Re: VT100

[Charles Good <good -at- AUR -dot- ALCATEL -dot- COM>]

Actually, DEC did define "VT" as meaning "Video Terminal". This was
done is several books such as DEC's "Guide to Personal Computing"
(copyright 1982) which had a glossary section in the back.  It states...

        VT: Video Terminal - The common trademarked name of Digital's
        VT100 family of video terminals.


To really appreciate the significance of the VT family, we need go back
in time before the VT100 existed.

Back when mini computers were the size of 6-foot kitchen refrigerators,
Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) made a Video Terminal (VT) called VT52.
It was designed to work with their PDP-11 mini computers and it
established a set of internal commands for programming the terminal.
This was back long before Ethernet and other alternative were available
and all DEC terminals were serial RS-232 devices.

Around 1980, DEC offered an "high performance" video terminal, the
VT100, that had advanced video features.  It became the basic building
block for DEC systems like the VAX and intelligent terminal configurations
such as the PDT-11 programmable data terminals (not to be confused with
the DEC VT55 graph drawing video terminal with integral copier).

Keep in mind that these were the days of monochrome displays and monospace
type (i.e., print wheel and fixed type band printers). Graphics as we know
it today with multiple font families and adjustible type sizes/kerning did
not exist for these devices.

The VT100 features included:

*  Detachable keyboard (previously molded into monitor case)

*  Limited graphics and line drawing characters

*  Double-wide and double-size character lines

*  Alternate character attributes (blinking, double intensity [bold],
 underlining)

*  Split screen scrolling (if you opened more than one file with the
   VAX editor, EDT)

*  Supports both ANSI and VT52 command modes (for programming terminal)

*  Reverse video display

*  Supports either 80-character or 132-character widths (the latter was
   a challenge for 20/20 vision.


Later, a monochrome graphics version, the VT102, was released and it became
the standard for do bar charts and graphs with products like Supercomp-20
spreadsheets and Datatrieve databases.

By 1983, the VT100s were being replaced with more slimline VT220 terminals
and the first-generation DECmate word processor systems and DEC Rainbow PCs
were hitting the market. The VT102 was replaced by their first color monitor
graphics terminal, the VT240.

By 1985, the newer VT320 and VT340C terminals had been introduced as a cost-
reduced alternative to the expensive VT220 and VT240 series. By then, DEC
also offered a total office automation solution for a VT, DECmate and DEC PC
 environment. It was called All-In-One. But that's another story.

For many years, PC-based communications packages that offered terminal emulators
incorporated the VT100 as a bare minimum configuration. More recent products
support VT200 and VT300 series emulation which makes them graphics compatible.

Hope this answers your question.