adm21 termcap and review

[utzoo!decvax!harpo!jre]

Just got an adm21. Looks like an early production version:
The manual is stamped preliminary, and it has an UV EPROM in it.
Here's a tentative TERMCAP. Be warned it's been only lightly
tested, but it seems to handle vi and rogue at 1200 baud o.k. .

l6|adm21|lear siegler adm21:\
	:us=\EG8:ue=\EG0:ce=\ET:cd=\EY:im=:ei=:ic=\EQ:dc=\EW:\
	:so=\EG4:se=\EG0:al=30*\EE:dl=30*\ER:\
	:kb=^H:kd=^J:kh=^^:kl=^H:kr=^L:ku=^K:\
	:tc=adm3a:


		------------ REVIEW (Flame?) -------------

It costs only $625, less than half of an hp2621a. The keyboard special
characters (e.g. {,*, and such) are laid out as on an hp2621a, although
the control and escape keys are in different places. It has a 9x11 dot
matrix display, does underlining, and has reverse video for standout.
It also can display unprintables without acting on them (again, as for
hp2621, but the 2621 will act on carriage return, line feeds and display
them too, while the adm21 only displays them. Legibility suffers.). The
keys have auto-repeat, and there is a caps-lock. Baud rate goes to 19.2k.

Cursor control is a superset of the adm3a, with enough additions
to run vi reasonably fast on a 1200 baud link. It has character
insert, character delete, line insert, line delete, clear to end of
line, and clear to end of display. My only complant is that the
line inserts and deletes are noticably slower than an hp2621a: hence
the "30*" delays for "al" and "dl" in the TERMCAP; keeps the screen
from geting trashed in vi with "control-U" and"20dd" stuff.

All in all, not a bad terminal.
If lear siegler would speed up the line insert/delete,
and add another page of display, I might stop getting hp2621a's.

There's been a war in the $600 to $800 terminal market lately, with
dropping prices and lengthening features lists. I'm trying to find one that:
	1) runs vi on a 1200 baud link as fast as an hp2621a
	2) has 19.2kbaud capability (convenient on some lab kludges)
If anyone can suggest any suitable terminals, please reply via mail to:

	...harpo!jre
	...ihnss!cbosg!harpo!jre
	etc.

Thanks.

		Jim Ellison
		BTL, Whippany