tjc@husky.uucp (Tom Crawford) (05/16/85)
Replace this wine lith your favorite terminal emulator I have the bucks for a modem and terminal package but don't know what to get. Concerning modems: I have heard a rumor that Hayes will expand their 2400 baud modem line and that the price of the 1200 will drop from $599 to $300. This is supposed to happen Real Real Soon Now, maybe by Consumer Electronics Show which is in June or July (60 days doesn't sound like RRSN, not even RSN). I called Hayes themselves and the sales people don't know a thing about any price reductions in the next 90 days. (BTW these guys seemed real nice, not the dimbulbs you usually get from sales. But niceness doesn't necessarily imply knowledge.) As the Hayes goes, so goeth Apple 1200? Has anyone heard anything more specific, like when? If we're talking September before any real price savings can be seen, I may just say "Big Bloody Deal" and buy the modem this week. (BTW 300 baud is not acceptable). Concerning terminal emulators: I know Versaterm is out there, but I haven't seen it in the mail order ads and my local computer dealer doesn't even know what an "update to the Finder and MacWrite" is let alone know the intricacies of downloading or the nuances of program development in C. (ResEdit? What's that?) The only review of SmartCom II I have found without an exhaustive search was an article posted to net.micro.mac in early April by Mike Ward. I know people always gripe about MacTerminal, but from my own observations and the SmartCom review, a few things are obvious: MacT always accesses the disk. Certain DA's don't work with MacT. SmartCom uses up 200+K of disk space (*woof*). SmartCom is more expensive. SmartCom cannot be used with vi because of a the way esc is handled. SmartCom is unable to use the keypad DA. (does this mean I have to buy a keypad too?) What are anyone's opinions? Will Apple be updating MacTerminal to access the disk less often? Will SmartCom come down in price and fix the escape sequence? And what about Versaterm? Will she suddenly make an appearance at my door when I'm giving that cocktail party for the Assistant District Attorney and accuse me of being unfaithful when she could have given me so much more? Will those star-crossed lovers, Beth and Lujack ever get married? (oops, sorry. wrong net.) Tune in later this month as I suppose I'll have to post the results. Tom Crawford Eastman Kodak Co. P.S. This is my first posting, so I'm hoping nothing gets munged. My path is rochester to ritcv to husky if that's any help. P.P.S. The above only expresses my opinion and not that of Eastman Kodak, the Rochester Red Wings or Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog. In fact, if my boss caught me, I'd be running applications in Basic for the next two years.
roy@nlm-vax.ARPA (Roy Standing) (05/17/85)
I have just received a quick demo of a new Terminal emulator package called In Touch. It looked rather nice, including screen-activated controls to send BREAK, etc. It supports the new binary transfer mode and Crosstalk mode. The person who showed it to me (we were both in a computer store waiting for a salesperson) claimed to have Red Ryder 5.0 and felt In Touch provided the same functionality but was more polished. There is little else I can say about it at this time, but it is supposedly a released product. You may wish to check with your sources to see if In Touch is the package for you.