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From: barmar@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: net.info-terms,net.internat
Subject: Re: In search of a sane keyboard standard
Message-ID: <1884@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 7-May-86 00:46:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1884
Posted: Wed May  7 00:46:55 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 10-May-86 13:17:29 EDT
References: <2071@cbosgd.UUCP> <824@cyb-eng.UUCP>
Reply-To: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 36
Xref: linus net.info-terms:454 net.internat:19

In article <824@cyb-eng.UUCP> lee@cyb-eng.UUCP (Bill Lee) writes:
>I just had the misfortune of ordering a Wyse 85 terminal (the
>one that does VT220 emulation). Since I was familiar with the WY-50 and
>the WY-75, I assumed I was safe ordering a WY-85 sight unseen. Big
>mistake. The keyboard is a complete mess.
... [description deleted]
> In summary, I do not recommend the
>WY-85 to anyone since the keyboard is so wrong.

The description Bill Lee gave of the WY-85 sounds like what I remember
of the VT220.  As he says, the WY-85 is supposed to emulate a VT220, so
it is hardly Wyse's fault that the keyboard sucks (it is DEC's fault,
and partly ANSI's).

>P.S. To be able to "use" the WY-85, you have to order the "WY-85 Programmers
>Guide" for $40.00. Escape sequences, how to use the "Compose Character" key,
>how to get the information needed to write your own termcap (since the VT100
>termcap I'm using doesn't always work with vi), etc. require the $40 manual.

I think this is also true of the DEC VT-220.  I think the assumption of
the terminal manufacturers is that most of the terminal users are not
programmers, so they do not need to ship a programmer's manual with
every terminal.  As for the $40, don't fool yourself -- if they had
included the manual with each terminal, the price of the terminal would
probably have been at least $20 higher.  If you were buying 100
terminals for 98 secretaries and 2 programmers, your savings are at least
$2,000 because of the unbundling of the manual; assuming the $20 price
hike for the manual, the customer saves money as long as there are more
non-programmers than programmers.  As the major customers of most
terminal manufacturers are offices running packaged software (and do no
programming of their own), this is probably a good marketing move (akin
to AT&T's unbundling of many programming tools in the Unix(tm) PC).
-- 
    Barry Margolin
    ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
    UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar