Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!cmcl2!phri!cooper!gene
From: gene@cooper.UUCP (Eugene Kwiecinski )
Newsgroups: net.jokes,comp.terminals
Subject: Re: Brain-damaged Terminal Contest
Message-ID: <670@cooper.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Nov-86 13:31:47 EST
Article-I.D.: cooper.670
Posted: Mon Nov 24 13:31:47 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Nov-86 03:25:08 EST
References: <1438@kitty.UUCP> <1202@kontron.UUCP>
Organization: The Cooper Union (NY, NY)
Lines: 47
Summary: More! More!
Xref: mnetor net.jokes:10948 comp.terminals:35


One terminal which I would NOT like to write a 'terminfo' entry for is
the venerable Datapoint 3600.

In its defense, I would like to say that is well built. From the power
supply to the main board to the chassis, this sucker's built like a tank.
Rarely before have I seen such a well put together piece of equipment.

Still, when I was trying to interface this with a homebuilt computer,
I had nothing but trouble. Without a manual, I had enough trouble. Add
that to funny escape codes for cursor positioning, etc, I was about to
scream and just give up.

The fact that this terminal is a dinosaur among terminals gives rise to
the fact that a whole board of TTLs could be replaced with just one or
two LSI chips. Anyway, it DIDN'T have automatic wraparound, or even a
basic scrolling! Write to the end of the screen and it would just keep
overwriting the last line! Yecch! I, for one, did not want to keep track
of the current line, etc, just to have a normal scrolling.

The shift-lock was just that (as opposed to a caps-lock). Hit the S-L,
type '12345', and you would get '!"#$%'. Pretty awful if you're not used
to old style typewriters.

If they (Datapoint) would have fixed these bugs, and given me some sort
of clue on how to use the terminal escape sequences, that wouldn't have
been such a bad machine. But the facts speak for themselves. My home-
built doesn't have 'terminfo' or anything even approaching that. I have
used mapping to get the right output codes, so I'm stuck...

						Bye,
						Gene


	Usenet (UUCP) Address:
					 cucard\
				    psuvax!cmcl2\
      {psuvax1!princeton, ucbvax!ulysses}!allegra>!phri!cooper!gene
					columbia/
 {decwrl!ihnp4, harvard!seismo, decvax}!philabs/


	(Whew!)

PS: If anyone happens to have a 'terminfo' entry for one of these little
	beasties, PLEASE beam me over a copy. Please?
	Thanx in advance.