Dennis writes:

> All said and done... has anybody discussed the very basic difference on how
>  NS-VT and Telnet support Xon/Xoff.

NS-VT supports XON/XOFF, but all current versions of telnet on the HP3000
don't. However, that will soon change. Full XON/XOFF flow control will be in
the next telnet patch/release.


>  Also NS-VT is a line by line transfer to machine, whereas Telnet is a
>  character at a time,  If you use Telnet long distances (two or three
>  thousand miles) you can see a very definite delay.  With NS-VT the delay is
>  added to the time it takes for the prompt to return....

That's true, and that's the exactly the problem that "advanced telnet" was
designed to eliminate. With the "advanced telnet" protocol, the psychological
response is now identical telnet vs. NS/VT. For more information on advanced
telnet -- and a modification to the telnet standard that was necessary to
support passwords -- please see:

     http://www.aics-research.com/qcterm/telnet.txt

Neil Harvey, in Capetown, South Africa, has been kind enough to provide us
access to one of his HP3000's for the past two years to allow us to practice
working not over distances of just a few thousand miles but at distances that
are 70,000 miles each way -- and yet keep the psychological response times
well within acceptable levels (850 ms. ping times).

Neil's help has been and continues to be appreciated beyond words. Basically,
because of the practice he's allowed us, I've now come to consider anywhere
in North America or Europe as a "local" connection, and South Africa will
soon come to feel this way too once the undersea fibre optic cable connection
is completed. At that point, Neil is going to be only a mere 20,000 miles
away (220 ms ping times). This quarter-second delay will only become apparent
during that brief time you strike the RETURN key and the HP3000 responds.

In contrast, Europe and most of North America adds less than 90ms delay to
the carriage return, which is a totally acceptable responsivity. But even as
things are now, we've had people here who have played with Neil's machine who
say that responsivity from Africa is better than they get on their home
HP3000's, just two floors away.

Wirt Atmar