Sparcstation to Vax - Part II

[swanger at ducvax.auburn.edu]

I would like to thank everyone who responded to my question regarding
Sparcstations to Vax worries.  For those of you who missed my original
posting, I will probably get a Sparcstation soon.  I will still work on a
Vax regularly.  I will use the Sparcstation as a the 'terminal' for the
Vax.  I was worried about terminal emulation because the Sparcstation
keyboard does not have separate cursor keys and instead has cursor keys on
the keypad.  The keypad is used heavily with the Vax editors from DEC.
Anyway, I asked for responses from people who currently use a Sparcstation
to talk to a Vax (I wanted to know if the incompatible keyboards were a
problem).  Some of the answers I received are:

- MIT X11R4 has a terminal emulator, xterm, that one person liked (this
  person did not use a keypad editor).

- Sun has a VT100 terminal emulator named Te100 that one person claimed
  solved the cursor key problem.  It uses the 4 keys above the keypad as
  cursor keys.

- Several people suggested that I drop the DEC editor (EVE in my case) and
  get EMACS.  I've seen EMACS and it looks very nice.  Still, I do not think
  that a person should change editors simply because of keyboard problems.
  I know EVE, I like EVE, my version is heavily customized, I'm used to it,
  and I would prefer to continue using it.

- Several people hate the Sun keyboard when using the Vax (typical quote -
  "drives me bananas")

- One person told me that I should try a DECStation 3100.  We already have
  one of those in our office as a loaner.  I don't feel qualified to compare
  the 3100 and the Sparcstation in terms of workstation functionality.  As
  far as using it with a Vax, the 3100 is great.  The keypad and cursor keys
  work perfectly.  I would love to have one.  Unfortunately, we have to give
  this one back and at our site Suns are drastically cheaper than Decs (Sun
  gave us a good deal).

- I was told that the Sun keys can be remapped.  That's very nice.  That's
  sort of what I was hoping the terminal emulator would do for me.

Well, here I am complaining and I don't even have the silly thing yet.  I
consider this an open question and would still like to hear from anyone
who has anything to add.  I don't read this list very often, so I would
appreciate responses directly to me if possible.

Thanks again!

David Swanger
Auburn University

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