Terminal

Rob Kirkbride rob.kirkbride at thales-is.com
Mon Apr 25 14:36:32 UTC 2005


Self, Glen wrote on 25/04/2005 15:23:

> Shahzad Chohan wrote on 25/04/2005 13:58:
>
>>Hi
>>
>>I'm a little confused, could someone please help me explain what is a
>>terminal, what is it for and why do we need it. Why are there
>>different types of terminals? Also where does the term vt100 or vt102
>>fit in to this?
>>
>>Thanks for your help
>>
>>Shahzad
>>
>>    
>>

>A terminal is the piece of hardware  (keyboard & monitor) where you type
>in your commands to the computer and read it's responses.
>Famous standard ones were the models VT-52, VT-100, VT-200 etc by DEC, I
>was using them up to a few years ago attached to some Alpha systems. As
>PCs became prevalent software was written to connect the pc to the
>backend computers. The most common protocols were those used by the vt52
>and vt100 as they were ubiquitous. The term computer console was another
>name for the terminal hardware.
>In high quality operating systems (VMS,UNIX,Linux..etc) you can connect
>to the computer via a communication port to control the system. Normally
>when you connect to a system via an emulator the screen (window) will
>look like the one on a console from the 70's.
>When you are at the command line in Linux you are in the same mode as
>using a terminal and connecting to your box via the RS232 port. Nowdays
>single users rarely need to use a terminal as the interface is in the
>same box. I really should get rid of the vt100s in my garage.
>  
>

<top posting fixed>

I'm sure he's got enough for his homework now... ;-)

Rob




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