[net.periphs] downloadable terminals

henry (06/16/82)

Are there any fairly cheap ($1500 is the right sort of number)
terminals that can be downloaded with code from a host CPU?  My big
interest is downloading the front end of an editor.  The ANSI-standard
control sequences are too low-level to really exploit the smarts
that live in almost all terminals these days, and IBM-style "block
mode" is a dead loss (block mode terminals are just too stupid,
and the brain-damaged design makes it impossible to fill the gaps
with software -- no way can you provide operations that work by word
instead of by character or by line, for example).

Clearly one cannot depend on a terminal manufacturer to do the right
thing, so the terminal has to be downloadable.  It also has to
have enough resources (mainly, RAM) to make downloading useful.
Such creatures don't seem common.  I'm aware of BBN's BitGraph, and
BTL's Blit, but both are too expensive for the immediate market.
(*I* would spend $5000 for one, but when you mention a price five
times that of a standard glass teletype, many people simply stop
listening.)  It doesn't seem to me that adding some RAM and a simple
loader would add terribly much to a terminal's price, but I keep
watching for such terminals and haven't seen any.  Anybody know of
any?  Respond by mail, please;  I'll summarize responses for the net.