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240 lines
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="LinuxDoc-Tools 0.9.21">
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<TITLE> Text-Terminal-HOWTO: Introduction </TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO-2.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO-2.html">Next</A>
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Previous
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<A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="intro"></A> <A NAME="s1">1.</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1">Introduction </A></H2>
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<P> For a quick attempt to install a text-terminal see
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<A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO-4.html#quick_install">Quick Install</A>.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.1">Copyright, Trademarks, Disclaimer, & Credits</A>
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</H2>
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<H3>Copyright</H3>
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<P> Copyright 1998-2010 by David S. Lawyer.
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<A HREF="mailto:dave@lafn.org">mailto:dave@lafn.org</A></P>
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<P>Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document
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in any format. Send any corrections and comments to the document
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maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute it
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provided that you:</P>
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI> If it's not a translation: Email a copy of your derivative work
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(in a format LDP accepts) to the author(s) and maintainer (could be
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the same person). If you don't get a response then email the LDP
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(Linux Documentation Project): submit@en.tldp.org.</LI>
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<LI>License the derivative work in the spirit of this license or use
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GPL. Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the
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license used.</LI>
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<LI>Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.</LI>
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</OL>
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</P>
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<P>If you're considering making a derived work other than a
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translation, it's requested that you discuss your plans with the
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current maintainer.</P>
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<H3>Disclaimer</H3>
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<P> While I haven't intentionally tried to mislead you, there are
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likely a number of errors in this document. Please let me know about
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them. Since this is free documentation, it should be obvious that I
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cannot be held legally responsible for any errors.</P>
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<H3>Trademarks.</H3>
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<P> Any brand names (starts with a capital letter such as MS Windows)
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should be assumed to be a trademark). Such trademarks belong to their
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respective owners. </P>
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<H3>Credits</H3>
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<P>
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Greg Hankin's Serial-HOWTO v.1.11 (1997) section "How Do I Set Up A
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Terminal Connected To My PC?" was incorporated into v1.00 at various
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places (with Greg's permission). v1.09 of Text-Terminal-HOWTO had
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about 25 changes (and error corrections) suggested by Alessandro
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Rubini. For v1.26 I fixed about 25 typos, etc. found by Alain
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Cochard. Jeremy Spykerman told me about using a keyboardless terminal
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as a console for a monitorless PC (using ttysnoop). Numerous other
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people have made a suggestion or two or found a few typos. Thanks.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.2">Future Plans: You Can Help</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The author is looking for someone to take over maintaining this
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howto. Since real text terminals are pretty much obsolete, there is not
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a lot of work to do except that links sometimes disappear and
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automatically finding devices such a dumb terminals on a serial port may
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not work right. One project is to rewrite this howto oriented towards
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text-terminal emulation with the command line interface. Another
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project would be to start with the brief overview of GUI terminals in
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this HOWTO and create a new and up-to-date HOWTO on thin clients or the
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like.</P>
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<P>Please let me know of any errors in facts, opinions, logic,
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spelling, grammar, clarity, links, etc. But first, if the date is
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over a couple of years old, check to see that you have the latest version.
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Please send me any info that you think belongs in this document.</P>
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<P>In order to fully utilize all the features of a certain real terminal,
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one needs the terminal manuals that came with the terminal when it was
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new. If you don't have a manual, this HOWTO may be of some help. One
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way to have solved this problem would be for terminal manufacturers to
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put their manuals on the Internet but they never did. Except that Wyse
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made available some of their user manuals and someone scanned old VT-100
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manuals. </P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.3">New Versions of this HOWTO</A>
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</H2>
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<P> New versions of the Text-Terminal-HOWTO should be released every
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couple of years. To get the latest version go to an LDP mirror sites (see:
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<A HREF="http://www.tldp.org/mirrors.html">http://www.tldp.org/mirrors.html</A>). To quickly check the date
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of the latest version look at
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<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/html_single/Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html">Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html</A>. The version your are currently
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reading is: v1.43 March 2013 . </P>
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<P>For a full revision history going back to the first version in
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1998 see the source file (in linuxdoc format):
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<A HREF="http://cvs.tldp.org/go.to/LDP/LDP/howto/linuxdoc/Text-Terminal-HOWTO.sgml?view=markup">(cvs) Text-Terminal-HOWTO.sgml</A></P>
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI> v1.43 Mar. 2013 Putty's pterm emulation. Cleanup. Shuford's website
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now defunct. Looking for a new maintainer. Wyse data missing from
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Internet. Rewrote abstract. Clarity in stty raw problem. Links to Wikipedia.</LI>
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<LI>v1.42 Jan. 2010 PuTTY serial terminal emulator, cutecom (dumb
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emulator), colors, links to wikipedia, Boundless still selling
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terminals, small footprint terminals, link to art. on text browsers.</LI>
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</UL>
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</P>
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<H2><A NAME="related_howtos"></A> <A NAME="ss1.4">1.4</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.4">Related HOWTOs </A>
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</H2>
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<P> Go to the nearest mirror site (per above) to get HOWTOs.
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<UL>
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<LI> Serial-HOWTO has info on Multiport Serial Cards used for both
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terminals and banks of modems. It has general technical info on the
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serial port including troubleshooting it.</LI>
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<LI> NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> MacTerminal mini-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> Modem-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> Serial-Programming-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> NC mini-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> NCD-X-Terminal mini-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> XDM-and-X-Terminal mini-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> Connecting-X-Terminals-to-Linux-Mini-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> NCD-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> Thinclient-HOWTO</LI>
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<LI> Xterminals-HOWTO </LI>
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<LI> Xterm-Title-HOWTO (only for changing the title of a window)</LI>
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</UL>
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</P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.5">1.5</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.5">Terminology Used in this Document</A>
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</H2>
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<P> Configuration means the same as set-up. While Linux commands take
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options (using - or -- symbols), options in a broader sense include
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various other types of choices. Install in the broad sense includes
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setting up (configuring) software and hardware. A statement that I
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suspect is true (but may not be) ends with 2 question marks: ?? If
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you know for sure, let me know.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.6">1.6</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.6">What is a Terminal ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P> A terminal consists of a screen and keyboard that one uses to
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communicate remotely with a computer (the host). One uses it almost
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like it was a personal computer but the terminal is remote from its
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host computer that it communicates with (on the other side of the room
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or even on the other side of the world). Programs execute on the host
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computer but the results display on the terminal screen. Originally
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terminals were stand-alone devices with no computational ability and
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thus they were once much cheaper in cost than computers. They had no
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pictures or audio, but could only display text and were thus called
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"text terminals". Today, the cost of PC computers is so low that one
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may use a PC like a text terminal by running a software program to
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make it behave like an old text terminal. You formerly found real
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text terminals at libraries and schools.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.7">1.7</A> <A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1.7">Real Text Terminals</A>
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</H2>
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<P> In the olden days of mainframes, from the mid 1970's to the mid
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1980's, most communication with large computers was done by people
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sitting in front of real text-terminals. And in the 1970's, before
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the advent of personal computers, it was the only way to interactively
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communicate with any computer. These real text-terminals were neither
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computers nor emulated text-terminals. They consisted only of a
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screen, keyboard, and only enough memory to store a screenfull or so
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of text (a few kilobytes). Users typed in programs, ran programs,
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wrote documents, issued printing commands, etc. A cable connected the
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terminal to the computer (often indirectly). It was called a terminal
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since it was located at the terminal end of this cable. Some
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text-terminals were called "graphic" but the resolution was poor, the
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speed slow, and little software was available to support such
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graphics.</P>
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<P>Today, real terminals are becoming rarities for most all computer
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users. But there is still some specialized uses for them as
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point-of-sale devices and for access to mainframes and servers where
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graphics and pictures are not needed. However, if a text terminal is
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needed people will sometimes use a personal computer to emulate a
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terminal.</P>
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<P>Almost everyone who uses Linux also uses terminal emulation. When you are
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not using an X Window GUI at a Linux PC, you are likely using a text
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interface (virtual terminal). It's also called a "command line
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interface". In X Window one can also get a command line interface
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using one or more terminal windows by using an x-terminal-emulator
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with names such as xterm, gnome-terminal, or konsole (KDE). All these
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use software to emulate a real terminal. However in these cases, one
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doesn't need most of the information provided by this HOWTO since such
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emulation is automatically set up for the user. However if one
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emulates a terminal using a software program and then connects that
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emulated terminal to another computer via a serial port cable, then
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this HOWTO should be more useful (provided your PC has a serial port
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on it --almost all recent PCs made after 2009 didn't have them anymore).</P>
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<P>A real text-terminal is different from a monitor or
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x-terminal-emulator because the simple character images that get
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displayed on the text-terminal are stored right inside the terminal in
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it's memory. For a monitor or x-terminal-emulator, the images are
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stored in the video card of the PC and/or in the PC's memory itself.
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The text-terminal's keyboard plugs into the terminal and is part
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of the terminal while a PC's keyboard plugs into the computer.</P>
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<P>For a monitor, the video images are sent by a short cable running from
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the video card to the monitor while for a text-terminal there is a
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bi-directional flow of character bytes in a long cable between the
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computer's serial port and the PC it's connected to. Most text
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terminals do not have mice.</P>
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<P>In network client-server terminology, one might think that a real
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terminal is the client and that the host computer is the server. The
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terminal has been called a "thin client" by some. But it is not
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actually a "client" nor is the host a "server". The only "service"
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the host provides is to receive every letter typed at the keyboard and
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react to this just like a computer would if you typed at its own
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keyboard. The terminal is like a "window" into the computer just like
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a monitor (and keyboard) are. You may have already used virtual
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terminals in Linux (by pressing Left Alt-F2, etc.). A real terminal
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is just like running such a virtual terminal but you run it on its own
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terminal screen instead of having to share the monitor screen. In
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contrast to using a virtual terminal at the console (monitor), this
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allows another person to sit at another real terminal and use the same
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computer simultaneously with others. Such multi-user interfaces are
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not "clients" and a server..</P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO-2.html">Next</A>
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Previous
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<A HREF="Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc1">Contents</A>
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</HTML>
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