[TUHS] terminal - just for fun

Jeremy C. Reed reed at reedmedia.net
Thu Aug 7 01:26:22 AEST 2014


On Wed, 6 Aug 2014, John Cowan wrote:

> > So the model-33 wasn't ASCII?
> 
> The keyboard could send all of ASCII except lower-case letters, grave,
> braces, and vertical bar (i.e. excluding x60 to x7E).  The high-order
> bit was always set.  Using the paper tape reader and punch, you could
> transmit arbitrary 8-bit characters.

I guess it was common to use the Teletype Model 33 independently without 
any video display. (I read that it could accommodate a modem too.) Did 
it automatically print to paper everything typed to keyboard in 
real-time?  Or maybe only when LINE FEED or RE-TURN key was pressed?

How would RUB OUT be used when using the sh shell? (I tried looking 
through the code and manual for some old 32V and previous versions but 
didn't see code for it yet.)

When did the sh shell provide intra-line editing?

Were the early Unix versions case insensitive? (Like could I run "DaTe" 
from shell?) If not, how to get the model-33 to work with it?

What about the model-33 printer? Did it print lowercase?

How was the "HERE IS" key programmed? Was it used in Unix?

What was the "REPT" key used for?

I also noticed there wasn't any tilde key. So I looked at some old Unix 
code and didn't see tilde used for home directory until 1980 csh. But 
how was tilde entered for previous uses? (Maybe I just overlooked on 
keyboard.)

Was there any concept of intra-line editing when using a model-33 -- but 
without seeing what is being typed or having it print over (and over) 
same line content? (I should assume that intra-line editing can only 
happen on video terminals.)

(My book in progress explains a lot about the history of ex/vi but 
the earliest version I have is 1.1 which included the support for 
intra-line editing and even visual mode for HP 2645 and LSI ADM-3A 
cursor-addressible terminals. I am hoping my book can also introduce the 
basic usage concepts for readers who have no familiarity with the 
hardware around then. One of the TUHS list participants and termcap/vi 
developer already told me some about the hjkl arrow keys, for example.)



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