[Info-vax] VMS - Virtual Terminals - A security risk way back yonder OR was that an Old Wives Tale ?

IanD iloveopenvms at gmail.com
Thu Feb 11 06:33:48 EST 2016


On Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 7:16:22 PM UTC+11, Johnny Billquist wrote:

<snip>

> 
> Are you talking about some application that allowed you to keep sessions 
> around, similar to screen and other tools in Unix today?
> 
> Because otherwise I don't understand your text. Virtual terminals exists 
> in VMS. They are devices. I believe subsystems like BATCH depends on 
> them existing for things to work, so I have a hard time believing that 
> you are talking about the virtual terminal device... Or that it was 
> "removed".
> 
> 	Johnny
> 
> -- 
> Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
>                                    ||  on a psychedelic trip
> email: xxxx                    ||  Reading murder books
> pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

Here's a great description of what I am meaning by virtual terminals

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1109

These were terminal devices that stayed alive if you disconnected, allowing you to reconnect later and resume

They used to be good when you dialed up systems and the phone line would drop out on you

I have not used them in a long long time, not even sure if they are still supported

I was curious, as in, wondering, contemplating, dreaming about past times if there was actually an inherent security flaw in their design and that's what caused them to fall out of favour or at least in the site I went to all those years ago



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