Le 11/10/2011 21:31, Orchid XP v8 a écrit :
> On 11/10/2011 08:21 PM, andrel wrote:
>> On 11-10-2011 21:15, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>>> Uh, what's a serial terminal? Also, what's a kernel debugger?
>>>>
>>>> you are showing your age.
>>>
>>> Well, yes... I thought it was common knowledge? :-}
>>
>> Too young to have met with a VT100 and too old to have met Google.
> 
> I was under the general impression that the VT100 was "expensive".
> Although I'm not sure exactly where I got that impression from. But
> anyway, rather too expensive for anybody to just have one laying around
> in their house...
> 
VT100 was/is a CRT terminal, usually monochrome (either green or amber
display). As any CRT, it was expansive to manufacture.
It also had a keyboard (no mouse, you pervert) and a dedicated firmware
to handle a serial line (the 25 copper-line connector one) as DTE.

The serial line could be long enough to cross a few room.

Coupled with a relevant concentrator/server at the other end of the
serial line, you could ends up having multiple sessions at once on the
VT100, toggling between session with a set of keypress.

Display is 80x24 characters, usually ascii only. (or was it 80x25 ?)
Underline & Bold are possible, as well as inverse video, but not italic,
IIRC. It could also be able to flash (alternating video).

The expensive part is not the VT100, it was the computer you would
attach it to. No point in having a VT100 in everyhouse at that time.

The computing power of VT100 is nearly none, when Compared to
intelligent terminal such as IBM 3270.

-- 
Software is like dirt - it costs time and money to change it and move it
around.

Just because you can't see it, it doesn't weigh anything,
and you can't drill a hole in it and stick a rivet into it doesn't mean
it's free.

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