windows on normal terminals

[David Keppel]

In article <395 at dg_rtp.UUCP> throopw at dg_rtp.UUCP (Wayne Throop) writes:
>> keppel at pavepaws.UUCP (:-D avid  K eppel)
>>> david at ztivax.UUCP
>>>Therefore, it sounds like nice windowing systems for multi-user
>>>machines are possible.
me:
>>         In a few years most new terminals will probably be high-
>>     performance, micros w/ high-resolution bitmap graphics and built-in
>>     windowing OS software.  Why fool with this obsolete 24-line stuff?
						  ^^^^^^^^ ;-) ;-)

I based my comments on a couple of things:

>First, I am developing software now, not "a few years" from now.

So am I.  However, I have found 4.3 window(1) on 24-line terminals awkward
to use, and I don't think this is a bad implementation.

>Second, the terminal that my employer sees fit to provide for
>me is an "obsolete 24-line" terminal, despite my preference for a $100K
>workstation.  I can't understand why an $n-hundred terminal and 1/mth of
>a $100K machine [...]

The cheapest "reasonable" terminals that I have seen are about $500.
A Mac running uw (unix windows) costs about $1200 (I think), and
even workstations don't cost that much more; I think that the posting
a few months back about cheap *nix boxes concluded that you could by a
Sun 3/75 with a small hard disk and ethernet connection for about $9K.
That's about 20X more expensive than the dumb terminal, but includes
local computing power.

>"Personal workstations are the technology of the future,
> and always will be."

"Intelligent terminals are a thing of the future whose time has passed"

    ;-D avid  K eppel				    ..!ucbvax!pavepaws!keppel
		"Learning by Osmosis: Gospel in, Gospel out"