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From: throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (Wayne Throop)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: windows on normal terminals
Message-ID: <395@dg_rtp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Jun-86 16:28:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: dg_rtp.395
Posted: Tue Jun 10 16:28:55 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Jun-86 06:27:01 EDT
References: <363@hrc63.UUCP> <16600003@ztivax.UUCP> <522@cad.BERKELEY.EDU>
Lines: 48
Keywords: terminal windows
Summary: (not "Probably Not")

> keppel@pavepaws.UUCP (:-D avid  K eppel)
>> david@ztivax.UUCP

>>Therefore, it sounds like nice windowing systems for multi-user
>>machines are possible.

It not only sounds like it, they are indeed possible, and are in use.

> [...]
>         In a few years most new terminals will probably be high-
>     performance, micros w/ high-resolution bitmap graphics and built-in
>     windowing OS software.  Why fool with this obsolete 24-line stuff?

Two reasons.  First, I am developing software now, not "a few years"
from now.  Second, the terminal that my employer sees fit to provide for
me is an "obsolete 24-line" terminal, despite my preference for a $100K
workstation.  I can't understand why an $n-hundred terminal and 1/mth of
a $100K machine should strike my employer as any more economical than a
$100K machine for each employee(*), but this provides me with quite a
motivation to find a liveable software development environment which
will work on "obsolete 24-line stuff", and it is not beyond the realm
of possibility that there just might be one or two other developers in
the same boat.

"A few years" from now, I will gladly wash my hands of the tools I use
now, but in the meantime, windows (and job control for very-low-bps) on
my "obsolete" terminal work quite nicely, thank you.

Granted, the "short" time-to-obsolete for dumb terminal windowing
("a few years" is *short* in this buisness?) calls into question this
notion:

> Anyone wanna make a $ million and start building some?

The money-making opperknockity on dumb-terminal-windows may already be
past.  And then again, it may not.

--
(*) This crack is literally true.  I think that this "economy" is penny
    wise and kilogram foolish.  Nevertheless, it is the status quo, and
    I don't have convincing figures to substantiate my position, in
    terms of return-on-investment.  And I don't know of anyone who
    *does* have these figures.
--
"Personal workstations are the technology of the future,
 and always will be."
-- 
Wayne Throop      <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw