On Fri, 05 Nov 1999, NetBSD Bob wrote:
>What sort of cable connects to the monitor  from the base.  It looked like
>a short 15 pin thing.  Will a ribbon cable a foot long or so do, with
>the usual IDC connectors or does it require exotic twisted pair or shielded
>coax cabling?

  I've used ribbon cables in a pinch.  The monitor gets its power from the
vt240 base, though, which is a bit too much current for regular ribbon
cable...so don't expect said ribbon cable to last very long. ;)

>I was noticing on the one of the terminal web sites with info on the VT
>line, that they did graphics.  Is that capability of much use anymore?
>...or possibly on something like a terminal driven MicroVAX where the
>Tektronics graphics could be invoked?

  Yep...I find those capabilities useful when hacking with gnuplot, for
example.  The vt240 handles ReGIS graphics (Remote Graphics Instruction Set)
and SIXEL graphics if I recall correctly, though I've never played around with
SIXEL.  ReGIS is cool.

>Thanks, we will see, and if they have not just thrown them into the trash
>next week.....(:+{{... terminals for a buck.... terminals for a buck.....
>The fun of playing with NON-PC stuff.....(:+}}.... I let the PC horde
>scamper through first, then liesurely stroll through after they have
>thinned out so I have time to dive and play..... interesting treasures
>float to the surface of the bilges that way..... the PC folks, just
>don't know what they are missing.....(:+}}.

  The PC weenies are conditioned to accept that machines crashing a few
times a day is "ok".  We live in a much nicer world.  Go grab that vt240! :-)

                              -Dave McGuire