News about Volker-Craig terminals (Canadian terminal vendor from the 1980s) ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// January A.D. 2006: A new archive discovery! Dave Dunfield has collected some good information on Volker-Craig terminal products, including service manuals (as PDF files) and schematic circuit diagrams, on his "Old Computers" website: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/tty/index.htm ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [now drop back 10 years...] Newsgroups: comp.terminals,alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.ms-windows.networking.win95,alt.religion.adm3a Followup-To: comp.terminals Path: utkcs2!cs.utk.edu!not-for-mail Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville--Dept. of Computer Science Expires: 31 Dec 1996 13:14:15 GMT Message-ID: <56fop7INNndk@duncan.cs.utk.edu> References: Keywords: Volker-Craig, emulation, BYTE, ADM-3, Wyse, termcap, hardcoding Summary: a suggestion for biting the bullet... Date: 14 Nov 1996 13:35:19 -0500 From: shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford) Subject: Re: Telnet for VC4604? In article , kloberle@mc4adm.uwaterloo.ca (Kevin Oberle) writes: > > We have an application that was written many years ago for a specific > terminal--the Volker-Craig VC404. In fact, the terminal cursor addressing > commands were hardcoded into the software, so that we can use it only with > VC terminals (using VC4604's now). A regrettable choice of hardcoded hardware.... Now, I HAVE used a Volker-Craig terminal, years ago, when I worked for BYTE magazine. Carl T. Helmers, the founding editor of BYTE, bought a bunch of V-C's. He liked the fact that they were cheap, and that their serial ports could run at 19,200 bps. Then later on, Carl tried to actually write a program using one, and he found he liked them less. He never did get the absolute cursor addressing to work from UCSD Pascal. Nevertheless, in the period from 1979 to 1983, artist Robert Tinney used the Volker-Craigs as archetypes for all the computer terminals in illustrations he drew for BYTE's covers! One V-C unit was gutted and sprayed with silver paint and appeared in a 1980 cover photograph in the short-lived OnComputing magazine. > I'd like to do away with the terminals, and provide the ability to run the > app from PCs. Does anyone know of a telnet app (Win95 preferred) that > emulates a Volker-Craig terminal? Failing that, is there a telnet app > that allows one to custom tailor the terminal control codes? > -- > kloberle@mc4adm.UWaterloo.ca I have never even heard rumor of a software package that emulates a Volker-Craig terminal, on any platform, for any communication channel. There may be one out there somewhere, but such a critter would be quite obscure and would probably not use Telnet from Windows 95. (But if you find one, let me know....) [UPDATE: see below] If you have the source code for this application, I'd say it's time to bite the bullet and change the hardcoding. Using "ncurses" http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html or a similar facility would give you best flexibility. You can use the same code review to check for Year-2000 problems, while you are at it! If you don't have the source code, things get harder but may not yet be hopeless, if you are stouthearted and are willing to try patching the binary file of the executable. As I recall, the control sequences for the Volker-Craig terminals are pretty short and arbitrary. You may be able to figure out where the existing control codes are in the binary and what they are intended to do. If so, then you could patch in the control codes for some OTHER terminal type--one that is more widely emulated. Alas, the modern control sequences in the VT100 and its relatives, and for that matter in any ANSI-compliant emulation, are quite verbose (will take up more bytes), so changing to the most widely emulated ASCII terminal type is not likely to work. But here are a couple of terminal types with relatively short control sequences, in no particular order: Wyse-50 Lear-Siegler ADM-3 DEC VT52 Emulations of these three are available without too much trouble. All of them, as well as Volker-Craig VC404, have entries in the global terminfo/termcap database maintained by Eric Raymond at http://www.ccil.org/terminfo/ [2006 update: current URL follows] http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/ so you perhaps could compare codes and functions from those entries and then patch new codes directly into your application's image. Then your users would have a better set of options in what equipment they need to run the program. THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES HERE. You are recovering from somebody's previous engineering misjudgment. The Wyse-50 is rather well discussed in the book "termcap & terminfo" http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/item/term.html -- ...Richard S. Shuford |"He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and ...shuford@cs.utk.edu | he who gives gifts to the rich--both come to poverty. ...Info-Stratus contact| Proverbs 22:16 NIV ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Date: 15 Nov 1996 03:58:55 GMT From: tdsmith@topeka.cjnetworks.com Newsgroups: comp.terminals, alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Telnet for VC4604? Frank da Cruz (fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu) at Columbia University may be able to help you. I don't think either MS-DOS Kermit or K-95 currently emulate the Volker-Craig terminals, but they may be able to put something together for you if you can provide the necessary documentation and $$$. Troy Smith [UPDATE! Volker-Craig VC404 emulation is announced for the 1.1.8 version of Kermit-95, released 21 November A.D. 1996. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html Other new emulations in K95 are Hazeltine 1500 Hewlett Packard 2621A HPTERM Honeywell VIP7809 ...RSS] ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.terminals,alt.folklore.computers Path: stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.er.usgs.gov!news1.radix.net!news.cais.net !in1.nntp.cais.net!hunter.premier.net!news.mathworks.com!EU.net !usenet2.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!usenet1.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!uknet !lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!ard12 Organization: University of Cambridge, England Lines: 36 Message-ID: <56g3ql$75f@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> References: <56fop7INNndk@duncan.cs.utk.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: club.eng.cam.ac.uk Keywords: Volker-Craig, emulation, BYTE, ADM-3, Wyse, termcap, hardcoding Date: 14 Nov 1996 21:43:49 GMT From: ard12@eng.cam.ac.uk (A.R. Duell) Subject: Re: Telnet for VC4604? shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford) writes: [I have added alt.folklore.computers back in the Newsgroups: line as I think it's on-topic here - ard] >Now, I HAVE used a Volker-Craig terminal, years ago, when I worked for I still _have_ a working VC414 terminal complete with service manual. The VC414 is a later version of the VC404 (it's the same PSU, backplane and monitor - just the 2 main logic boards are replaced), which uses a 6800 microprocessor. One odd feature of my VC414 is the APL character set :-) > Then later on, Carl tried to > actually write a program using one, and he found he liked them less. He > never did get the absolute cursor addressing to work from UCSD Pascal. According to the manuals I have, there were _many_ versions of the VC414 - emulating just about anything under the sun. In fact, the manual gives very little info on the 'default' emulation, and suggests you contact Volker Craig with the serial number of your unit to find out what it emulates. I did, and they couldn't tell me anything about it. On the off-chance that mine is standard (and emulates a VC404) I could try to find the notes I made on the control code responses. [...] -- -tony ard12@eng.cam.ac.uk The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.terminals,alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.ms-windows.networking.win95,alt.religion.adm3a Path: utkcs2!stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.he.net!www.nntp.primenet.com !nntp.primenet.com!news.sgi.com!news.tamu.edu!news.utdallas.edu !nrchh45.rich.nt.com!bcarh189.bnr.ca!nott!kone!news.ccs.queensu.ca!colley Organization: Computing & Information Science, Queen's University Message-ID: <56gm4j$s0e@knot.queensu.ca> Date: 15 Nov 1996 02:56:19 GMT From: colley@qucis.queensu.ca (Paul Colley) Subject: Re: Telnet for VC4604? In article <56fop7INNndk@duncan.cs.utk.edu>, Richard Shuford wrote: > > In article , > kloberle@mc4adm.uwaterloo.ca (Kevin Oberle) writes: >> >> We have an application that was written many years ago for a specific >> terminal--the Volker-Craig VC404. In fact, the terminal cursor addressing >> commands were hardcoded into the software, so that we can use it only with >> VC terminals (using VC4604's now). The VC404's feature set was sparse and simple. I even have it documented somewhere around here (I've got a 4404 around here, for that matter). Writing an emulator for it would not be difficult. This is obviously the WRONG way to solve the problem---fix the source code! But if you can't, you can't... Or, hey, if you just wanna keep that old 404 running, I've got a spare brand-new 'tube and video driver for one. Bought direct from Volker-Craig, never installed. Assuming Volker-Craig still has a plant in Waterloo, given your email address, why don't you drop by and ask them for help? Actually, I'd love to know what this show-stopper of an application is... - Paul Colley colley@qucis.queensu.ca ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// In writing an emulator, it is easy to get the first 80% of functionality. Getting the last 20% is the problem. ...RSS ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.terminals References: Message-ID: <119dr501p3okoed@corp.supernews.com> Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 09:47:12 -0000 From: Thomas Dickey Subject: Re: cursor positioning control sequence Joe Silagi wrote: > > I'm trying to figure out what emulation uses a ^Y (ctrl-Y) to start a cursor > positioning sequence. Anyone rmember? The closest I see in ncurses' terminfo is the home capability for some CDC or DataMedia terminals. -- Thomas E. Dickey http://invisible-island.net/ ftp://invisible-island.net/ ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Newsgroups: comp.terminals References: Message-ID: Date: 27 May 2005 10:48:45 GMT From: Joseph Ballantyne Subject: Re: cursor positioning control sequence "Joe Silagi" (joesi@wrq.com) writes: > > I'm trying to figure out what emulation uses a ^Y (ctrl-Y) to start a cursor > positioning sequence. Anyone rmember? Some Volker-Craig (and similar vintage) terminals used single characters (degenerate one-element sequences) for cursor positioning. On a VC404, ^Y homes (moves to upper-left character position on the screen) the cursor. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////