[Info-vax] AlphaVM-free emulator with all additional peripheral components

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2012-08-01 02:34, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2012-07-31 23:16:10 +0000, Johnny Billquist said:
>>
>> So, how would VMS be able to know from DA1 if eightbit should be on?
>> It should, after all, reflect the current settings in the terminal,
>> and not the potential capability, no?
>
> If the terminal is set to respond as seven-bit, then it's a seven-bit
> device.

My point was that there is no response "seven bit". And believe me, I've 
read the manuals backwards and forwards plenty of times.
I was curious on how people expected VMS to be able to set eightbit, 
based on the information in DA1. Maybe something clever that I had 
missed, but based on your responses, as well as the fact that VMS do not 
set eightbit even if I have all the capabilities set correctly when I 
test seems to prove that VMS does indeed not do this, as it can't.

> The DA1 response cited was from the VT510 manual.

I know.

> And I've only just realized how very, very much I do not care about this
> topic and about terminal and escape sequences, and how much time I've
> already spent digging details out of my memory and out of the existing
> documentation.  Digging into the old DEC Standards to confirm some
> details just isn't going to happen.    This discussion certainly has
> served to refresh how much I once despised this user interface. From
> back when I had to deal with this stuff more often.

Ok. I get the message. :-)
Please do not feel obliged to answer and figure out any more. After all, 
it wasn't even you who complained. Sorry if I "forced" you to look at 
stuff you don't want to be reminded of.
I was curious and asked a question based on the original "complaint", 
since as far as I can tell, VMS does as much as you could expect it to do.

If someone else can show VMS doing more, and even better, under which 
circumstances, I'm curious to look at how it is done. The contents of 
DA1 does not provide enough information, with the possible exception 
that if you get a CSI as the eight bit character, that is a pretty good 
indication that maybe eightbit should be set. (That bit of information 
is, by the way, what RSX use to set EBC, which is actually exactly how 
much it really tells.)

All the rest I've already run over in my past messages here.

And yes, me personally, I enjoy hacking on terminals, and find the 
interface pretty fun to play with. As well as serial communication in 
general.

	Johnny