ron@BRL@sri-unix (10/27/82)
From: Ron Natalie <ron@BRL> Frank: I may be wrong but I perceived it is not a timing problem that is wrong with the 4025/7s. As you may have noticed you may type commands (beginning with the definable command character) from either the host or the keyboard. Commands from the keyboard (starting with the command character and proceding up to a carriage return or another command character) are intercepted and interpreted without sending them to the host at all. However, it seems that when a command has been initiated, the string that follows the command character is received from both the keyboard and the host, regardless of who sent the command character to initated it. This means that if a command has been sent from the host and you type a character on the keyboard, it gets inserted into the command string. Frequently this causes an error, aborting the command (since your inserted letter makes the command sequence incorrect). The remainder of the command from the host gets dumped on your screen as normal text from the host. We first noticed this while trying to get the search game to work. The game is coninually updating the screen while the player asynchronously spews characters at it to move around. All in all I like the 4025/7. It is as nice of a text terminal that I have used with the scrolling memory, and is a good graphics terminal too. (ususlly graphics termianls are lousy to use for text terminals). The programmable keys and the general nice feel of the keyboard are wonderful. We also had a gizmo from Versatec that could plug in to up to four terminals via the hardcopy port. This made a regular Versatec plotter look like the Tek hardcopy device without the expense or the bother of the photographic process they use (and they dont fade and turn yellow like the Tek prints do). The device was transparent to the versatec when it wasn't printing and you could therefore chain them together or put them in line with the cable coming from the computer interface. We had early models, and as a result each seemed to have a different firmware in it. I suppose this has been fixed. In conclusion, I'd like to mention a little thing I set the 4027 (color 4025) to do with the programmable keys. I set the screen up to have a background color of dark green, and set the "ink" color to be bright green. Therefore in 4010 emulation mode it really looks like a 4010. I programmed the erase button to momentarily make the entire screen bright green while erasing it, giving the characturistic Tektronix flash. I showed it to the Tek salesman and he got sick. CIAO -Ron