3 ms·

We had large numbers of AT&T 3b2 + BLIT (well...5620s and 630s) setups in college. They were really fun to work on. Bit-mapped, portrait view display when mos

by kjs3 3y ago

We had large numbers of AT&T 3b2 + BLIT (well...5620s and 630s) setups in college. They were really fun to work on. Bit-mapped, portrait view display when most folks had 80x24 text, a real GUI (called 'layers') with a mouse, windows and apps and such. Even games. Especially nice was the fact that you could put a BLIT on the end of a 19.2k or higher serial line and get real work done. There was a similar-but-different terminal from BBN called the BitGraph that was almost as nifty. Way more obscure these days. To me, though, the pinnacle of 'traditional' serial terminals will always be the Tektronix 4100 and 4200 series. Graphics, color, very rich command set, a trackpad style 'mouse', even a graphics tablet. Good times.

rbanffy 3y ago
> a real GUI (called 'layers') with a mouse, windows and apps and such There is a Blit emulator in the Apple App Store, but I never found enough of the server side of Layers to be able to use it for anything (other than booting and looking awesome). I am fascinated by these less traveled roads of computing. > the pinnacle of 'traditional' serial terminals will always be the Tektronix 4100 and 4200 series Those were very impressive machines. But sooooo expensive...
- Aloha 3y ago
  https://loomcom.com/3b2/ https://loomcom.com/3b2/ Emulate it to your hearts content.
- kjs3 3y ago
  but I never found enough of the server side of Layers It should be in many of the various SVR3 releases and most of the SVR4s. I know those can be run in virtual machines of various kinds these days, and the distros are not exactly hard to find. There's even a guy working on a 3B2 emulator which obviously should have it. Might have to find that emulator and crank up the old Dell SVR4 and see if they'll talk. I am fascinated by these less traveled roads of computing. You might check out the MGR windowing system. It's an 'inspired by' doppelganger of layers. Ran on SunOS and some other old Unixen, as well as the Atari ST and others I forget. Source code is out there. Those were very impressive machines. But sooooo expensive... Still are on both counts.
  - Aloha 3y ago
    Yeah, a working DMD emulator has been worked out, and also a distribution with layers.

by kjs3 3y ago

rbanffy 3y ago

> a real GUI (called 'layers') with a mouse, windows and apps and such There is a Blit emulator in the Apple App Store, but I never found enough of the server side of Layers to be able to use it for anything (other than booting and looking awesome). I am fascinated by these less traveled roads of computing. > the pinnacle of 'traditional' serial terminals will always be the Tektronix 4100 and 4200 series Those were very impressive machines. But sooooo expensive...

Aloha 3y ago
https://loomcom.com/3b2/ https://loomcom.com/3b2/ Emulate it to your hearts content.
kjs3 3y ago
but I never found enough of the server side of Layers It should be in many of the various SVR3 releases and most of the SVR4s. I know those can be run in virtual machines of various kinds these days, and the distros are not exactly hard to find. There's even a guy working on a 3B2 emulator which obviously should have it. Might have to find that emulator and crank up the old Dell SVR4 and see if they'll talk. I am fascinated by these less traveled roads of computing. You might check out the MGR windowing system. It's an 'inspired by' doppelganger of layers. Ran on SunOS and some other old Unixen, as well as the Atari ST and others I forget. Source code is out there. Those were very impressive machines. But sooooo expensive... Still are on both counts.
- Aloha 3y ago
  Yeah, a working DMD emulator has been worked out, and also a distribution with layers.