Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!mailrus!umix!uunet!mcvax!ukc!mupsy!liv-cs!sqrkl
From: sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: The best terminal emulator ever ? Hmmm...
Message-ID: <539@csvax.liv.ac.uk>
Date: 16 Mar 88 11:01:09 GMT
Lines: 56
Organisation: Computer Science CSVAX (VAX1), Liverpool University

In article <3898@cup.portal.com>, prplworm@cup.portal.com writes:
> goint commercial "Real Soon Now": Amic 1.0. I have been using Amic since
> version 0.56 (I'm currently using 0.59e, waiting for a 0.97 to test), and it
> is simply the BEST terminal program for ANY machine! According to the

This is a bit of a grandiose claim !!!!
I'm working on a VT100 terminal emulator for the new Acorn Archimedes machine
that will (I hope) knock the socks off ALL OTHER terminal emulators :
Does/Will Amic 1.0 have the following :

1) An 8 by 10 pixel 256 character set IDENTICAL to a VT100's.
2) True smooth scrolling in both directions (that is new characters come on
   one pixel at a time) - none of this 'smooth scroll 10 pixels then print the
   bottom line' rubbish.
3) The assorted character test and the E-test (the latter is done in 0.04 of
   a second on the Archimedes).
4) Retention of screen info when display is switched between 80 and 132 column
   modes (and before you moan - it CAN be done on a VT100 !!!!).
5) Double width cursor on double-width lines (surprising how many emulators
   don't do this...).
6) Choice of amber, green or mono colour scheme with TRUE bold characters
   (i.e. brighter than normal).

I bet you any money that Amic 1.0 fails on one or more of the above. I know
this seems like nit-picking, but if you're emulating a VT100, why not make it
look and behave as close to the original as you possibly can ?

Final note : I use a PT100 (Plessey VT100-compatible) here and it has the
following bug that might well be present on official DEC VT100's :

Go into LOCAL mode on the terminal.
Create some lines of text (best way is to do the E-test, ESC # 8).
Change the cursor to underscore (ESC [ 2 v).
Change one of the text lines to double-height, double width,
top-half (ESC # 3).

Bingo ! The cursor disappears !!!! This is because double-height lines cause
the cursor to change to 'double-height', which, of course, is unnoticeable if
the cursor is a block (because double-height-block := single-height-block as
far as the shape of the cursor is concerned). If, however, the cursor is an
underline, the top half of a double-height underline cursor is 5 blank lines
(expanded to 10 lines) !!!!

Personally, I don't think I should 'emulate' this bug : I'll make the cursor
'double-height' but I'll use the bottom 5 lines of the cursor definition
rather than the top 5 lines on double-height lines (either top or bottom-half).

Richard K. Lloyd,          ***************************************************
Computer Science Dept.,    * JANET : SQRKL@UK.AC.LIV.CSVAX                   *
Liverpool University,      * UUCP  : {backbone}!mcvax!ukc!mupsy!liv-cs!SQRKL *
Merseyside, England,       * ARPA  : SQRKL%csvax.liv.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk  *
Great (?) Britain.         ***************************************************

"I have VERY strong opinions which are nothing whatsoever to do with the
University of Liverpool, so blame ME if I bitch about useless IBM PC clones,
even more redundant IBM mainframes and the terrible Atari ST..."