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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.info-terms
Subject: Re: ASCII and ANSI terminals, what is the difference??
Message-ID: <6245@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Dec-85 14:06:15 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6245
Posted: Fri Dec 20 14:06:15 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Dec-85 14:06:15 EST
References: <491@sdcc12.UUCP> <138@rruxo.UUCP>, <346@weitek.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 17

> Actually, the ANSI command set is basically a major subset of that for a
> VT100 (there are a few `DEC private' codes.)...

Sorry, wrong, it's the other way around.  ANSI X3.64 is an *immense* shopping
list of escape sequences; no device on Earth implements more than a modest
subset of them.	 The VT100 implements a modest subset (too modest, they forgot
some important ones) plus using a few "reserved for private use" sequences for
DEC-specific things.

Saying that something is an "ANSI" terminal is strictly meaningless, since
X3.64 was *intended* to be a shopping list:  "*if* you implement function X,
this is the escape sequence to use for it".  In practice, what "ANSI" usually
means is that it implements approximately the same subset as the VT100,
often with a few additions to fix some of the VT100's botches.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry