sherouse@unc.UUCP (George W. Sherouse) (02/24/84)
In a recent article (which was a follow-up to a follow-up to somebody's question about Rainbows) I flamed (just a tad mind you) about the unfortunate placement of certain keys which play a significant role in the successful use of vi. I was talking about the Rainbow keyboard which also happens to be the VT2** keyboard. (I knew that all along guys. I was just baiting you.) Well, apparently Dick Binder, whose mortgage is payed by DEC but whose opinions are his own, apparently took exception to some of my comments. Not only that, but he decided to take exception to them in public. Tsk, tsk. I know it's the wrong super-type-hero-guy but *********************** IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME *********************** # # George Sherouse will most certainly be thrilled to know that, yes, the # VT2xx terminals use the same general keyboard layout as his hated Rainbow. # Tough rocks! I have a VT220, right here and now, and it took me all of # about three days to come to the point at which I have trouble working on a # VT1xx keyboard. Perhaps Mr Sherouse is less adaptable? Can we have a hardy round of applause for the man who can actually forget he ever used a VT100. By god, *that* is REAL adaptability! What a guy! But seriously, I never said I *hated* the Rainbow/VT2** keyboard (let's call it Ralph for short). What I did say is that it is difficult to use with vi. Anyone who disagrees with that can just step outside. # Sure, the layout is different. That is not a de facto bad sign. It does # not follow the lead of the Itty-Bitty Machine company, it is laid out with # the DIN standard in mind. As for the placement of the <ESC> and <BS> and # <LF> keys, the fact that they are all int he same place makes them eminently # usable for editing with EDT, which is the DEC standard screen editor for VMS. # (What!??? Not un*x!?!?! Horrors!) Dick, buddy, the fact that it is different (I don't care whose bloody standard it is) does not mean a priori (gotcha) that it is *better* either. But here we get to the crux of the biscuit. (Hear me Evelyn?) Dick says that the keyboard works well with DEC's standard editor and so it's a real good thing. This applies to the use of rubout instead of backspace for character deletion, too BTW. It is DEC's standard for its OSs. Well that's fine. What will Dick's higher-ups say when they find out that he has been telling everyone to only buy DEC hardware if you plan to use DEC software? And what is DEC going to do now that they are marketing ULTRIX-32 (gag me with a bad name) aka bsd 4.2? It seems they have a double standard on their hands. By Dick's reasoning they have to decide which they're going to sell us - secondhand software or OS-specific keyboards. Tough one. FYI, I have a long history with DEC OSs and so have run afoul of EDT. As I recall, ESC, BS, and LF are not of much use in change mode. Surely nobody uses EDT in line mode!! Might as well use punch cards. # The only problem I have with the VT2xx layout is in the placement of the < and # > characters right by the left-side shift. But I'll manage, George, and you # most assuredly can learn as well. You're damn right, I can learn. There are horn players in this world who can breathe in through their noses and out through their horns at the same time and thus can play without an apparent breath for hours (it's called cicular breathing I think. Look it up). Nobody says I have to *like* these digital contortions though. And by jingo, I reserve the right (for you too Dick) to grouse about it. I also reserve the right to buy somebody else's terminals in the future. I'm sorry about all this, folks. My last article really belongs in net.info-terms and this (and Dick's doodad) belong in the mail. I can be reached re: this discussion in net.flame if there are any more challengers. BTW, my mail is running solidly against Ralph. Thanks for all the replies. << The views expressed are my own and are thus indistinguishable from >> << absolute truth. >> (the real) George W. Sherouse <decvax!mcnc!unc!sherouse>