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From: mit-athena!jim@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA (Jim Fulton)
Message-Id: <8404090716.AA26258@mit-atlas>
Date:  9 Apr 1984 0216-EST (Monday)
To: lbm@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA, doug@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA,
        eva@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA, jg@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA,
        dm@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA, mike@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA
Cc: jim@mit-atlas.Berkeley.ARPA
Subject: Solution to our prayers and making PRO's do the right thing.

How I spent my weekend....

Doug, you'll love the multi-color viper.
Mike's backups are wonderful.

Penplot works beautifully with the PRO's.  Since we already have over 10 of
them out in the field, this should solve one of our major problems right away:
the lack of graphics terminals, especially color graphics terminals (which the
PRO's do fairly nicely).  I spent a lot of time making that I understand what
they can and can't do.  Somebody up there likes us.  For once.

But, In order to support the PRO 350's as plotting terminals as soon as
possible, I would like to suggest the following changes to /etc/termcap and
/etc/ttytype:

    a.  modify the VT125 termcap entry to include the escape sequences to
	reset the graphics plane also.  I suggest that we replace the
	appropriate entry with

		$[H$[J$[1;24]r$PpS(E)$\		where $ = ESC

	This homes the cursor, clears the text plane, resets the scrolling
	region to include the whole screen, and clears the graphics plane.

    b.  make PRO350 an alias for (or copy of) VT125 in /etc/termcap.

    c.  modify the /etc/ttytype files to make PRO's be called PRO350.  The
	reasons for using the alias is modularity (the PRO is really only
	emulating the VT102 which understands Regis like the VT125) and to
	keep EMACS from trying to screw up key bindings.


The alternative is to provide another program to specifically clear the
VT125 and PRO screens of their graphics.  I can here the gagging now, and
I agree.

I even volunteer to go and do this to the world if the labor is needed.  I
do have one restriction:  a decision about this has to be made IMMEDIATELY
since I must describe whatever mechanism is chosen in the Penplot Documentation
that I have spent a lot of time this weekend working on to get it ready for
Publication this week (another big gripe from our users).  I apologize for
pushing people, but this one is probably fairly important (it will improve
facilities, performance, and public relations all in one move).

					time to catch up on homework,
					Jim

P.S.  Right now, the penplot document I mentioned above can be found in the
files 'atlas:~jim/penplot.{mss,lpt}'.  Depending on the solution to the
question I mentioned above, it may or may not have to be altered before it can
be submitted for review.  Linda, you might want to get a head start on it,
though.