aad+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Anthony A. Datri) (07/02/87)
I've got a vt62. You've never heard of it? I'm not suprised. It looks like a vt52, with lots of differences. the escape key is marked select/deselect the tab key is marked error reset the control key is marked delete char the return key is marked next field etc etc. There's a bunch of led's to the right of the keypad: Ready, Insert Mode, Keyboard Locked, Display Area, Keying Error, Clear to Send, Function Keypad, and Carrier. The ones that stay on are Ready, CTS, and Carrier. There's a volume for the bell and keyclick, neither of which are vaguely similar to the normal vt52. The baud rate switches are actually out from under the mesh, with pre-cut holes and are actually labelled. It claims to do some sort of synchronous comm if you want it to. It has an online/offline switch, and another one just like it that says "Not used". I'm suspicious, however, since the previous owner taped it over. Heh heh. Does anyone know how it acts differently than a vt52? How to turn the lights on and off? It seems to work okay with the vt52 termcap. anthony a datri, cruftarian CMU Beak Society aad@andrew.cmu.edu
leichter@yale.UUCP (Jerry Leichter) (07/12/87)
In article <8707031724.AA22386@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> aad+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Anthony A. Datri) writes: > >I've got a vt62. You've never heard of it? I'm not suprised. It looks >like a vt52, with lots of differences. > > ... The VT62 was a special-purpose terminal produced for the late, unlamented TRAX operating system. (Don't remember TRAX? Hardly anyone does - it was a trans- action processing system based on PDP-11's. The hardware of the day was just not up to the demands, and it flopped.) VT62's were designed as block-mode terminals, talking DDCMP over multi-drop sync lines. I doubt there's anything out there that you can connect a VT62 to like that today. A variant on the VT62, the VT61, talked to async lines. I wasn't aware that VT62's could talk async...but it's been a while: I still have a VT61 manual; its copyright says 1976. VT61's could be configured into a "fully host controlled" mode. In this mode, intended for "hostile" environments, the terminal couldn't initiate operations - it had to wait for a poll from the host. This mode was changeable by a switch on the terminal; that's probably the one you have that's labeled "Don't touch". The VT6x's were VERY sophisticated devices for their day. They could do local editing, including insert and delete line with the old stuff moving either up or down, and justification. (Yes, justification in the terminal before transmission to the host.) They supported three modes: Character-at-a-time, block, and forms. The summary of VT61 commands runs two pages, and that's without explanations; so I can't really type it in for you. Here, however, are a couple of useful commands that the VT61 had that aren't in a VT52 - try them out and see if you can get your VT62 to use them: ESC P I Enter INSERT mode ESC P i Exit INSERT mode (enter REPLACE mode) ESC O J Begin Reverse Video ESC O j End Reverse Video ESC O E Lock keyboard ESC O e Unlock keyboard ESC O G Enter Alarm mode (try it!) ESC O g Exit Alarm mode ESC P S (or s) Delete character ESC P D (or d) Delete line, ripple up ESC O N Delete line, ripple down ESC P F (or f) Insert line, ripple down ESC O O Insert line, ripple up ESC P E (or e) Change emphasis (flip reverse video of char) -- Jerry
aad+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anthony A. Datri) (07/13/87)
TRAX? Nope, never heard. The amusing part of that is that I just read in some yuppie-oriented DEC magazine (sounds like a contradiction? well....) that DEC is "just getting into" the transaction processing field. HMMMMM. I figured out that it did sync (the baud rate switch has a setting for it), but I never dreamed it did ddcmp... Wow. A terminal running DECnet:-) My vt62 says vt62 on it, and it's running quite nicely on an ibm rt (but not happily, you see) The switch on the bottom says "unused", and is taped over. Oddly enough, when you flick it the screen background fills with "."'s Local justification? Wow. I couldn't find a termcap entry for the beast, but the vt52 one seems to work fine. I'll play with these codes -- thanks infinitely.
chuck@felix.UUCP (Chuck Vertrees) (07/17/87)
In article <MUyC7ey00WAKo9k0g6@andrew.cmu.edu> aad+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anthony A. Datri) writes: >... >I never dreamed it did ddcmp... Wow. A terminal running DECnet:-) My vt62 >... DDCMP and DECnet are not the same thing. DDCMP is a physical/data link level byte-oriented protocol. All it is concerned with is making connections between two (or more) points and ensuring that a transmission occurs without error or loss, and in the proper sequence. Other examples of these types of protocols are X.25, Ethernet, Bisync, SDLC, HDLC, etc. DECnet is the much larger body of software layered above the link levels that provides capabilities like routing, program to program communications, file transfer, virtual terminals and all the other goodies you have come to know and love. DECnet uses DDCMP (or X.25, or Ethernet) to establish and maintain connections between two physical nodes. Chuck Vertrees ...hplabs!felix!chuck
aad+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anthony A. Datri) (07/18/87)
I knew that there's a difference, hence my :-) I just didn't know how much ddcmp encompassed.