VT100 and bagbiting

mab at AIDS-UNIX.ARPA mab at AIDS-UNIX.ARPA
Wed Jun 27 10:36:47 AEST 1984


From:  Mike Brzustowicz <mab at AIDS-UNIX.ARPA>

Excuse me, but using DC3/DC1 for flow control IS a violation of the ANSI
standard (remember ASCII)?  Those controls were intended to control devices
attached to the terminal (XON and XOFF referr to turning on and off the
paper tape reader once found on many terminals).  The intent was to allow
the computer to control the input from the terminal (without operator 
intervention required), not the other way around.  I'm not sure who got the
idea of turning the tables on the computer, but DEC certainly had a hand in
popularizing it.

Not to nit-pick, but...does ANSI really say "the user shall not type escape"?
If so, then ANSI standard terminals should not have an escape key (:-))!

-Mike



More information about the Comp.unix.wizards mailing list