[TUHS] virtual consoles / Alt-Fx

[Clem Cole]

Paul - 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.
ᐧ

On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 11:24 AM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:

> The virtual consoles using the function keys predate Linux and 386BSD by a
> number of years.  I used them only early x86 Unix ports to the IBM PC such
> as Xenix.
>
> FWIW I think Minix for the 8088 may have supported them - be
> worth checking.
>
>   I have no memories off them on the 8 bit systems when concurrency was
> added but I did but do much them.
>
>   I would not have been surprised that predates the x86 versions of
> different systems. I.e. I have vague memories of something using the
> function keys on the PDP-10s switching between screens but that was long
> ago.
>
> My bet would be to look at ITS, WAITES and Twenex for the origin story.
>
> On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 11:13 AM Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Thinking a bit more about terminal multiplexing was a major use case for
>> early X, I recalled using Linux virtual consoles in the late 90’s for this
>> purpose.
>>
>> According to Wikipedia, virtual consoles originated with Xenix and before
>> that with concurrent CP/M.
>>
>> Perusing the documentation of those on Bitsavers, I can see that virtual
>> consoles have a prominent mention in the manual for concurrent CP/M (1983),
>> but not those of its forerunners MP/M II and MP/M (1979). I cannot find a
>> mention of virtual consoles in Xenix documentation as late as 1988.
>>
>> No such thing as a virtual (as distinct from pseudo) tty on 16-bit Unix
>> or early 32-bit, as far as I know; one could argue it does not make much
>> sense with physical terminals. Wikipedia says no such thing existed on
>> SunOS either.
>>
>> I think virtual consoles where present in Linux from a very early point.
>>
>> So, as far as I can tell virtual consoles were invented for concurrent
>> CP/M around 1983, made their way to Xenix in the late 80’s and became part
>> of Linux in the early 90’s.
>>
>> Have I missed other prior art?
>>
>>
>> --
> Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual
>
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