: Steve Deering <uw-beaver!deering@Pescadero>
Subject: MacTerminal annoyances
To: info-mac@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
I haven't seen any mention of the following minor irritants in MacTerminal,
pre-release version -0.15X, so I thought I would mention them:
- Printing uses a fixed-width font on the Imagewriter, but uses variable
width spaces, so that columns on the screen do not line up on the
printer. For example, the following two lines do not print the same
length:
ABCDEFG
ABC EFG
This seems to be due to MacTerminal's use of "draft quality" printing
via the Imagewriter driver. Why not just send the ascii characters
directly to the printer port?
Also, a compressed font is used for printing, perhaps to allow 132
column output. The output would be much more readable if the standard
10 char/inch Pica characters were used for printing when the terminal
emulator is in 80-column mode.
- Text that is pasted from the clipboard is broken into lines of 80
columns or less. The line break occurs between words, which is nice,
but every line except the first starts with a space character, which
is not so nice.
- I would like to be able to put non-printing characters into the phone
number string to deal with non-Apple/Hayes autodialers. In particular,
I want to use backspaces to delete the "ATDT" that MacTerminal sends to
my US Robotics modem so I can send the command to turn off the speaker
before dialing the number. The "^" escape used to put non-printables
into the answer-back string should be made available in the phone number
string as well.
Has anybody heard when official, released MacTerminal will be available?
Steve Deering
deering@Pescadero.ARPA