Integrating a VT220 into my life • Hacker News Board

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#81

Post by jhallenworld » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 3:35 AM UTC

vmorgulis wrote: post #25

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I got the pictured one refurbished through vecmar.com, and I just bought a second one on eBay (for use at home).

Very cool post :) The VT220 supports Sixels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixel I wonder if PySixel would work on real hardware: https://github.com/saitoha/PySixel HN thread about libsixel: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11340367

I remember someone at school wrote a program to inspect a remote Decstation 3100 (1024x864x1) screen on a vt320. Frequently people were running X with "xhost +".

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#82

Post by apetresc » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 3:45 AM UTC

paulmd wrote: post #76

aexaey wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1mA/MIPS is a pretty generous power budget, with ESP8266 easily fitting the bill (56mA @80MHz + wifi rx; 10 uA in deep sleep [1]). Talking of which - here is Jeroen Domburg's project where he used exactly this chip to make a wireless battery-powered e-ink display: [0] http://spritesmods.com/?art=einkdisplay [1] http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?t=133

I'd forgotten all about the ESP8266 but this project is about 95% of what I'm aiming for. The rest should be relatively trivial programming work, so thanks! Can't speak for the other guy (who wants a portable monitor+keyboard system), but what I'm mostly looking for is a terminal that I could carry around/outside the house (i.e. potentially high-glare conditions) and program while connected to wifi, while not recharg…

Regarding your query about a remote login protocol that's smart about buffering, etc, I think you're looking for mosh: https://mosh.mit.edu/

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#83

Post by protomyth » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 4:14 AM UTC

mrbill wrote: post #3

I feel old; I used a Wyse 320 and later a VT220 as my sole / main IO device in 1995-96 - connected to a SPARCstation 10 via a multi-port serial box at 9600 baud, with heavy use of GNU Screen. Even now, I still use a variation on that - a tall terminal window, ssh, and screen - for the majority of my work.

Well, I've used the Z19, IBM 5150, and VT 220 & 240 in my early years, so your among other late 80s / early 90s terminal room dwellers. I still have a green screen terminal configure on my Mac.

Although, I have switched to yellow text / red background for production and blue background for test environments. Keeps one from doing really stupid things.

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#84

Post by tuananh » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 4:38 AM UTC

paulmd wrote: post #30

Quasi-related: I've always wanted an ultra-low-power dumb terminal using eInk paper displays - something you could hit days of runtime with using a small battery pack. eInk uses no power when they're not updating - so idling or long-running operations would hardly use any power. So far the easiest approach I've found is using a hacked Kindle with an attached keyboard. You can run a terminal client on it and ssh into…

but every change on screen require redraw the whole thing right? stuff on terminal change a lot more often than reading a book.

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#85

Post by kyberias » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 5:23 AM UTC

Bud wrote: post #35

I've still got an old vt100. Last time I used it, it was still working, although admittedly, that was in the early 2000s. :)

Lucky you. I also had a working VT100 some years ago. It's a nice device but rather huge. Still I hope to have it back. It was nice to see those monsters in The Big Short.

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#86

Post by lucaspiller » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 5:40 AM UTC

paulmd wrote: post #76

aexaey wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1mA/MIPS is a pretty generous power budget, with ESP8266 easily fitting the bill (56mA @80MHz + wifi rx; 10 uA in deep sleep [1]). Talking of which - here is Jeroen Domburg's project where he used exactly this chip to make a wireless battery-powered e-ink display: [0] http://spritesmods.com/?art=einkdisplay [1] http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?t=133

I'd forgotten all about the ESP8266 but this project is about 95% of what I'm aiming for. The rest should be relatively trivial programming work, so thanks! Can't speak for the other guy (who wants a portable monitor+keyboard system), but what I'm mostly looking for is a terminal that I could carry around/outside the house (i.e. potentially high-glare conditions) and program while connected to wifi, while not recharg…

I regularly use Vim over high latency connections (50ms+) for extended periods, and it's really not that big a deal.

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#87

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 5:47 AM UTC

displague wrote: post #45

darklajid wrote: post #9

Looking at that workspace I just need - another large monitor - my MTG cards collection back - at least four magic cubes - a nerf gun and ... a VT220. At least I got that very same keyboard already. Seriously, that looks like a really nice working space, completely ignoring the fact that I just learned about sway (I'm on i3 here) in the process.

You would also need a vial of Uranium Ore. http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cP...

[deleted]

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#88

Post by hudibras » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 5:48 AM UTC

darklajid wrote: post #9

Looking at that workspace I just need - another large monitor - my MTG cards collection back - at least four magic cubes - a nerf gun and ... a VT220. At least I got that very same keyboard already. Seriously, that looks like a really nice working space, completely ignoring the fact that I just learned about sway (I'm on i3 here) in the process.

And a Minecraft mousepad.

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#89

Post by semi-extrinsic » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 6:45 AM UTC

tuananh wrote: post #84

paulmd wrote: post #30

Quasi-related: I've always wanted an ultra-low-power dumb terminal using eInk paper displays - something you could hit days of runtime with using a small battery pack. eInk uses no power when they're not updating - so idling or long-running operations would hardly use any power. So far the easiest approach I've found is using a hacked Kindle with an attached keyboard. You can run a terminal client on it and ssh into…

but every change on screen require redraw the whole thing right? stuff on terminal change a lot more often than reading a book.

I've always thought that eInk+terminal would be the perfect use case for vt100 mode. This is built into xterm etc. and emulates phosphorus displays, where adding new elements to the display is fast but calling a full redraw is slow. Just like eInk.

Re: Integrating a VT220 into my life

#90

Post by kqr » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 7:34 AM UTC

tuananh wrote: post #84

paulmd wrote: post #30

Quasi-related: I've always wanted an ultra-low-power dumb terminal using eInk paper displays - something you could hit days of runtime with using a small battery pack. eInk uses no power when they're not updating - so idling or long-running operations would hardly use any power. So far the easiest approach I've found is using a hacked Kindle with an attached keyboard. You can run a terminal client on it and ssh into…

but every change on screen require redraw the whole thing right? stuff on terminal change a lot more often than reading a book.

You can change stuff without flushing the current contents, but previous contents may leave a weak trace when you do so. It's why Kindles have a setting to flush the screen every three pages or something; a decent compromise between ghosting and refresh rate.