4 ms·

For those not familiar with the 3270 terminals they're actually kind of interesting and very different from more familiar character-cell terminals. I found this

by tdeck 6y ago

For those not familiar with the 3270 terminals they're actually kind of interesting and very different from more familiar character-cell terminals. I found this out doing the "master the mainframe" contest years back - it's like a whole other world. Each screen has a set of editable regions (with formatting) and the terminal provides a line editor for those regions, and a way to submit the whole screen's edits to the mainframe. That way a user can fill out a whole form without the computer receiving any interrupts at all.

rbanffy 6y ago
Kind of a web browser in the late 60's ;-)
- p_l 6y ago
  I often use exactly that comparison when describing block terminals to people - you send a page encoded in rather dense markup, and you can use that to implement forms where only user input is returned.
- freqshow 6y ago
  Long ago when I was first trying to understand how web servers worked, that was my first "light bulb" moment. "Oh...it's CICS but with IP addresses instead of port numbers."
- app4soft 6y ago
  We may still enjoy Links2[0] browsers in the modern terminals with a 3270font not only on PC, but on Android mobile too![1,2] > $ links2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24647699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24647699 [screenshot] https://i.imgur.com/9quUyEE.png https://i.imgur.com/9quUyEE.png [0] http://links.twibright.com http://links.twibright.com [1] https://repology.org/project/links/versions https://repology.org/project/links/versions [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16191843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16191843
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    A web browser designed for mainframe 3270 sessions would be a thing of beauty. Probably easy to port Links. You can't scroll single lines, but can page up/down. Fields should work naturally, but you'd need to select which submit button you are clicking when you press Enter to send the page to the computer.
    - app4soft 6y ago
      > Fields should work naturally, but you'd need to select which submit button you are clicking when you press Enter I use Links2 (`links`) ported to Android via Termux.[0,1,2,3] Links2 (via Termux) + Android (touchscreen input) = <3 @rbanffy, the one more step is left: merge 3270font into `termux-styling/../fonts`![3] [0] https://search.f-droid.org/?q=termux&lang=en https://search.f-droid.org/?q=termux&lang=en [1] https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/packages/links https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/packag... [2] https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/pull/2317 https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/pull/2317 [3] https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/4973 https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/4973 [3] https://github.com/termux/termux-styling/tree/master/app/src/main/assets/fonts https://github.com/termux/termux-styling/tree/master/app/src...
app4soft 6y ago
> For those not familiar with the 3270 terminals they're actually kind of interesting and very different from more familiar character-cell terminals. As I'm using 3270font for while, I found it the best typeface to inspire engineers for switch to FreeCAD[0,1,2], as actual most popular proprietary 2D/3D CAD software becomes almost useless[3] since 2020. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24513340#24514936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24513340#24514936 [1] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1311679930254733312 https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1311679930254733312 [2] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1306942884034285568 https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1306942884034285568 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503950 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503950

by tdeck 6y ago

rbanffy 6y ago

Kind of a web browser in the late 60's ;-)

p_l 6y ago
I often use exactly that comparison when describing block terminals to people - you send a page encoded in rather dense markup, and you can use that to implement forms where only user input is returned.
freqshow 6y ago
Long ago when I was first trying to understand how web servers worked, that was my first "light bulb" moment. "Oh...it's CICS but with IP addresses instead of port numbers."
app4soft 6y ago
We may still enjoy Links2[0] browsers in the modern terminals with a 3270font not only on PC, but on Android mobile too![1,2] > $ links2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24647699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24647699 [screenshot] https://i.imgur.com/9quUyEE.png https://i.imgur.com/9quUyEE.png [0] http://links.twibright.com http://links.twibright.com [1] https://repology.org/project/links/versions https://repology.org/project/links/versions [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16191843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16191843
- rbanffy 6y ago
  A web browser designed for mainframe 3270 sessions would be a thing of beauty. Probably easy to port Links. You can't scroll single lines, but can page up/down. Fields should work naturally, but you'd need to select which submit button you are clicking when you press Enter to send the page to the computer.
  - app4soft 6y ago
    > Fields should work naturally, but you'd need to select which submit button you are clicking when you press Enter I use Links2 (`links`) ported to Android via Termux.[0,1,2,3] Links2 (via Termux) + Android (touchscreen input) = <3 @rbanffy, the one more step is left: merge 3270font into `termux-styling/../fonts`![3] [0] https://search.f-droid.org/?q=termux&lang=en https://search.f-droid.org/?q=termux&lang=en [1] https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/packages/links https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/packag... [2] https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/pull/2317 https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/pull/2317 [3] https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/4973 https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/4973 [3] https://github.com/termux/termux-styling/tree/master/app/src/main/assets/fonts https://github.com/termux/termux-styling/tree/master/app/src...

app4soft 6y ago

> For those not familiar with the 3270 terminals they're actually kind of interesting and very different from more familiar character-cell terminals. As I'm using 3270font for while, I found it the best typeface to inspire engineers for switch to FreeCAD[0,1,2], as actual most popular proprietary 2D/3D CAD software becomes almost useless[3] since 2020. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24513340#24514936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24513340#24514936 [1] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1311679930254733312 https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1311679930254733312 [2] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1306942884034285568 https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1306942884034285568 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503950 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503950