Microdata/McDonnell Information Systems/Prism Terminals

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Article 1485 of comp.databases.pick:
Path: cs.utk.edu!gatech!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!news.cerf.net!mdcsc!hve
From: hve@mdcsc (Henry Eggers)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.pick
Subject: Re: kermit & McDonnell Douglas P8 terminals
Date: 13 Jul 1994 00:04:54 GMT
Organization: McDonnell Information Systems (MDIS)
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References: <773654767snz@cddc.demon.co.uk> <1994Jul11.222608.21486@plaza.ds.adp.com>
Reply-To: heggers@ca.mdis.com
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Jim Idle (jimi@plaza.ds.adp.com) wrote:
: Tim Simpson (tim@cddc.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: : Hello,

[dele]

: Tim. It is highly unlikely that you will find software that emulates MDIS P8

[dele]

Actually, they're descendents of the ADDS terminals of the '70's, although
they do have some 'advanced features'....

: Despite the manual saying that this is not supported in the UK ....  

[dele]

Ignoring the 'P8' per se, 'Microdata' machines have had an 'interesting'
evolution with respect to the support of terminals.  They were rather
late in the game with the @(-) tables.  For some considerable period
the set of available terminals was 'hard coded', with type 4 for Prism 4,
(to be used with a P7 or P8), or 6, for vtxxx, and to be used with
'P9' mode.  (Whatever that is.  Probably the native form of the
underlying terminal.)

To this was bought in a utility to create and use terminal definitions.
It was shipped starting around Sequel 5.1.  But it was not supported
or liked by any of the sales organizations.  In due time it was made
not to work in machines with 'UK serial numbers'.  (Unless the $item
code for the basic program which does the terminal definition was
suitably patched.  As I remember it, a '30' needed to become a '31'
somewhere.)  At this point, the latest software -- 7.2? -- allows
the code to be used with the noted serial numbers if a 'key' is
supplied.

There were a number of interesting problems with the original facility
involving a lot of users, and various people playing with terminal
definition at the wrong time.  In skilled hands, it works a treat, as
they say.  I note that all of the various forms of cursor addressing
tables and table maintenance have been folded into one structure, and
the issues of synchroniety of use and playing with solved.

Which leaves one remaining problem:

: Incidentally, no prizes for guessing why MDIS don't want to support foreign
: terminal types unless they have to!

Noting that Microdata may have pioneered the view that Minicomputer
companies are really in the terminal sales business, but that they were
hardly unique in that perception, let me note that the price of the
termnals has been somewhere between a quarter of and equal to the
cost of the system.  'This software' has allowed a lot of people operate
without very much hardware, except that they each had to have a terminal.

As bizarre as it seems (to me, at least), terminals were a large part of
the business.  If you replace them with PCs, the PCs and the network
are a lot more than the 'server', 'minicomputer' which was the basis
of the business.

And all of this has done an enormous amount to cause the user interface
in this part of the market to move forward and look modern <insert
ironic gliph here>.

--
Henry V. Eggers         |  Opinions are
heggers@ca.mdis.com     |  solely mine.

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Article 1484 of comp.databases.pick:
Newsgroups: comp.databases.pick
Path: cs.utk.edu!stc06.CTD.ORNL.GOV!fnnews.fnal.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!news.dell.com!tadpole.com!uunet!psinntp!adpgate!jimi
From: jimi@plaza.ds.adp.com (Jim Idle)
Subject: Re: kermit & Mcdonnel DOuglas P8 terminals
Organization: ADP Dealer Services, Portland, OR
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 21:37:51 GMT
Message-ID: <1994Jul12.213751.13927@plaza.ds.adp.com>
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Rich Love (richlove@netcom.com) wrote:
: Please don't flame me but I just thought I'd mention that there is a
..an easy way to do some blatant advertising for your product? ;-)
: solution to this problem if you use a Macintosh instead of a PC. MacToPic
: Plus supports Prism terminals and Kermit.
And?
There are also a number of PC packages that do this such as Termite. However, I
don't think this was the question.
: 
: 
: -- Rich Love                                     Carnation Software, Inc.
: -------------------------------------------------------------------------
:    MacToPic and SBMac - Macintosh to Host connectivity and file transfer 
:    for PICK, uniVerse, unix, System Builder and other host systems. 
:    Viewpoint, Wyse 50, VT101 and Prism emulations included. 
:    Demo available for download at ftp.netcom.com in pub/carnation 
:    Home page at file://ftp.netcom.com/pub/carnation/HT.Carn.Home.html 
:    Phone (206) 333-4288                   Internet:  richlove@netcom.com 
: -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you sure that this signature is long enough? :-)

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Article 1476 of comp.databases.pick:
Newsgroups: comp.databases.pick
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From: richlove@netcom.com (Rich Love)
Subject: Re: kermit & Mcdonnel DOuglas P8 terminals
Message-ID: <richlove.1124407350B@192.100.81.105>
Sender: netnews@netcom.com (USENET Administration)
Organization: Carnation Software
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References: <773654767snz@cddc.demon.co.uk> <1994Jul11.222608.21486@plaza.ds.adp.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 13:28:30 GMT
Lines: 40

In Article <1994Jul11.222608.21486@plaza.ds.adp.com>, jimi@plaza.ds.adp.com
(Jim Idle) wrote:
>Tim Simpson (tim@cddc.demon.co.uk) wrote:
>: Hello,
>:       Has anybody managed to get the correct terminal emulation for kermit 
>: so that an IBM PC running it can connect succesfully to a McDD Sequoia 
>: system. Any help gratefully received
>: 
>: TIA
>: Tim Simpson
>Tim. It is highly unlikely that you will find software that emulates MDIS P8
>terminals as they are almost but not quite entirely unlike any other terminal
>:-). I think you need to apprach this from the other angle.
>
>Despite the manual saying that this is not supported in the UK I have had it
>work before. Essentially you need to make the account to which you login have a
>vt100 terminal type. The terminal number for this is somthing like 47 (I have
>no manual). This seems to work ok. Then get your kermit softare to be a vt100
>emulation, which should be available and everything should work correctly. I am
>assuming that your release of ROS is reasonably up to date?!
>
>Incidentally, no prizes for guessing why MDIS don't want to support foreign
>terminal types unless they have to!
>
>Jim.
============================================
Please don't flame me but I just thought I'd mention that there is a
solution to this problem if you use a Macintosh instead of a PC. MacToPic
Plus supports Prism terminals and Kermit.


-- Rich Love                                     Carnation Software, Inc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
   MacToPic and SBMac - Macintosh to Host connectivity and file transfer 
   for PICK, uniVerse, unix, System Builder and other host systems. 
   Viewpoint, Wyse 50, VT101 and Prism emulations included. 
   Demo available for download at ftp.netcom.com in pub/carnation 
   Home page at file://ftp.netcom.com/pub/carnation/HT.Carn.Home.html 
   Phone (206) 333-4288                   Internet:  richlove@netcom.com 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


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Newsgroups: comp.terminals
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From: gary crowe <croweg@delphi.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95 11:50:42 -0500
Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
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X-To: I Reid <eonu24@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: ESC seq info sought: prism 9 aka MDCSC 12090


I Reid <eonu24@castle.ed.ac.uk> writes:
 
> I'm looking for escape sequence information for a terminal used extensively
> by McDonnell Douglas Information Systems. It's called the Prism P9 although
> the reference manual (not helpful) calls it the Model 12090. I've worked out
> the basics like cursor positioning, character attributes, etc., but need to
> know about the other sequences (I have to translate P9 output to vt100).
>
> I haven't found anything similar in the terminfo library and the other
> suggestion of running in vt220 mode seems to upset our host system.
>
> Any info gratefully received,
 
Please call us at +1 916/783-1951.  we are the largest source for tech support
on this product.
 
Gary Crowe

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Subject: Re: Prism-8 Info required..
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 10:22:20 +0100
Message-Id: <199609180922.KAA20473@chain.sci-park.uunet.pipex.com>
To: ben@turbosoft.com.au (Benjamin Tyas)
CC: shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford)
In-reply-to: ben@turbosoft.com.au's message of Tue, 17 Sep 1996 23:57:28 GMT
X-DDI:   +44 (0)1223 250-377
X-Fax:   +44 (0)1223 250-102
From: Jason Holloway <jasonh@uunet.pipex.com>
References: <khzq2qkebf.fsf@chain.sci-park.uunet.pipex.com>
           	<51nhnd$5nf@kettle.magna.com.au>

Hi,

After contacting MDIS yesterday, a great support techie
there went home, dug through other obsolete manuals in his
garage (of all places!) and found the technical spec sheet
for the MD P-8 terminal. Apparently, the manual, plus all
other associated elements of this range of terminals are
completely and utterly obsolete. Talk about luck..

So, I now have the info, thanks. :-)

Regards,
        Jason.



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terminfo data for Prism 8

Date: 24 Sep 1996 06:02:17 -0400
From: GeorgeLand <georgeland@aol.com>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.pick
Subject: Re: Prism-8 Info required..

p8|prism8|McDonnell Douglas P8,
        am, bw, hs, mir,
        cols#80, lines#24, ma#1, wsl#78, xmc#1,
        bel=^G, blink=^CB, clear=\f, cr=\r, cub1=^U, cud1=\n,
        cuf1=^F, cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH, cuu1=^Z, dch1=\s\b,
        dim=^CA, dl1=^P, ed=\EJ, el=\EK, home=^A, ind=\n,
        invis=^CH, kbs=\b, kcub1=^U, kcud1=\n, kcuf1=^F,
        kcuu1=^Z, kdch1=\s\b, kdl1=^P, ked=\EJ, kel=\EK,
        kf1=^A@\r, kf10=^AI\r, kf12=^AJ\r, kf13=^AK\r,
        kf14=^AL\r, kf15=^AM\r, kf16=^AN\r, kf17=^AO\r,
        kf2=^AA\r, kf3=^AB\r, kf4=^AC\r, kf5=^AD\r, kf6=^AE\r,
        kf7=^AF\r, kf8=^AG\r, kf9=^AH\r, khome=^A, lf1=F1,
        lf10=F10, lf2=F2, lf3=F3, lf4=F4, lf5=F5, lf6=F6,
        lf7=F7, lf8=F8, lf9=F9, nel=\n\r, pad=\200, rev=^CD,
        rmso=^C\s, rmul=^C\s, sgr0=^C\s, smso=^CE, smul=^C0,

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From dstoner@softsol.demon.co.uk
Received: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 10:37:15
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 07:50:29 +0000
From: Dave Stoner <dstoner@softsol.demon.co.uk>
To: Richard Shuford <shuford@cs.utk.edu>
Subject: Re: Prism-8 Info required..

Richard,

Some time ago you posted following query :

>In article <khzq2qkebf.fsf@chain.sci-park.uunet.pipex.com>,
>  jasonh@pipex.net (Jason Holloway) writes:
>>
>> Does anyone out there have a termcap/terminfo file for the Prism-8
>> terminal? Or even better, does anyone know whether it is based on
>> another terminal type?

Sorry it's taken so long to reply, by the time I'd got the information
I'd lost your article, anyway, in case it is still of use to you the
following is an infocmp listing we use at MDIS.

Regards, Dave Stoner (MDIS)

 # ----------------------------

p8|P8|prism8|MDC Prism-8,
        am, bw, hs, mc5i, msgr,
        cols#80, lines#24, wsl#72, xmc#1,
        bel=^G, blink=^CB, civis=^]\344, clear=\f$<20>,
        cnorm=^]\342, cr=\r, cub1=\b, cud1=\n, cuf1=^F,
        cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH, cuu1=^Z, dim=^CA,
        dsl=^]\343^]\345, ed=\EJ, el=\EK, fsl=^]\345, home=^A,
        hpa=\E[%i%p1%d`, ind=\n, invis=^CH, is2=\E[<12h,
        kbs=\b, khome=^A, mc0=\EU, mc4=\ET, mc5=\ER, rev=^CD,
        rmacs=^O, rmso=^C\s, rmul=^C\s,
        sgr=^C%'@'%?%p1%p3%|%t%{4}%+%;%?%p2%t%{16}%+%;%?%p4%t%{2}%+%;%?%
p5%t%{1}%+%;%?%p7%t%{8}%+%;%c%?%p9%t^N%e^O%;,
        sgr0=^C\s, smacs=^N, smso=^CD, smul=^CP, tsl=^]\343,
        vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,

 # ----------------------------

-- 
Regards, Dave. (dstoner@softsol.demon.uk, Hertfordshire, UK)

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