> 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. ;)
                                      
Most of the losses in the cable are in the resistance losses of the
cable and the cable/connector idc pins.  If the cable is short and
good cable is used that is not much.  What, in particular does the
ribbon cable have problems with (or where)?  If it is not the cable,
but is the connector, I could solder up DB15's on.  Anyone have the
pinouts of the monitor/base cable?

> >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.

I do a fair amount of gnuplot/plotutils graphics in the lab, here, so
being able to run that on VAXbaby would be nice.  That is what I was
gathering up the bits for the VS3100, to work with.  If the MicroVAX
will do it reasonably well via 4014 output, that is neato.

.....

> >..... 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! :-)

WillDo.....

I see them lugging away cartloads of mini-tower PC crates with 486's
and pentium 75's, and keep chuckling all the way over to the Sun and DEC
treasures.....(:+}}.....

What is really funny is watching them hook up Sun/DEC/IBM AIX boxes that
have PC marked on them somewhere, and when they don't see anything windoz
appearing on the screen, they freak out and you hear them talking that the
machines are dead, or something is wrong, and then they scurry over to the
next pile of more PCish things....... (I smile and wait a bit for them to
move on....., then DIVE, DIVE, DIVE.....(:+}}.....)

Bob