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Its really fascinating to me to imagine what computing would be like if we used different types of protocols. xterm also supports vector graphics https://en.wi

by ilaksh 4y ago

Its really fascinating to me to imagine what computing would be like if we used different types of protocols. xterm also supports vector graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010#Graphics_protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010#Graphics_protoc... I wonder if there could be some kind of revival of some of this stuff if we saw more support in modern tools. Is there something like xterm for linux that is more up-to-date but includes Tektronix and sixel? I think it could be really useful to have a new interactive streaming protocol focused on being lightweight and fast loading with high compression, but for VR devices and 3d interfaces. It could also be streaming in data from multiple peers, content-oriented. Focus on efficient, small modules describing scenes and programs. But the biggest concept is that we aren't waiting for millions or billions of bytes to load.

jrm4 4y ago
Absolutely, especially if you watch (and lament) the absolute mess that is GUI programming in Linux. I feel like something like https://github.com/BashGui/easybashgui https://github.com/BashGui/easybashgui (in terms of user/creator experience) shouldn't be that hard.
georgia_peach 4y ago
The achilles heel of these old inline display protocols is that there's little to no reporting from the client side as to dimension/resolution/resize/interaction... And to fix this in a performant way, it would need the ability to handle as many of those events as possible on the client side, hence some kind of VM & endless mitigations for it--chrome all over again. > something like xterm for linux that is more up-to-date Dickey put a lot of effort into xterm--especially on the correct emulation of old protocols like tektronics. The GPU-accelerateds may be the new hotness, but I don't think many of those devs are interested in software archaeology like tektronics & sixel.
ok123456 4y ago
Back in high school in the late 90s, I bought a pallet of Tektronix 4211 terminals [1] for about $40 from a local place that resold old computer junk. All in total there were about 10 of the terminal base units and three, for the time, extremely large 21" monitors. I figured this came from an engineering firm, since these terminals also came with some digitizer pads. I thought they were X-Terminals and was very disappointed that I couldn't get them do anything beyond being text terminals. It was only recently that I discovered that they were actually intended to be used with this proprietary graphics protocol. [1] Exactly like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/1994._Shelly_Stelling_with_Tektronix_4211_graphics_terminal._Regional_Office%2C_Portland%2C_Oregon._%2827276702499%29.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/1994._Sh...
- ilaksh 4y ago
  Do you still have them?
  - ok123456 4y ago
    I gave a couple to friends. (I think one of them ended up becoming target practice.) The rest got thrown out after I moved out.
Asooka 4y ago
I sort of hope we get html in the terminal. Like imagine you send an escape sequence to the terminal and it becomes a browser window with communication over stdin/out, after which you're basically writing a CGI backend, except with full local access. You could have java script frontend processing GUI events and sending the data to your application, and conversely reading your application's output and manipulating the DOM. Basically NeWS.

by ilaksh 4y ago

jrm4 4y ago

Absolutely, especially if you watch (and lament) the absolute mess that is GUI programming in Linux. I feel like something like https://github.com/BashGui/easybashgui https://github.com/BashGui/easybashgui (in terms of user/creator experience) shouldn't be that hard.

georgia_peach 4y ago

The achilles heel of these old inline display protocols is that there's little to no reporting from the client side as to dimension/resolution/resize/interaction... And to fix this in a performant way, it would need the ability to handle as many of those events as possible on the client side, hence some kind of VM & endless mitigations for it--chrome all over again. > something like xterm for linux that is more up-to-date Dickey put a lot of effort into xterm--especially on the correct emulation of old protocols like tektronics. The GPU-accelerateds may be the new hotness, but I don't think many of those devs are interested in software archaeology like tektronics & sixel.

ok123456 4y ago

Back in high school in the late 90s, I bought a pallet of Tektronix 4211 terminals [1] for about $40 from a local place that resold old computer junk. All in total there were about 10 of the terminal base units and three, for the time, extremely large 21" monitors. I figured this came from an engineering firm, since these terminals also came with some digitizer pads. I thought they were X-Terminals and was very disappointed that I couldn't get them do anything beyond being text terminals. It was only recently that I discovered that they were actually intended to be used with this proprietary graphics protocol. [1] Exactly like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/1994._Shelly_Stelling_with_Tektronix_4211_graphics_terminal._Regional_Office%2C_Portland%2C_Oregon._%2827276702499%29.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/1994._Sh...

ilaksh 4y ago
Do you still have them?
- ok123456 4y ago
  I gave a couple to friends. (I think one of them ended up becoming target practice.) The rest got thrown out after I moved out.

Asooka 4y ago

I sort of hope we get html in the terminal. Like imagine you send an escape sequence to the terminal and it becomes a browser window with communication over stdin/out, after which you're basically writing a CGI backend, except with full local access. You could have java script frontend processing GUI events and sending the data to your application, and conversely reading your application's output and manipulating the DOM. Basically NeWS.