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From: johnl@ima.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: ANSI.SYS & emulation
Message-ID: <466@ima.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Jan-85 23:49:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ima.466
Posted: Tue Jan 29 23:49:37 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 14:19:55 EST
Lines: 26
Nf-ID: #R:uiucdcs:1824957596:ima:12700021:000:1347
Nf-From: ima!johnl    Jan 29 22:20:00 1985

> Does the ANSI.SYS device driver that comes with IBM DOS resemble
> anything else?  In other words, is this a standard set of escape
> sequences that could be used to emulate a terminal?

ANSI has promulgated a standard for terminal control escape sequences.  Many
terminals adhere to it, most notably the DEC VT-100 (not VT-52) and IBM 3101.
Unfortunately, the ANSI standard was designed by a large committee so it has
escape sequences designed for every conceivable eventuality as well as for
many inconceivable ones.  This means that every ANSI terminal you see actually
implements a subset of the ANSI standard, and usually includes some vendor-
specific additions.

As far as PC-TALK goes, this means you're more or less in luck.  I hacked
PC-TALK in about 20 minutes to use the ANSI driver, and it worked adequately
with several termcap programs when I set TERM to vt100.

The changes to PC-TALK are quite simple -- open CON: as an output file and
change all the PRINT statements to PRINT #n to that file.  Works fine.  I'd
send out the changes except that I lost them in a frenzy of disk cleanup.

John Levine, ima!johnl

PS:  I think PC-TALK is certainly worth what it costs (it's free) but I use
either PC/InterComm with my Hayes at work, and the Microcom ERA2 package with
my Microcom at home.  Both are much nicer to use than PC-TALK.