Info about the AT&T 620 terminal

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <727 at vsi.UUCP> friedl at vsi.UUCP (Stephen J. Friedl) writes:
>... here is a mini-review of the AT&T 620 terminal.

I don't have much experience with the 615 or 620, so I'll defer to
your experience with those.  However, the 630 is really spiffy.  I
replaced my 5620 (and Dave Prosser's "myx" environment) with a 630
some time ago and in practically every way the 630 is superior.
(The notable exception is that the top of the monitor is not flat
enough to set my ThinkJet printer on.)

The 630 is a true descendant of Rob Pike's Blit.  Programs for
downloading to a 5620 typically require very little editing to work
with the 630, and the 630 has several significant new features:
	font caching (avoids subsequent downloading)
	process image caching (ditto)
	IPC
	text layer scroll bars and banners
	scroll lock key
	built-in mouse-based text editing (cut, snarf, paste, send,
		etc. in the same layer or between layers)
	settable default initial layer size
	local processes (no host channel)
	"walking" menus
	dual host support (7 channels each in layers mode)
	built-in text printing support
	amber phosphor (I hear that white is now available)
	ROM cartridge slot for custom/alternate firmware

Mine is configured with an additional I/O board and is connected
to a printer, our building terminal port contention switcher (PACX),
and a Sun-3/50M.  I actually prefer the 630 user interface to SunTools
for most purposes, although obviously stuff that insists on using the
SunTools environment has to be run on the Sun console.

630 host support software is available; so far as I know, it consists
at present just of the cross-compilation environment (CCS or SGS),
"layers", "jim" mouse-based text editor ("sam" precursor), icon editor
(and lots of icons), font downloader (and several constant-width fonts), 
process uncacher, terminal memory usage display, "dmdpi" debugger, and
demos and programming examples.  This is available in source form for
UNIX System V and also for 4.3BSD; contact AT&T Teletype (Skokie, IL)
for details.

I also have a version of "proof" (troff output viewer), "cip" (pic
drawer), "sam", and some other tools ported to the 630.  Recently I
posted my own version of "dmdp" (screen image printer) adapted to
work with the 630.  Most of the useful 5620 tools now exist for the
630 in some form, although I don't know how you obtain them without
porting them yourself.  Presumably AT&T Teletype is working on this..