-- [ From: Peter W. Gofton * EMC.Ver #2.5.03 ] --
Jeff Kell writes:
>clip
> If you want to see things *really* take off, add vt100 support of VPLUS
(at a
> minimum) and/or block mode things (screen mode editors). It has been done
> already, some product Tymlabs had many, many moons ago; it supported a
> bazillion terminal types.
>clip
The problem with using other terminals to access 3K apps is that the HP
terminals use 27 rows: 24 for data, 2 for function key labels and 1 for
status. Most other terminals have only 24 or 25 rows. Some people will
remember the early days of PCs talking to HP3000s using MiniSoft or
Reflection when the PCs, before VGA and/or Windows, only showed 25 rows. We
had to use the F9 key to toggle between different modes: function keys up,
function keys down, one row only of function keys etc. It worked,
especially for data entry people who did not need to look at the screen to
know which function key to press, or where the application did not use the
full screen, but it was kind of kludgy.
Our UNIX to HP3000 emulator, IX/92, solves this problem in the same way. It
enables, for example, VT320 terminals to access the HP3000 via a UNIX
machine, and uses the F9 key to toggle the function key labels. However, on
X-terminals or X-based workstations we can tell xterm to display 27 rows and
show the full HP screen.
Given this limitation, I would be interested in people's comments on the
attractiveness of an HP3000-based terminal emulator that would act as a
shell, enabling different terminals to log in and emulate an HP terminal. I
assume that with Posix we will be able to port IX/92 to the HP3000 and fork
shells and output to different terminal types as we do under UNIX (or am I
being optimistic?). We could eventually enable X-Terminals to connect to
the HP3000 and run HP3000 applications without going through a UNIX box.
--
Peter Gofton, Software Licensing Corp
HP connectivity solutions.
Voice: 800 831 0882
Fax: 702 832 0883
Email: [log in to unmask]
Visit our new web site at www.slcorp.com
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