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terminal emulators (Re: Emacs with Guile)


On Sun, Mar 12, 2000 at 03:38:14PM -0800, Per Bothner wrote:
> Mikael Djurfeldt <mdj@mdj.nada.kth.se> writes:
> 
> > I see now that I phrased my message badly.  I'm of course not talking
> > about having graphics and windows in an xterm window, but supporting
> > standard terminals in Emacs.
> 
> There is no such thing anymore.  A "standard terminal" is now a
> terminal *emulator*.  I don't think I've used a real terminal for 10
> years; most people never have.  There is no reason such an emulator
> cannot do graphics (except lack of standards).

Well all terminals were emulators in as much as they were a general
purpose CPU, a keyboard and a monitor implementing a protocol.
Drawing a distinction between a genuine DEC vt100 and a PC clone
running vt100 software is a bit of a thin line. I guess your point is
that replacing the software in the genuine vt100 is difficult while
replacing the software in the PC clone is pretty easy. I dunno if
that is true either... at least from the linux perspective the vt100
code is built into the kernel and forms the most standard interface
to the machine. If you cannot get X11 running because some config file
is wrong then you have to edit the config file. What are you going to
use to edit it? vi I guess.

Also from the PC clone perspective, the video runs faster in text
mode where the VGA hardware is doing the font rendering (OK, its
crude cellfont rendering but it works). I quite like the text consoles
because there is no window manager, no menus, just hit the key and
it happens. I must admit that one thing I don't like is that X11
is just so big.

Admittedly, we could all use frame buffers, and find some new and
better protocol for terminals. In many ways it would be a good idea
but a lot of code would have to change.

	- Tel


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