RWyse60 Terminal Interface

[Brian Fahrlander]

On Thu, 2004-01-22 at 09:24, Greg Ennis wrote:

> Dear Fred and Brian,
> 
> Thanks for your responses!
> 
> I guess I should not be surprised by your deductions. You got both of them
> correct! :)
> 
> The software I am trying to update has been used on character terminals for
> long time.  Fortunately this software has its own system of terminal drivers
> so we can really use any terminal by writing an appropriate terminal driver.
> The most frequently used terminals have been Wyse60 or VT100's.  And you are
> correct again it is on a SCO box as well.

    Is this by any chance a program called Gemini LHS?  I've been in
your shoes. It was a lot of...'fun' to make that work.  The best way I
found under Linux was to telnet to the thing, and then run their own
terminal program via X.  It's silly, but it works GREAT and allows you
to use all the 'cool' (by SCO standards) X programs that are hiding deep
inside the recesses of SCO's character-based exterior.


    How many terminals are we talking about?

    Set up ONE machine to play with.  Make sure it can do all the
function keys and such.  This one's temporary.  Once it works
flawlessly, Get a decent 'server' box with dual SCSI drives (raid) and
install LTSP.  They have a modified RH8-9 distro that adds the ability
to run thin clients.

    The benefits of the thin clients are legion; no moving parts, no
obsolescence, and they work great in harsh environments and are only
about $350. LTSP is intended for teachers, not propeller-heads, and it's
clear.  I set up mine on the first pull.

    You might also consider whether the terminal emulation can be
changed...if the application is really hardcoded (like Gemini's Lumber
Handling System) there's no point; it's hard-coded in COBOL and only
knows SCOANSI.  But don't overlook it; fiddling....CAREFULLY...with
termcap/terminfo just might save you a lot of trouble.

    OH...it's possible to make these thin-clients boot right into
graphical or character mode, making debugging very nice.

    There are many thin clients, but take a peek at
http://DiskLessWorkstations.com.

    Let me know how things go; though I started with SCO, I love to see
clever people manage to turn forward the clock on SCO systems.

    Good Luck!

-- 
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Brian Fahrländer                 Researcher, Conservative, and Technomad
Evansville, IN                                     http://Fahrlander.net
ICQ  5119262              Microsoft never invented email; that was Unix.
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