craig@lakesys.UUCP (Craig Stodolenak) (06/25/88)
I appreciate everyone's help in this matter, has I've already recieved many
replies. Somone from HP suggested an HP terminal, someone from WYSE suggested
the WYSE, etc. :-)
I've narrowed it down to either the TeleVideo 965 or the Link MC-3. I am in
contact now with someone who can answer all my questions concerning the Link
terminals. Can some brave soul who has a TVI-965 write to me so I can ask
him or her questions about that?
Thanks again...
--
- Craig L. Stodolenak / craig@lakesys.UUCP
WAUC / Wisconsin Apple Users Club, Inc. / BBS: (414) 546-0238
P.O. Box 20743; Greenfield, WI 53220-2099
(414) 482-0399 / ...!{backbone}!uwvax!uwmcsd1!lakesys!craigvixie@palo-alto.DEC.COM (Paul Vixie) (06/29/88)
In article <775@lakesys.UUCP> craig@lakesys.UUCP (Craig Stodolenak) writes:
# I've narrowed it down to either the TeleVideo 965 or the Link MC-3. I am in
# contact now with someone who can answer all my questions concerning the Link
# terminals. Can some brave soul who has a TVI-965 write to me so I can ask
# him or her questions about that?
If you are looking for a terminal that can switch between VT100 mode and
PCTERM mode on the fly (i.e., in response to escape sequences from the host)
rather than under user direction (in SET-UP), I recommend strongly against
the MC-3. I understood that the MC-10 was to be better in this regard, but
it wasn't available when I needed it.
The MC-3 is Z-80 based and is very very slow. If you send vast amounts of
data to it at 9600 baud without some kind of flow control, it barfs. With the
standard ROMs, it cannot switch from VT100/ASCII mode to PCTERM and back
except in SET-UP mode. (VP/ix under ISC 386/ix needs to do this; DOSmerge
under Microport V/386 can live with it since you run in PCTERM mode all the
time). I bantered Link into sending me some non-standard ROMs to avoid this
problem, but now whenever the host sends an escape sequence to change from
VT100 to PCTERM, the flow-control is changed to XON/XOFF. XON/XOFF is evil
and bad in PCTERM mode since those ASCII codes look like IBM PC keyboard
scan codes.
You have to have a terminal that can use oddball bit-patterns for XON/XOFF,
or you have to have hardware flow control (RTS/CTS in the standard non-
standard full-duplex hack).
The MC-3 also manages to go in and out of NUM LOCK mode of its own volition.
The only way to get it out is to power-cycle the terminal.
In short, MC-3 terminals are to be avoided if at all possible.
The TVI-965, in comparison, has a 16-bit processor and could be quite fast.
Televideo has a good rep for screen clarity and keyboard feel, at least
recently; it looks like a very good terminal, especially for the money.
But: I have been waiting for delivery of a TVI-965 since Summer, 1986. My
distributor eventually got terminals but didn't have enhanced AT-style
keyboards for them. I was told, unofficially, that they didn't have PCTERM
mode yet, either -- that was to be a free upgrade, later. The price in the
ads doesn't include the keyboard, add $100 or so to any figure you see.
My conclusion was that the ASCII terminal manufacturers didn't understand
the PCTERM market at all. Offering terminals without the ability to remap
XON/XOFF, without the ability to do hardware flow control, and without the
abililty to switch modes using host-originated escape sequences, is like
offering a car with no wheels and no motor.
PS: DEC doesn't know I'm sending this. I used to sell this junk before
I came to work here.
--
Paul Vixie
Digital Equipment Corporation Work: vixie@dec.com Play: paul@vixie.UUCP
Western Research Laboratory uunet!decwrl!vixie uunet!vixie!paul
Palo Alto, California, USA +1 415 853 6600 +1 415 864 7013