[geeks] Interactive serial terminal programs

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sat, 11 May 2002, Brian Hechinger wrote:

> just swap in a new terminal.  fast repair.  hell, even a mac or a nice unix
> workstation can't offer that.

Assimilator for the Mac does quite a fine job of just that.  But, yeah, I
agree, on all accounts.  For data-entry and other such single-task jobs,
thin clients of -any- kind rule both in terms of stability and bang/buck.
Terminals just happen to be the cheapest, least resource-intensive, and
best-supported thin clients in existence.

The reason I say "retro" is that programming for a terminal strikes me
with a feeling of good days gone by[1], back when "cutting edge" didn't
mean "uses more computing power than it took to put people on the moon"
and "interactive" didn't mean "lots of stupid animations running about in
response to every click".  There's just something "feel good" about
building a terminal-mode application with a great user interface; sort of
like the difference between coming up with something really great in the
kitchen on your own versus getting a cookbook recipe to turn out the way
its author intended.

I also say "retro" because I don't see terminals anywhere outside of
government anymore.  My bank uses Windows boxen to access the same program
on their IBM server that they were using terminals to access 15 years ago.  
The local retailers have all replaced their IBM and NCR POS terminals with
PCs that do the same thing, probably talking to the same IBM server
somewhere.  Honestly, outside of the county and -maybe- Verizon, I could
very well be the only person in a thirty-mile radius that still uses a
serial terminal for anything at all.

The overall mindset is that the cheapest client possible is a $200 crap
PC, rather than a used terminal connected to a multiport card or a
Portmaster.  Your average PC user can't even comprehend what a terminal is
(contrast to 30 years ago, when your average computer user couldn't
comprehend what a PC would be).  Back at $company, the people under me
would always ask why I brought my VT420 to work on telco/network
equipment, when I could just bring a laptop with Hyperterminal--the
overwhelming reason being that my terminal Just Worked, regardless.

So, I say "retro" not in the sense of "old crap", but in the same sense
that I could refer to AM radio as retro: "old, unpopular, but -extremely-
useful for its intended purpose".

--Jonathan
[1] And you know what?  I'm almost too young to be saying that.  I'm
    scaring myself.