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From: ehs@jumbo.dec.com (Ed Satterthwaite)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: VT52B: Yet Another Terminal Emulator (Part 1 of 3)
Message-ID: <952@jumbo.dec.com>
Date: Mon, 28-Sep-87 12:29:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: jumbo.952
Posted: Mon Sep 28 12:29:27 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Sep-87 06:15:54 EDT
Organization: DEC Systems Research Center, Palo Alto
Lines: 55
Keywords: terminal emulator VT52 ACTION

Hardly what the 8-bit Atari world needs most right now, but here's why I
often use this one when I just want a Unix terminal (no file transfers):

- It uses the character set I find most legible on my particular monitor
(Commodore 1702, composite color).  This is a very subjective call, and I
make no claims at all about results on a good monochrome monitor.

- It has relatively fast implementations of most escape sequences.  These
provide the terminal capabilities needed to make the use of a
screen-oriented editor (Emacs) bearable.

- The program is small and simple; it loads and initializes quickly.

- Source (in ACTION!) is available for customization and adaptation.

I'm posting VT52B in case anyone else has similar requirements.  It is an
upgrade of the ACTION! program VT52A posted by Michael Jenkin about a year
ago.  Michael's font looks bolder and more blocky than the ones used by
the other 80 column programs that I've tried.  In addition, the
proportions of some characters are exaggerated a bit to make the
corresponding shapes more distinctive.  This is a good trade-off for my
eyes and monitor; your mileage may differ.  I have modified VT52A by
reworking the display management, adding a few new escape sequences, and
generally trying to streamline what seemed to be the critical loops.  My
thanks to Michael for permission to use his character set as well as the
general framework of his program.

I am posting the sources for three reasons.  First, I don't have a copy of
the ACTION! runtime library to link with the object code.  Second, this is
an edit-and-compile project; there are no runtime menus, and some
customization of the source will probably be necessary.  Finally,
80-column screen management is done by an "A:" handler that is comparable
to the standard "S:" handler.  It might be of some interest for other
applications, even if you don't care about a terminal emulator.

Most of the revision of VT52A was done as a Sunday afternoon hack, with
some further additions and changes suggested by experience with the
program.  It now does what I need, but there is plenty of room for further
development.  All my testing has been done with an Atari 800, an Atari 850
interface, and Hayes-incompatible modems at 1200 and 2400 baud.
The mainframes have been VAXen running various versions of Ultrix
(essentially similar to BSD 4.2 and 4.3 Unix) with Unipress (Gosling)
Emacs as the primary editor.  I've had considerable trouble getting other
terminal emulators to work in this environment.  If you have similar
problems getting VT52B to work for you, I'd be interested in hearing about
it.

Some documentation and a suggested Unix termcap entry appear in the next
message.  The message following that contains the ACTION! source code for
VT52B.ACT.

Ed Satterthwaite
DEC Systems Research Center, Palo Alto, CA
Arpa: ehs@src.DEC.COM
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