BLITs vs. PCs vs normal terminals

[Neville D. Newman]

 <From:     "Gary S. Moss (SLCBR-VLD-V)" <moss at BRL.ARPA>
	....
 < < It has no automatic screen-turn-off, so you keep reaching for the
 < < 	intensity knob at the end of the day.
 <Please, please, don't adopt the idiocy of Tektronics and their automatic
 <screen dimming, I hate that.  It is so annoying to be staring at a screen and
 <have it fade out on you, besides the intensity knob is right under the screen
 <you don't have to reach for it.

i've  not  used  a Tectronics terminal, but i have used many others that use
delays of between 15 and 30 minutes.  If the i/o to the host has been idle
and the mouse/keyboard idle as well, i would like to have the phosphor
saved for me.  Even some low-cost (~$500) terminals make this configurable,
so you can disable it or set the timeout.

 < < ...  Turning it off loses downloaded software.
 <What would you expect?  Do you want your program to run on a processor with no
 <power?  Do you expect programs loaded in RAM to stay there without power?  Try
 <powering down the host computer and see if it does any better.

Sorry. i should have been clearer... read "You don't want to turn it off, of
course, because that loses your downloaded software."

 < < Just try to get good technical help from AT&T Teletype for them.  i dare you.
 < < 	If hardware is your only problem, you *may* have a (slim) chance.
 <This is probably a justified criticism.
 < < Many features are documented incorrectly (try to get keyboard repeat without
 < < 	running under layers),  and many of the more useful functions will
 < < 	only work under layers even they could provide needed functionality
 < < 	outside of layers.
 <I get keyboard repeat fine when not in layers mode, what other functions
 <are you talking about, besides the windows of course?
 <-moss

Please let us know how you do that.  Even example code provided by AT&T can
not get keyboard repeat to work.  Perhaps you mean in "native 5620" mode -
i mean from a program running on the BLIT (Teletype DMD 5620).


						-neville