peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (06/10/84)
I'm looking for a good terminal emulator for an IBM PC. While I've got lots
of programs to choose from, I'm not sure which terminal I want to emulate.
Though that sounds odd, it's because I don't care which terminal I "have",
as long as it works well (the best?) with "vi", "emacs", and, in general,
software that uses termcaps. So,
a) are there terminals better than a VT-100 for use with vi, emacs, etc..?
b) are there terminal emulator programs for the PC that implement "ideal"
vi/emacs/etc terminals?
c) do you have a terminal emulator for the PC you particularly like?
As an aside, the 2nd issue of the "Whole Earth Software Review" contains
reviews of several communications programs, but doesn't mention the subject
of terminal emulation-- quite disappointing. A good review of ThinkTank,
though.
peter rowley, University of Toronto Department of C.S., Ontario Canada M5S 1A4
UUCP {linus ihnp4 allegra floyd utzoo cornell decwrl uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!peterr
CSNet peterr@torontochris@umcp-cs.UUCP (06/12/84)
VT100 is certainly not ``optimal'' as it lacks character insert
and delete (and line I/D is expensive because to do it requires
setting and resetting the scrolling area; typically 14 to 18 chars
to insert or delete one line). If you have a smart enough Emacs
(e.g., my version of the AAA driver and display.c code), emulation
of an Ann Arbor Ambassador would be particuarly good.
(My Emacs AAA driver will fill the entire screen with any single
character by writing 180 characters [at 30 lines/screen]; at 300
baud this is 6 seconds and at 1200 only 1.25 seconds! Admittedly
you don't often want to fill the whole screen, but characters are
repeated surprisingly often. Wouldn't it be nice for news to be
able to put up all those `-'s people sometimes use, with only six
characters? [To tell the whole truth, that's 180 characters without
padding---but padding only occurs at >= 4800 baud.])
Other relatively good terminals are extended VT52 (H19), or just
about any ANSI standard. But most of those don't let your editor
delete 50 characters in one swell foop. (My H19 driver does, if
you've got it in ANSI mode, though.)
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci (301) 454-7690
UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!chris
CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@maryland