Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!thad From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: VLT Message-ID: <36206@cup.portal.com> Date: 25 Nov 90 00:07:12 GMT References: <1990Nov10.073449.22405@engin.umich.edu> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 48 pallen@sysp1.hq.af.mil (Pete Allen) in writes: In <1990Nov10.073449.22405@engin.umich.edu> (Ralph Seguin) writes: > So far, the only program that has >totally solid vt100 that I've found is Handshake, and it is not nearly >as feature laden as VLT. > Thanks, Ralph Have you tried JR-COmm V1.01? I use it's VT-100 emulation every day and have had great success with it. It and Handshake are the only two that I've tried so far that support the custom font features. There's NO need to speculate as to what works and what doesn't. "VT100 emulation" (contrasted with "ANSI compatibility") implies a very specific set of commands and features that MUST function correctly, else the emulation is flawed. Just because so-called "VT100 emulators" can position the cursor when your host system has been informed you're using a "VT100" does NOT mean the emulation is correct. Among the unique features of a real VT100 are double wide and double-wide/ double-high characters, an alternate line-drawing character set(s), region scrolling (forward and reverse, jump and smooth scroll), line insert/delete and often character insert/delete (VT102), bold/blink/underline/etc. character display attributes, etc etc etc. The "real world" tests mandate using Stallman's EMACS on a DEC-20, VAX or UNIX box and/or fancy menu windows with cursor and application keys handled properly using, for example, SMG on a VAX/VMS, or FACE/FMLI on a SVR3 or SVR4 UNIX box. The definitive test, no exception, is the Per Lindberg VT100 validation suite which is available at most archive sites; this program works on TOPS-20 and UNIX systems and will verify positively a "correct" VT100 emulation. Very few terminal emulations will survive 10 seconds into this test, and there are many actual, real terminals that also fail very quickly. The full test suite requires about 20 minutes to run, and it runs interactively. Several years ago when I last ran the test, the ONLY emulation program on the Amiga that passed the Per Lindberg suite was HandShake version 2.12a. Marco Papa claimed his ATalkIII will pass the test, but I haven't tried ATalkIII. Last time I tried VLT, it, too, failed the test, but I still use VLT for its Tektronix emulation. For the record, NOTHING on a Mac will pass the test (as of earlier this year). Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]