Why not Multics? (was Re: BSD tty security, part 3: How to Fix It)

[Eric Lee Green]

>From article <45740 at cos.com>, by fetter at cos.com (Bob Fetter):
>   There always was a terminal_type_tabel kept under >sc1>ttt, which had
> the terminal management information such as is kept in a Unix termcap file.
> Software could access it directly using the video_ i/o module, giving it
> requests like 'clear_screen', 'goto_xy', etc.
>
>   Any software which used screen terminals on Multics made use of these
> functions.  The 'window' system, which was a full-screen interactive
> environment did, and I'm *pretty* sure Emacs did too (but I'm probably
> off base on this one).

Emacs didn't. I remember modifying the TVI912 MacLisp file to work with
USL's hacked "USLTVI" modified TVI terminals (they had various codes and
keys re-mapped to work well with Multics, but Emacs didn't know about
that).

Given the vast size of Multics, and the brief time in which I used it
(maybe six months, at which time I was also learning how to program), it's
little wonder that I never made it to >sc1>ttt :-). (Though I did encounter
the 'window' system, now that I think of it... you have to remember that
this was more years back than I like to recall :-}.

>>Now, if Multics had continued to be developed... and if Honeywell had
>>actually tried to SELL the stupid thing... the story probably would have
>>been different.
>
>   Indeed.