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From: dmc@videovax.Tek.COM (Donald M. Craig)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Byte Order: On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace
Message-ID: <4076@videovax.Tek.COM>
Date: Tue, 2-Dec-86 13:34:48 EST
Article-I.D.: videovax.4076
Posted: Tue Dec  2 13:34:48 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Dec-86 21:41:19 EST
References: <1509@ihlpl.UUCP> <1335@hoptoad.uucp> <1364@hoptoad.uucp> <399@viper.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmc@videovax.Tek.COM (Donald M. Craig)
Organization: Tektronix Television Systems, Beaverton, Oregon
Lines: 26

I recall with some bemusement the arabic terminals
manufactured for the Shah's Iran by Comterm of
Pointe Claire, Quebec.   The cursor ran right to
left as characters were typed, except for numbers.
When a digit was typed, the cursor stayed where it
was, and successive digits shifted the previous ones
a position over to the left.   When the next non-numeric
was typed, the cursor skipped over to the left of the
entire numeric field.   The shifting sands effect was
further enhanced by the requirement that for text,
the specific character displayed depended on the
characters next to it.   Thus typing a character
would display one graphic, typing the next (to the left),
would often change the previous graphic to something else.

The terminals were intended for a Honeywell Multics
system to be used by the Shah's secret police.
That market eventually dried up, but a somewhat
happier opportunity surfaced in Saudi Arabia,
and I believe Comterm still makes the beasts.

Don Craig
Tektronix Television Systems
-- 
Don Craig			dmc@videovax.Tek.COM
Tektronix Television Systems	... tektronix!videovax!dmc