Paul - one more thing. In PDP-10 land, I think they would have called them 'sessions' but it was a similar idea - although the PC versions since they also provided the 'terminal emulation' had to do a bit more. ᐧ On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 11:24 AM Clem Cole wrote: > The virtual consoles using the function keys predate Linux and 386BSD by a > number of years. I used them only early x86 Unix ports to the IBM PC such > as Xenix. > > FWIW I think Minix for the 8088 may have supported them - be > worth checking. > > I have no memories off them on the 8 bit systems when concurrency was > added but I did but do much them. > > I would not have been surprised that predates the x86 versions of > different systems. I.e. I have vague memories of something using the > function keys on the PDP-10s switching between screens but that was long > ago. > > My bet would be to look at ITS, WAITES and Twenex for the origin story. > > On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 11:13 AM Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS > wrote: > >> Thinking a bit more about terminal multiplexing was a major use case for >> early X, I recalled using Linux virtual consoles in the late 90’s for this >> purpose. >> >> According to Wikipedia, virtual consoles originated with Xenix and before >> that with concurrent CP/M. >> >> Perusing the documentation of those on Bitsavers, I can see that virtual >> consoles have a prominent mention in the manual for concurrent CP/M (1983), >> but not those of its forerunners MP/M II and MP/M (1979). I cannot find a >> mention of virtual consoles in Xenix documentation as late as 1988. >> >> No such thing as a virtual (as distinct from pseudo) tty on 16-bit Unix >> or early 32-bit, as far as I know; one could argue it does not make much >> sense with physical terminals. Wikipedia says no such thing existed on >> SunOS either. >> >> I think virtual consoles where present in Linux from a very early point. >> >> So, as far as I can tell virtual consoles were invented for concurrent >> CP/M around 1983, made their way to Xenix in the late 80’s and became part >> of Linux in the early 90’s. >> >> Have I missed other prior art? >> >> >> -- > Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual >