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DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

clockworkpi.com

131–140 of 171 posts

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#131

The flat design would seem to make this even less ergonomic than a laptop (an already low bar). Is this meant to be placed on a desk? The user would basically have to hang their head down to look at the display, which is just in front of their fingers. There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. Otherwise, the retro hardware aesthetic is cool. Reminds me a bit of the early brie…

> I can't think of any actual use I would have for a thermal printer, but I like the idea of it. Is that beige thing labelled Expansion Port a thermal printer? That's what it looked like to me but I couldn't find it identified as such anywhere. I like the idea, too. I also suspect like you it would turn out to be completely useless. But I can also imagine you might find one or two use cases that turn it into a killer…

Search the linked page for the words "thermal printer" and ye shall find

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#132
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. A portable KVM/crash cart could be useful.

take a look at NexDock - laptop form factor, without the innards. just a keyboard, trackpad, screen, and battery waiting to connect to a phone, server rack, pi, or what have you.

$270 is a lot for an empty laptop.

Seems like the Pinebook guys could make a decent competitor.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#133

Looks pretty neat! But what's the point of the thermal printer? Is this supposed to be used as a portable cash register?

I’ve imagined using a thermal printer as a semi-unattended packet radio terminal that wouldn’t lose messages when the batteries died.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#134
post #76

A5 is too small, at A4 I would be interested. Are those volume/brightness controls on the sides, or are they just decorative?

afaik the "knobs" are decorative fasteners that snap together the front and back plates of the device. They are not functional knobs.

That's a shame. Those could have been useful for adjusting volume, brightness, zoom/scale, h/v scroll, etc.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#135
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of form factor is called a cyberdeck, and is inspired by cyberpunk fiction and roleplaying games. Most of the community has now converged on screens that tilt up for practicality's sake, but the flat ones do have a retro charm.

inspired by cyberpunk fiction and roleplaying games It's a near copy of the TRS-80 Model 100. It's so close that the people behind this project have been flogging it on TRS-80 mailing lists and other fora.

I wonder, how can I find mailing lists that align with my interests? I am not interested in TRS-80, but I wonder if there are mailing lists for other topics that I am interested in

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#137
post #3

This looks fantastic. Utterly useless, but fantastic.

Never in my fevered dreams while wrestling with this kind of display gear and accompanying terminal experience in the dark ages of computing, cursing the foul limitations and wishing I could jump forward a few decades, did I ever imagine people would pay to get the same experience I was going through back then. Sure, today there is a nostalgic twinge for my long-trashed yute, but not so nostalgic to pay for reliving…

When I studied, X-Terminals were rare, and always in use as people used them to explore this wonderous new World Wide Web.

At the same time, we had rooms full of green text terminals that nobody bothered with anymore. You could just jump on one at any time. And because they were distraction-free, they were really great at getting actual work done. No facebook or yahoo or whatever crap it was at that time to distract you :) I kinda miss that. Though it's hard these days to work without documentation and stackoverflow on the side. But needing to invent every wheel did mean making better code in general, I think. It was just a lot slower.

But yeah I've been looking to replicate that experience for a long time. This isn't it though.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#138
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would buy something like this if it had HDMI and VGA in , and could let me use as a portable console to plug into machines.

So much this. I want a display, a VGA in, a keyboard and something that is capable of running a terminal and a switch for VGA in and the built-in Raspberry/Odroid/whatever. I would pay anything up to $500-600. Found nothing so far. Edit: forgot RJ45.

Yeah RJ45 is a HUGE miss on modern laptops. Nothing like a fast stable wired connection.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#139
That trackball with the buttons miles away looks really unergonomic.

And why go for the Rpi 3 CM when the 4 is out now? That's sad as it leaves a lot of upgradability behind.

PS: What are those wheels on the side? They look a bit typewriterish but I assume they are for something else?

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