[TUHS] virtual consoles / Alt-Fx

[Paul Winalski]

On 3/13/23, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
> one more thing.   In PDP-10 land, I think they would have called
> them 'sessions' but it was a similar idea - although the PC versions since
> they also provided the 'terminal emulation' had to do a bit more.

TOPS-10/20 had the concept of pseudo-terminals (PTYs)--objects in the
OS that appear to be terminals to user mode software (and most of the
kernel as well).  There was a utility called PTYCON (PTY CONtroller)
that would let one manage several login sessions (each on its own
pseudo-terminal) from a single terminal (which could of course itself
be a PTY).

IIRC PTYCON had the ability to split the VT-100 screen so that you
could view more than one PTY session at a time.  Poor man's windows.

-Paul W.