[TUHS] terminal - just for fun

[aps@ieee.org (Armando Stettner)]

My answers, embedded though I'm sure millions will reply.  From my recollection....

  aps



Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Jeremy C. Reed" <reed at reedmedia.net>
> Subject: Re: [TUHS] terminal - just for fun
> Date: August 6, 2014 at 8:26:22 AM PDT
> To: tuhs at minnie.tuhs.org
> 
> On Wed, 6 Aug 2014, John Cowan wrote:
> 
>>> So the model-33 wasn't ASCII?
>> 
>> The keyboard could send all of ASCII except lower-case letters, grave,
>> braces, and vertical bar (i.e. excluding x60 to x7E).  The high-order
>> bit was always set.  Using the paper tape reader and punch, you could
>> transmit arbitrary 8-bit characters.
> 
> I guess it was common to use the Teletype Model 33 independently without 
> any video display. (I read that it could accommodate a modem too.) Did 
> it automatically print to paper everything typed to keyboard in 
> real-time?  Or maybe only when LINE FEED or RE-TURN key was pressed?

The 33 was capable of full-duplex so this depended upon what it was talking to (or how it was optioned).  Teletype did have an OEM acoustically coupled modem on 33's (and 32's??).  In the "barebones" version, they were current-loop machines (make-brake contacts to represent the 1's and 0's for the code).  There was also an OEM option for RS232.


> How would RUB OUT be used when using the sh shell? (I tried looking 
> through the code and manual for some old 32V and previous versions but 
> didn't see code for it yet.)

When you pressed RUBOUT, the 'deleted' character was printed on the paper by the system to which the 33 was connected and removed from the butter (pointer moved backwards, etc.).


> When did the sh shell provide intra-line editing?

I first experienced this with the CSH but maybe there were others before.


> Were the early Unix versions case insensitive? (Like could I run "DaTe" 
> from shell?) If not, how to get the model-33 to work with it?

I recall that there was an STTY command that would allow case to be ignored.  Remember, the shell would look for a file name in a set of directories (later, $PATH) for the file name to fork/exec.

> What about the model-33 printer? Did it print lowercase?

I do not believe so.

> How was the "HERE IS" key programmed? Was it used in Unix?

32's and 33's were focused on Telex and TWX services.  Hence the "HERE IS" (popular with Telex or TWX call initiations) and REPT (I can't recall its meaning but, geez, looks like a request to repeat last transmission or indicating that what follows is a repeat transmission).


> What was the "REPT" key used for?

See above.


> I also noticed there wasn't any tilde key. So I looked at some old Unix 
> code and didn't see tilde used for home directory until 1980 csh. But 
> how was tilde entered for previous uses? (Maybe I just overlooked on 
> keyboard.)

I thought the tilde (~) was used in the C language.  I remember seeing tildes as home directories in V7 or certainly in CSH.  Again, my recollections...

> Was there any concept of intra-line editing when using a model-33 -- but 
> without seeing what is being typed or having it print over (and over) 
> same line content? (I should assume that intra-line editing can only 
> happen on video terminals.)

As implied before, I don't recall any intraline editing (beyond backspacing or erasing-the-last-character commands for those "glass tty's" that could support it) until CSH.

> (My book in progress explains a lot about the history of ex/vi but 
> the earliest version I have is 1.1 which included the support for 
> intra-line editing and even visual mode for HP 2645 and LSI ADM-3A 
> cursor-addressible terminals. I am hoping my book can also introduce the 
> basic usage concepts for readers who have no familiarity with the 
> hardware around then. One of the TUHS list participants and termcap/vi 
> developer already told me some about the hjkl arrow keys, for example.)
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