The article complains about the keyboard layout. And they are probably right.
But if you are going to use a VT-100 keyboard you might as well try an editor actually designed for that keyboard, which I remember really loving at the time. KED:
Also, if you want efficient and fast displays on that screen, remember to use scrolling regions. They scroll the sections of the screen in hardware. By using them correctly you can insert and delete single lines without repainting the screen.
The problem with using a physical terminal for everyday computing in 2026 is that there is no model that provides a happy medium between sufficient bandwidth for a snappy experience while in use, and a cool retro feeling. Newer models one might have seen very recently, for example in a library, and older ones will feel sluggish.
I didn't realize how much I had come to rely on Unicode until I created my own VT-100 emulator as part of the Forth language engine (https://github.com/Eccentric-Anomalies/AMC-Forth) in the spacecraft simulator game I'm building. The display is implemented as a shader with the original VT-100 display character set embedded in code, and there is absolutely no support for anything else. Things were going along swimmingly until I realized I just shot myself in the foot when it comes to translating the game to other languages. Sometimes the old ways really did suck. At least that part of the period "feel" is guaranteed to be correct!
Back in college I ended up rooming with a bunch of unix neck beards and we used a vt320 as our "house control system." It controlled a rack in the basement hooked up to sound systems, tv remote controls for the living room entertainment systems which included a 70in crt monitor that played movie rips from network storage. Fun times.
You can put two of these back to back with the transmit and receiver wires crossed, and type straight from one to the other. Did this as a kid to chat with my little sister in another room.
There's a VT520 at my local hackspace which I spent some time getting running with a Pi, it's surprisingly practical - though as the author says the DEC keyboards are atrocious, it's like typing into wet sand.
MAME will emulate several terminals. Among them is the vt240.
Here are my links for roms and docs:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/
https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/terminal-simulator/issues/1
https://www.mail-archive.com/simh@trailing-edge.com/msg09086...
https://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Num...
https://simh.trailing-edge.narkive.com/qgzCvrl8/dec-vt-emula...
I have a bunch of PDFs in along with this, and a vt240.zip that must have come from one of the above.
I also used this command line call to get the terminal running with "bitbanger."
The article complains about the keyboard layout. And they are probably right.
But if you are going to use a VT-100 keyboard you might as well try an editor actually designed for that keyboard, which I remember really loving at the time. KED:
https://avitech.com.au/?page_id=959
Also, if you want efficient and fast displays on that screen, remember to use scrolling regions. They scroll the sections of the screen in hardware. By using them correctly you can insert and delete single lines without repainting the screen.
I love old terminals and I still have a VT520 which is still very practicable, it can do up to 115200 instead of rhe VT-100's 9600.
But most programs ignore termcap these days which is a huge issue. Running stuff through tmux helps but it's not ideal.
I am sad to say that the latest release Neovim (0.12) no longer works properly with my VT420.
The problem with using a physical terminal for everyday computing in 2026 is that there is no model that provides a happy medium between sufficient bandwidth for a snappy experience while in use, and a cool retro feeling. Newer models one might have seen very recently, for example in a library, and older ones will feel sluggish.
I didn't realize how much I had come to rely on Unicode until I created my own VT-100 emulator as part of the Forth language engine (https://github.com/Eccentric-Anomalies/AMC-Forth) in the spacecraft simulator game I'm building. The display is implemented as a shader with the original VT-100 display character set embedded in code, and there is absolutely no support for anything else. Things were going along swimmingly until I realized I just shot myself in the foot when it comes to translating the game to other languages. Sometimes the old ways really did suck. At least that part of the period "feel" is guaranteed to be correct!
Back in college I ended up rooming with a bunch of unix neck beards and we used a vt320 as our "house control system." It controlled a rack in the basement hooked up to sound systems, tv remote controls for the living room entertainment systems which included a 70in crt monitor that played movie rips from network storage. Fun times.
70in CRT monitor?? Wasn't 43in Trinitron largest CRT ever created?
Probably a crt projection tv.
Yep. Either projector or rear projector or didn't happen. I think 70 was pretty big for a rear projection unit.
You can put two of these back to back with the transmit and receiver wires crossed, and type straight from one to the other. Did this as a kid to chat with my little sister in another room.
"generating SIGTERM on Control + C"
That'll be SIGINT, but I understand, he just tests whether we pay attention.
Every now and then I look for a vt320 from my university days. Still miss the smell of hot dust on CRT electron guns.
There's a VT520 at my local hackspace which I spent some time getting running with a Pi, it's surprisingly practical - though as the author says the DEC keyboards are atrocious, it's like typing into wet sand.