From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 16927 invoked from network); 13 Mar 2023 15:49:23 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 13 Mar 2023 15:49:23 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2587B4156D; Tue, 14 Mar 2023 01:49:19 +1000 (AEST) Received: from anduin.eldar.org (tunnel403901-pt.tunnel.tserv9.chi1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f10:6cd::2]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 16DE54156D for ; Tue, 14 Mar 2023 01:49:15 +1000 (AEST) Received: from anduin.eldar.org (IDENT:brad@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by anduin.eldar.org (8.16.1/8.13.8) with ESMTPS id 32DFn9LR012212 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:49:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from brad@localhost) by anduin.eldar.org (8.16.1/8.13.8/Submit) id 32DFn9hO000850; Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:49:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Brad Spencer To: Paul Ruizendaal In-Reply-To: <78FE1F5F-7408-4BB0-8D2E-62AA00465774@planet.nl> (message from Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS on Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:12:37 +0100) Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:49:09 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.6.4 (anduin.eldar.org [0.0.0.0]); Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:49:10 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID-Hash: BD44Q6PEDPSELCQGPSAZYL3N5RXN2DW4 X-Message-ID-Hash: BD44Q6PEDPSELCQGPSAZYL3N5RXN2DW4 X-MailFrom: brad@anduin.eldar.org X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: tuhs@tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: virtual consoles / Alt-Fx List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS writes: > 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=E2=80=99s f= or 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 o= r early 32-bit, as far as I know; one could argue it does not make much sen= se with physical terminals. Wikipedia says no such thing existed on SunOS e= ither. > > 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=E2=80=99s and became= part of Linux in the early 90=E2=80=99s. > > Have I missed other prior art? Not Unix, but OS-9 Level II on the CC3 had them. Not exactly a console, as a fixed console device really did not exist in the same way as Unix on OS-9, but multiple shells each running in their own screen with different sizes if I recall correctly. This would have all been in the early to mid 1980s in a 8/16 bit environment. --=20 Brad Spencer - brad@anduin.eldar.org - KC8VKS - http://anduin.eldar.org