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: <E0pnDC.43@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>
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 <E0pnDC.43@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>,
 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
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      !lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!ard12
Organization: University of Cambridge, England
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <56g3ql$75f@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
References: <E0pnDC.43@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca> <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 <shuford@cs.utk.edu> wrote:
>
> In article <E0pnDC.43@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>,
> 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


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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: <eN3le.77081$NC6.55815@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.verio.net>
Message-ID: <119dr501p3okoed@corp.supernews.com>
Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 09:47:12 -0000
From: Thomas Dickey <dickey@saltmine.radix.net>
Subject: Re: cursor positioning control sequence

Joe Silagi <joesi@wrq.com> 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: <eN3le.77081$NC6.55815@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.verio.net>
Message-ID: <d76tud$rvb$1@theodyn.ncf.ca>
Date: 27 May 2005 10:48:45 GMT
From: Joseph Ballantyne <du651@FreeNet.Carleton.CA>
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.

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