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I also use a VT520 on a regular basis, and support nowadays is limited. - Since it cannot display Unicode, i have to wrap most things in a screen or tmux sessi
by blueflow 6y ago
I also use a VT520 on a regular basis, and support nowadays is limited.
- Since it cannot display Unicode, i have to wrap most things in a screen or tmux session to have unicode characters replaced
- Flow control is a hard requirement - just a single thing like a irssi screen scroll is enough to fill the buffer terminal-side
- tmux is hard-coded to disable software flow control, so i have to make sure the RTS and CTS lines are connected for hardware flow control or switch to using screen
- In fact, for hardware terminals, screen makes much more sense than tmux
- The connection is unstable above 38400, just single missing bytes cause TUI applications to render incorrectly
- I had to ship a custom terminfo with my dotfiles for the status line (what is the window title in xterm) to work correctly
Procrastinating in IRC and mailing works fine via irssi and mutt. Developing is a bit harder since i am used to mouse-based clipboards.
- MartijnBraam 6y agoVT520 here too, can you share your custom terminfo?
- blueflow 6y agohttps://git.lain.church/nero/etc/src/branch/master/terminfo/vt520.info https://git.lain.church/nero/etc/src/branch/master/terminfo/... Notable deviations from the default curses db: - Using a PC keyboard instead of the DEC keyboard (different codes for F-keys) - Fixes for status line
- GekkePrutser 6y agoThanks for that!! I also use a PC keyboard with my 520.
- gambiting 6y agoHonest question - is this due to professional requirements, or is this like a masochism thing? I just don't understand why you'd go through the trouble willingly.
- blueflow 6y agoPrivate. I'm a terminal monkey in the first place, so its not such a big deal for me.
- tasuki 6y agoI also spend a lot of time in the terminal. What possible reason could I have to use a VT220 over not using it? One reason against would be I guess the VT200 is a lot less pleasant to look at than an average display device one has laying around in 2020?
- blueflow 6y agoI find the VT520 more pleasant to look at than a LCD screen. The VT has a CRT and no backlight - when its dark, the screen doesnt "glow". The brightness and contrast are adjustable via two potentiometers, allowing eye-strain-less reading during the night. The terminal bell makes an audible beep, i use that to signal stuff happening in IRC. Probably because its a CRT, it also doesn't inhibit me from getting tired in the late hours like a phone or laptop does. Last but not least, the hackability: You can interface the VT via uart, and thus can use it as user interface to an arduino or other retro computers. KVM-like switches are also easy to DIY for serial connections.
- MartijnBraam 6y agoThe smooth scrolling is also very nice, but you'll lose that when you use a terminal multiplexer :(
- dmitryminkovsky 6y agoWhere do you hang on IRC? I want to get back into IRC but not sure where to go.
- alrs 6y agoI'm usually in #tildetel and #tilderadio. https://tilde.chat/ https://tilde.chat/
- Aloha 6y agoI thought about buying a VT520, I have a WY185e, which I've used lots and lots, and it basically sat on my desk to the better part of 15 years.
- anthk 6y agotmux/screen have one.
- aidenn0 6y agoMy dad said a big advantage of the hjkl navigation keys in vi were that they were single character. The arrow keys were multi character, so if the escape character got dropped, you would end up sending control codes as plain text