salt@tc.fluke.COM (Craig Johnston) (11/11/87)
Wanted: Information on DEC Rainbow
I operate a DEC RB 100+ with ram full-up, graphics, color monitor, and 10
MByte disk, as well as having the dubious privilege of owning a similar, but
diskless 100B at home. Lately I have been using the machine a lot more, which
has led to attempts at more understanding. I would greatly appreciate help
on the following questions:
1. Is there a way to change screen foreground and background color attribute,
such as with ANSI escape sequences? The IBM usage is {ESC}[nnm, where nn from
30-37 is foreground and 40-47 is background, but the rainbow doesn't
understand this.
2. Is there a convenient way to type the DEC line graphic characters to the
screen? Again, with an IBM, ALT-nnn ( on the keypad) will yield the decimal
character nnn.
3. How different is the RX-50 drive interface from a standard 360 kB drive?
In other words, what does the commercially available IDrive do to make a
standard drive play? I would like to put a 1/2 height 360 kB floppy and a 20
M hard disk on my machine at home at _minimum_ cost. (Drives are cheap, the
controllers seem prohibitive.)
Incidently, I use WordPerfect (as do most of the ~150 Rainbow users at this
site). I recently received a new newsletter from WordPerfect Corp, which
didn't mention support for our favorite doorstop. However, after a phone call
I am awaiting an update to the faster version and will report if it arrives and
works. The slow version is 4.2 release date 12/22/86; the new one supposedly
4.2 rel. date 9/8/87.
ps. This is my first posting. If you think it an inappropriate use of the
net, please let me know via email.
--
Craig Johnston (salt@tc.fluke.com), John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA, USA
{uw-beaver,lbl-csam,hplsla,ssc-vax,microsoft,sun,allegra,...}!fluke!saltiav1917@ritcv.UUCP (your Rainbow doctor) (11/12/87)
[...Just because it says I.B.M. doesn't mean It's a Better Machine!] In article <2216@sputnik.COM> salt@tc.fluke.COM (Craig Johnston) writes: >Wanted: Information on DEC Rainbow > >1. Is there a way to change screen foreground and background color attribute, >such as with ANSI escape sequences? The IBM usage is {ESC}[nnm, where nn from >30-37 is foreground and 40-47 is background, but the rainbow doesn't >understand this. You're correct, the Rainbow doesn't allow escape sequences (like those mentioned for the IBM) to change screen colors and other such attributes. It would be nice if a color BIOS was part of the Rainbow system. After all, it is a Rainbow, right? However, looking at DEC's decision to keep sharp, crisp alphanumeric capabilities AND provide graphics on the same machine and switch between the two seems a wise decision. I simply can't stand to do word processing on an IBM PC. The MAC and Rainbow, on the other hand, let me do editing and text processing without the machine getting in the way. The Rainbow conforms (for the most part) to the established ANSI standard with its firmware implementation of DEC's VT102 terminal. The Rainbow can do only those attribute changes as specified for that terminal type: bold, reverse video, underline, single-width- double-height, double-width-double-height, and flashing. Of course, there are other goodies such as scrolling windows and the damned-fast high speed video option built in along with the VT102 package. Granted, the graphics set is pretty lousy. I just wish DEC added double-lines and corner symbols. Single lines get boring after a while. Check out the Technical and Navajo EPROM set. Anyone want to reprogram the EPROMS so that the firmware looks out at RAM for its character set information? That way we could do different fonts for the display! All that's needed is to keep the firmware from looking at the EPROM for the character info. It's just a bit pattern. It should be changeable in RAM! One method, however, around this is to run a graphics emulation package that acts as an interpreter. Poly-ReGIS was a decent example of such an interpreter. It wasn't the fastest thing around but I could still do better and faster command-line graphics on the Rainbow than on an IBM PC (before Windows, of course). Windows on the Rainbow, by the way, has been rumored to exist. Someone at DEC willing to release it the world as an unsupported product (such as what transpired with the GW-Basic Compiler)? Anyone at DEC listening? How about DOS 3.10 while you're at it! You must have paid the license fees to Microsoft by now. Let the Rainbow die a noble death, at least! DEC? Wanna win back a lot of loyalty? RELEASE THESE LAST COUPLE OF SOFTWARE PRODUCTS AND THE HARDWARE PRODUCTS YOU'VE ALREADY PUT TOGETHER. With this help we could do so much more with our high-tech doorstops! Anyway... >2. Is there a convenient way to type the DEC line graphic characters to the >screen? Again, with an IBM, ALT-nnn ( on the keypad) will yield the decimal >character nnn. The Rainbow supports several 'character set modes' such as the multinational character set, the regular ASCII set, and the graphic character set. You can switch between these modes by issuing the appropriate initial ESCAPE sequence and the appropriate characters. For example, you could create a .BAT file with the following in it: (without the comments on the right, of course) ECHO OFF turn off echo ECHO $[2J$[H clear '$[2J', home '$[H' ECHO $#6$[0m$(0lqqqqqqqk set single-height, double- width '$#6', dim video '$[0m', start line character set '$(0', draw upper-left corner 'l', seven Scan-line 5 lines 'q', upper-right corner 'k' ECHO $#6x$(B$[1m HELLO $[0m$(0x set normal ASCII set '$(B' set bright video '$[1m', write out hello and set to dim video, set graphics active, 'x' are vertical bars ECHO $#6mqqqqqqqj$(B 'm' is lower-left corner, 'j' is lower-right corner 'q' is a scan-line 5 character (means middle of the character cell, matches the corner points) (the $ is an ESCAPE). This example clears the screen and places a bright HELLO inside a dim video box in the upper left-hand corner. Your can also use the <ESC>[y;xf command to cursor position before writing (where y is row and x is column). Check out the Technical Doc set for more info and codes for the Rainbow's terminal package. If enough people request, I'll throw together a copy of that section of the Doc set an post it. The problem with typing ESCAPE characters at the command line is that DOS (more specifically, COMMAND.COM) filters that character out when it processes a command. However, a file that contains the sequence containing the Graphics On ESCAPE sequence could be typed and then each lower case letter typed will be translated into the equivalent graphics character. Or, you can preface the escape sequence with the ECHO statement and directly enter the sequences using the ESC key. >Craig Johnston (salt@tc.fluke.com), John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA, USA >{uw-beaver,lbl-csam,hplsla,ssc-vax,microsoft,sun,allegra,...}!fluke!salt I hope somebody found this posting useful. What happened to all the traffic on the net? Do I have to rake and stir the dying embers again?! Enjoy, Alan Alan I. Vymetalik @ {allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!iav1917 ----------------------------------+---------------------------------- J.A.M, Inc. | Prism Software Designs 300 Main Street | 44 Arborwood Crescent East Rochester, New York, 14445 | Rochester, New York, 14615-3807 | 1-716-458-4932 ----------------------------------+---------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: The above statements and opinions belong to the author. Any resemblence to statements found in actual reality is purely coin- cidental. And, as always, the above opinions have absolutely nothing to do with the little, fat man putting $100 bills in my pocket. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
art@MITRE.ARPA (Art McClinton) (11/12/87)
Craig
This is a very appropriate use of the net.
1) You can not control the color on the screen of the rainbow as you can on
the IBM PC. I however have fed the green signal to both green, blue and red
to allow the color to be white. It is also possible to mix it in to fewer to
get other colors.
2) The ANSI line drawing charaters are the lower case characters when the
character set is ANSI graphics. This can be performed by sending an
escape sequence to the screen.
3) The I drive is a separate IBM PC compatible drive. The net has had some
information concerning the replacement of the RX50 with a quad density
double sided drive. I can forward that message if you want.
4) Used controllers are now becoming available. Also the CHS contoller is
reported to be a reasonable solution.
*
*---Art
*
*Arthur T. McClinton Jr. ARPA: ART@MITRE.ARPA
*Mitre Corporation MS-Z305 Phone: 703-883-6356
*1820 Dolley Madison Blvd Internal Mitre: ART@MWVMS or M10319@MWVM
*McLean, Va. 22102 DECUS DCS: MCCLINTON
*
=-=- This note is in response to yours which follows -=-=
Wanted: Information on DEC Rainbow
I operate a DEC RB 100+ with ram full-up, graphics, color monitor, and 10
MByte disk, as well as having the dubious privilege of owning a similar, but
diskless 100B at home. Lately I have been using the machine a lot more, which
has led to attempts at more understanding. I would greatly appreciate help
on the following questions:
1. Is there a way to change screen foreground and background color attribute,
such as with ANSI escape sequences? The IBM usage is {ESC}[nnm, where nn from
30-37 is foreground and 40-47 is background, but the rainbow doesn't
understand this.
2. Is there a convenient way to type the DEC line graphic characters to the
screen? Again, with an IBM, ALT-nnn ( on the keypad) will yield the decimal
character nnn.
3. How different is the RX-50 drive interface from a standard 360 kB drive?
In other words, what does the commercially available IDrive do to make a
standard drive play? I would like to put a 1/2 height 360 kB floppy and a 20
M hard disk on my machine at home at _minimum_ cost. (Drives are cheap, the
controllers seem prohibitive.)
Incidently, I use WordPerfect (as do most of the ~150 Rainbow users at this
site). I recently received a new newsletter from WordPerfect Corp, which
didn't mention support for our favorite doorstop. However, after a phone call
I am awaiting an update to the faster version and will report if it arrives and
works. The slow version is 4.2 release date 12/22/86; the new one supposedly
4.2 rel. date 9/8/87.
ps. This is my first posting. If you think it an inappropriate use of the
net, please let me know via email.
--
Craig Johnston (salt@tc.fluke.com), John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA, USA
{uw-beaver,lbl-csam,hplsla,ssc-vax,microsoft,sun,allegra,...}!fluke!salt