From: "Keith F. Lynch" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.terminals Subject: H19 terminal (was Re: Motorola/Intel Wars) Date: 20 May 2000 23:50:10 -0400 Organization: RadixNet Internet Services Lines: 42 Message-ID: <8g7mdi$h3k$1@saltmine.radix.net> References: <8fanf1$ih4@nnrp1.farm.idt.net> <8g3mo6$48q$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <4sgV4.20974$nm6.333378@news-east.usenetserver.com> <8g468l$d9m$1@mail.pl.unisys.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: saltmine.radix.net Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!news.imp.ch!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news1.radix.net!saltmine.radix.net!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:56797 Kragen Sitaker wrote: > Why on earth did the H19 use its own weird escape sequences by > default instead of the ANSI ones? In those days there weren't any standards. Everybody made up their own escape sequences. See the /etc/termcap file on any Unix system. Tim McCaffrey wrote: > I'm a little fuzzy on the H19, but I think the default was VT-52 > emulation, ... It's a superset of the VT52. It also had codes for insert-line and delete-line (ESC L and ESC M), which were very important when doing screen-mode editing at 300 bps, at which speed it could take over a minute to repaint the screen from scratch, or to redraw most of the lines one line lower down or higher up. It also had insert-character (ESC @) and delete-character (ESC N), which the VT100 did NOT have (though the VT101 did). Even those made a significant difference in editing speed, as they meant the line didn't have to be redrawn when you inerted new characters in the middle. Why use H19 mode rather than ANSI mode? * Why not? In those days almost nobody called it "ANSI". It was "VT100", and was just another arbitrary terminal, like the ADM3A, Qume Sprint 5, Datamedia 2500, Hazeltine 1420, or Ann Arbor Ambassador. * The sequences are slightly shorter. Even that made a noticable difference in editing speed. * The remote system I was using, running ITS, had direct support (:TCTYP) for H19 mode, but not for ANSI mode (which required :CRTSTY, the use of which was considered obnoxious, as it was a resource hog). -- Keith F. Lynch - kfl@keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/ I always welcome replies to my e-mail, postings, and web pages, but unsolicited bulk e-mail sent to thousands of randomly collected addresses is not acceptable, and I do complain to the spammer's ISP.