Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewse!macduff
From: macduff@cbnewse.att.com (Roger R. Espinosa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Arc100 VT100 Terminal Emulator Beta Test 2.2
Summary: WAIT! No jumping the gun here...
Message-ID: <1991Jan8.140721.13770@cbnewse.att.com>
Date: 8 Jan 91 14:07:21 GMT
References: <1991Jan3.124444.10170@and.cs.liv.ac.uk> <2596@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <1576@tharr.UUCP>
Organization: The Rabbit Corps
Lines: 37

In article <1576@tharr.UUCP>, conrad@tharr.UUCP (Conrad Longmore) writes:
> Next step is a VT220 emulator. The Arc should be able to manage that pretty
> well.

NO! The *next* step is to have an emulator that can *really* handle VT100.
In the last week, I've been comparing TaskANSI, Rap, Arc100, and Grapevine,
and of the four, only *Rap* seems to emulate the VT100 codes totally (tested
by running a curses program while logged into the work machine): only Rap 
actually does the curses, the rest kind of spit garbage.

Alas, Rap is very slow, and I can't deal with that background, cute as it
may be. :-(

As for the above, Grapevine was quick, but I can't deal with its insistance
on the Data configuration (I seem to have to change from 8/1 to 7/1 
constantly, and don't want to control-reset the system all the time). 
The vt100 emulation seemed *really* off on this one; none of the tests
seemed to work.  Its interface was definitely a marvel to look at.  

Arc100 did a competent and probably the quickest job; the interface took
a while to get used to, and it's only problem is not having any file 
transfer. vt100 was very good, the above mentioned test performing nearly
flawlessly, except for the big curses program, which did garbage.

So, I'm still with TaskANSI, which is slower than Grapevine or Arc100
(as it runs in its window on the desktop), and has some kludges with
vt100, but overall, because it multitasks easiest, and can be configured
easily on the fly, and does at least Ymodem...it's good to use. :-)

Enough with the reviews. Whew.


Roger
rre@ihlpn.ATT.COM

(DISCLAIMER: All applications mentioned were neat to try, and I do 
appreciate having them made available! Thank you!)