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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Well, obviously that's what happened, and it's one reason we have termcap and terminfo today. (The joy and rapture of hacking up termcap and terminfo entries for a terminal are not missed...)

But, also, that's why folks sold entire systems back then, not just software. One time, we installed our accounting software alongside some hotel management software. The HM system was built for IBMs, so that software ran in an IBM emulator on top of HP-UX, and the users ran IBM 3270 emulation terminals on windows PCs.

For our stuff, which ran native on HP-UX, they emulated WY-60's on the same PCs.

But pre-pc, it was not unheard of for some folks (notably admins, and sometimes managers) to have multiple terminals on their desks, talking to the different machines. The users were pretty much uni-tasked and tied to a single system and didn't have that issue.

It was a different world back there. There were lots of interesting machines and solutions out there.

All this talk of terminals is getting me excited. We live in a strange age of excess and it's costing us dearly. The amount of time I spend fighting with my 3 (no 4) linux boxes around the house is serious. Not to mention the macs and tablets my family insists on using (I try to stay away from those).

It irks me that a well designed system running on a little FPGA board like my CHOCHI (viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2644) can easily support 8 or even 12 users running perfectly usable terminal applicaitons on its 45MHz 6502 with 128K RAM. The terminal could be as small as a little DILDAR FPGA board (viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2644) connected to a $20 recycled monitor and a $2.00 keyboard from GoodWill. These use the smallest FPGAs available!

I guess modern business machines have to be able to play funny videos off youtube and update your facebook status, or your staff will quit.

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In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. ...Jan van de Snepscheut

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I worked with two different types of minicomputers and I had a terminal with 4 x RS232 (or current loop, as jumpered) inputs, and could switch between them with a keypress. Great space saver. And great terminal in every way. I replaced it with an X-terminal (remember those?) when we got Sun machines and TCP/IP and Ethernet cards in the minicomputers. The terminal was removed, and must have been dumped at some point. Today I wish I had that terminal still!

-Tor

I do like linux, although most of my problems stem from the recent switch from a perfectly working gnome desktop (ubuntu) to the idiotic unity thing. Reminds me of our space program - send people to the moon, then destroy the plans and the machinery, so we can have the space shuttle that can go 200 miles up. Unity has never worked as well as the old gnome desktop; now I have to log out and even reboot when connecting to an HDMI device to get the sound to work on my notebook. Another of my machines locks up every few days... Kind of like Winders.

Tablets are really not OK in my book. My partner has a high-end, large samsung tablet. I was envious at first. But, it's impossible to do anything, even browse the web, because every five minutes someone is trying to extort money for an app (just to see some damn website). There is no security, every app requires full access to everything. You can't put simple addons into firefox to limit the snooping. And it reports everything you do to g**gle (where is the icon for loudly spitting on the floor with contempt?)

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In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. ...Jan van de Snepscheut

I had one with just 2 ports, but other than that it was pretty much the same thing.

On the Alpha Micro, we had the capability of swapping user sessions on a single terminal, but they were on the same host. You'd likely use GNU Screen for that today on a modern Linux box, there was a commercial product called Facet Term back in the day that did the same thing for Unix machines.

Other than that, it was the good ol' A/B box, which provided some capability, however inelegantly.

The biggest problem I had when I had multiple terminals on my desk is I'd have a keyboard in my lap, and I'd simply stare at the other terminal and start typing away. Of course, nothing would happen, save cursing for using the wrong keyboard. In those situations I recommend DIFFERENT terminals, to help act as a cognitive switch.

When we were converting from AMOS to Unix, it was simple to switch as I went from a Unix terminal to an AMOS terminal, and all of muscle memory and commands switched implicitly in little brain. Never really had a problem typing "DIR" on Unix and "ls" on AMOS. But, later we had an AMOS workspace on top of Unix -- that was a disaster, never knew what I should type, so it didn't last very long.

And at least AMOS and Unix were different enough in contrast to Unix and Apollo DOMAIN. That was an evil mixture. (ls for Unix, ld for Apollo....terrible, terrible to switch back and forth to).

Hi all,

After a long hiatus, I'm back to business again... I did a little re-introduction by new year's eve, stating that the geeky stuff was packed (due to house overhaul) and thus the hardware plans were temporarily halted... although I have matured the designs in the meanwhile, and hopefully will be able to build an interesting machine this summer!

On the other hand, much work has been done about the software: the previous release of my own OS (0.4) was more like a proof-of-concept, but didn't do much, besides the infamous echo-server... however, the current release (already in GitHub), even if it's still pretty incomplete with much things to do, at least is supported by some useful software:

• A simple Machine/Language Monitor
• A disassembler (included as an optional module for the above)
• A text editor (line editor, and actually intended for source code)
• A single-pass assembler, still in the making and also (optionally) included into the monitor/shell
• A 6800 simulator (!) currently untested...

One of the proposed goals (portability) is being accomplished in the current release... the independent software listed above should be easily ported to other 6502 machines, with the I/O routines clearly separated and relevant instructions commented with ###. Plus, the OS itself is now divided into a (machine-specific) firmware, and the (mostly generic) kernel, and the already known drivers. There's also an options file for easy targeting.

The project on GitHub has a readme file on each folder, although documentation is still incomplete.

I'll be back very soon with more news about this. Cheers!

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Carlos J. Santisteban
IES Turaniana
Roquetas de Mar, Almeria (Spain)