Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ll-xn!mit-eddie!husc6!sri-unix!ctnews!pyramid!uccba!hal!ncoast!allbery From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: IBM PC as a terminal (was Re: when using termcap, get it right!) Message-ID: <2580@ncoast.UUCP> Date: Mon, 1-Jun-87 23:16:31 EDT Article-I.D.: ncoast.2580 Posted: Mon Jun 1 23:16:31 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 4-Jun-87 02:47:10 EDT References: <1149@carthage.swatsun.UUCP> <8601@tekecs.TEK.COM> <6828@mimsy.UUCP> <16906@amdcad.AMD.COM> <931@maynard.BSW.COM> Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh Lines: 53 As quoted from <931@maynard.BSW.COM> by campbell@maynard.BSW.COM (Larry Campbell): +--------------- | In article <16906@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes: | > | >Why would you want a PC instead of a terminal? Well, in addition to | >the fact that it can be cheaper (particularly if you want graphics) | >the IBM monitor makes really nice characters and the IBM keyboard | >feels VERY nice. I don't know how well the clones do in this area. | | Bah. The IBM keyboards are detestable. They are much too noisy for | office or home ... perhaps they'd be suitable for a factory floor. | Their layout is atrocious. And until recently they obnoxiously overloaded | the numeric keypad with function and cursor keys. Everyone agrees that | NumLock is a total botch. +--------------- Agreed. The good news is that an ITT XTRA keyboard is PC and XT compatible, and solves most of these. (It still has the overloaded keypad, alas. But in compensation, it has an Enter key on the keypad.) +--------------- | And the IBM monitor? Gack. Either you're talking about a CGA and IBM | color monitor, since you mention graphics, or you're talking about | the monochrome adapter. The CGA is garbage -- you'd go blind looking | at it for eight hours a day. The monochrome adapter does deliver nicely | formed characters at a reasonable resolution, but the IBM monochrome | green screen has such a long persistence that when the display scrolls, | it smears like Tammy Bakker's mascara. +--------------- Don't talk to me about IBM graphics-type stuff; I can (barely) take a Herc mono, I can't stand composite or RGB, even EGA style. I have an AVT amber monitor and an MDA (ITT version, sans printer port which is on the mother- board instead), and it's very readable. Best terminal I've ever had. No graphics, but I rarely use them anyway. I have used various machines with variouscards and monitors; EGA + IBM hires display = almost maybe halfway legible, Sigma 400 is quite nice for a CGA/EGA (it fills in the characters, you can't see the dots, it's more readable than any other CGA/EGA display I've ever seen), CGA = NEVER!!!. Herc mono is sort-of; the clone versions I've seen use the CGA character set, which is a lossage (and worse because it looked like they were skipping scan lines to simulate the CGA character size in pixels). I would hope that a good model would use a readable character set and use full resolution in text mode. ++Brando -- Copyright (C) 1987 Brandon S. Allbery. Redistribution permitted only if the redistributor permits further redistribution. ---- Moderator for comp.sources.misc ---- Brandon S. Allbery {decvax,cbatt,cbosgd}!cwruecmp!ncoast!allbery Tridelta Industries {ames,mit-eddie,talcott}!necntc!ncoast!allbery 7350 Corporate Blvd. necntc!ncoast!allbery@harvard.HARVARD.EDU Mentor, OH 44060 +01 216 255 1080 (also eddie.MIT.EDU)