Re: ISO VT320 emulator with key-bindings for Oracle Forms

In article <3756BEB7.E9CCD66F_at_GSC.GTE.Com>, Scott G. Hall <Scott.Hall_at_GSC.GTE.Com> wrote:
: "Richard S. Shuford" wrote:
: >
: > "Frampton Steve R" wrote:
: > > I'm in need of a VT320 emulator with key-bindings for Oracle
: > > SQL*Forms; it needs to either run under Linux/Unix or [in dosemu].
: >
: > Keep in mind that character-cell terminals communicate their
: > keystrokes by means of Escape sequences, as opposed to scan codes.
: > You must set up your keyboard so that, when you press a key, it sends
: > the proper Escape sequence to tell Oracle what action to perform.
: >
: > Some terminal-related information is archived at
: >
: > http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
: >
: > (There is even a mention there of the Queens University Kermit
: > program! :-)
:
: There is another regular poster to this newsgroup who is the author of
: Kermit-95. I believe that he emulates the VT-220 function keys correctly
: so that it would work for you. Let's hope he is reading this now, and
: can reply if he has a version for UNIX.
:

Sorry, we can't make terminal emulators for UNIX as we do for DOS and Windows, since in UNIX we do not have direct access to the keyboard and screen. How is a UNIX application supposed to know that you pushed F7 on your keyboard, or Ctrl-F8, or Alt-Right-Arrow, etc? It usually doesn't even know what kind of keyboard you have. Remember that UNIX, unlike Windows and friends, can be accessed:

1. From the raw console (the workstation's physical keyboard and screen without any kind of window manager);
2. From an X window, using the workstations real keyboard and screen;
3. From an X window, but on some other computer;
4. From a Telnet session (or Rlogin, etc);
5. Through a serial port.

A terminal emulator might be possible in case (1), but there would need to be a different one for every UNIX variety on every kind of hardware, so it's not likely to happen.

A terminal emulator is possible in case (2), but you already have one. It's called xterm. The regular xterm emulates vt100, and there is a vt220 version available at:

  http://www.clark.net/pub/dickey/xterm/xterm.faq.html

Start xterm and then run Kermit in the xterm window and poof: you have a terminal emulator that can make serial or network connections to other computers. Key mapping is handled by xterm.

For completeness, case 3 is kind of like case 2 maybe, and in cases 4 and 5 the UNIX application obviously can't get at your keyboard or screen.

• Frank