unix system enhancements

[Chris Torek]

In article <359 at maynard.UUCP> campbell at maynard.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes:
[TOPS-20]
>... On the input side, the STI% (Simulate Terminal Input) system
>call allows a suitably privileged process to insert characters in
>the input stream of a terminal.

4BSD has this; it is called TIOCSTI, Terminal I/O Control: Simulate
Terminal Input.  I think it is quite bogus myself.

>This is used to implement the ADVISE command, which links two
>terminals, and copies all characters typed on the advisor's terminal
>to the advisee's terminal input stream. ... Demonstrating video
>editors and such requires that the two users be on similar terminals,
>but since most TOPS-20 users (and even most UNIX users?) are on
>VT100 compatible terminals, this isn't a problem in practice.

Speak for yourself!  We have far too many thorougly incompatible
terminals liberally sprinkled across the campus to do this.

Fortunately, the cloning window shell I mentioned does not reqiure
compatible terminals.  Each window shell (possibly running on
different machines) has its own notions about screen display.  The
editor is run in a window with an ANSI X3.64 virtual terminal
emualtor, so that the cloned escape sequences invoke the same
(virtual) functions, which are promptly implemented on the (phyiscal)
screen using whatever escape sequences it requires.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 1516)
UUCP:	seismo!umcp-cs!chris
CSNet:	chris at umcp-cs		ARPA:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu