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From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Best Terminal Contest
Message-ID: <2516@phri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Nov-86 13:09:41 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2516
Posted: Wed Nov 26 13:09:41 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Nov-86 06:49:56 EST
References: <1438@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 27
Original-Subject: Re: Brain-damaged Terminal Contest



	How about instead of griping about the worst terminals we've ever
seen, we talk about the best we've ever seen.  I'm not talking about the
most featureful, but ones that FOR THE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE AT THE TIME,
were really nice pieces of engineering.

	My nomination is the good old ADM-3.  It's entire command set
consisted of set cursor position and clear screen (did I miss any?).  Sort
of the RISC of the terminal world.  This pre-VLSI glass tty was such an
improvement over hard copy terminals that fights use to break out in the
terminal room over who got to use them.  OK, so it didn't do reverse video
(that was added to the ADM-5, yes?) nor could it do double-high, blinking,
reduced-intensity, underlined letters, but it worked.  No micro in it meant
it was easy to fix with just a TTL handbook and a 'scope.  And, how many
micro-based terminals do you know that can keep up with a steady 19.2
kbaud?  Not that most machines can send a steady 19.2 anyway...

	In the hard-copy department, I'll vote for DEC's LA-120.  Fast (by
late 1970's standards), built like a tank, and even had both upper and
lower case!  Why DEC ever killed them in favor of the LA-100 is one of the
great mysteries of the world.
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

"you can't spell deoxyribonucleic without unix!"