4 ms·
Terminals, ttys, etc. have some of the most arcane and outdated APIs I am aware of. It's like a window back into the 1970s
by klysm 2y ago
Terminals, ttys, etc. have some of the most arcane and outdated APIs I am aware of. It's like a window back into the 1970s
- ggm 2y agoThe window part is 1980s. the window back is deeper than the 70s, because the termcap/terminfo specs go into Teletype ASR33 territory which is 70s implementations of a core technology from the Baudot code era.
- wpm 2y agoIt's one of the reasons I love them. A ball of insane, esoteric, baffling, confusing cruft, layered in a century long onion, with connections to the very basics of telecommunications. At any moment, both the simplest interface and the most complex, both the beautiful speckled black void of the night sky, and the horrific gaping maw of a Lovecraftian beast.
- caf 2y agoThe nomenclature "hanging up" a terminal even dates back to pulse-dialling landline phones where the receiver was physically hung up on a hook to activate a switch that opened the circuit and ended the call.