Why not Multics? (was Re: BSD tty security, part 3: How to Fix It)

[Bob Fetter]

In article <00673676139 at elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM> elg at elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM (Eric Lee Green) writes:
>						One really needed thing was
>a standard display handling library. I don't remember whether one was ever
>written (something along the lines of termcap/curses), but if so, I never
>saw any software that used it. What Emacs used (a file full of MacLisp
>functions, one file for each available terminal, if I recall right) wasn't
>too accessible to PL/1 folks.

  There always was a terminal_type_tabel kept under >sc1>ttt, which had
the terminal management information such as is kept in a Unix termcap file.
Software could access it directly using the video_ i/o module, giving it
requests like 'clear_screen', 'goto_xy', etc.

  Any software which used screen terminals on Multics made use of these
functions.  The 'window' system, which was a full-screen interactive
environment did, and I'm *pretty* sure Emacs did too (but I'm probably
off base on this one).

>Now, if Multics had continued to be developed... and if Honeywell had
>actually tried to SELL the stupid thing... the story probably would have
>been different.

  Indeed.

>--
>Eric Lee Green   (318) 984-1820  P.O. Box 92191  Lafayette, LA 70509
>elg at elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM               uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg


  -Bob-