DEC VT320: The Classic 1987 Library Computer Terminal
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Ryan
Pardon my TL; DR-length comment, but watching this video brings back a lot of fond memories of the first digital card catalogs my local libraries had implemented back in the 80s and 90s. The first online card catalog that my local public library brought online around 1995 (Bismarck (ND) Public Library's -Infolynx- system) was also Dynix-based (as mentioned at 2: 13, but they used color CRT Wyse terminals instead (I believe WY-325s, IIRC) with Infolynx's Dynix software running on an IBM RS/6000 server running AIX in the library's basement, that the Wyse terminals connected to. They also had a dial-up modem connected to the server so you could access it from home or elsewhere, pretty nifty back then. IIRC, they also later added the ability to telnet to Infolynx over the then-burgeoning internet.
And even going back further, the University of ND and the rest of the ND state university system, in addition to the ND State Library also in Bismarck, implemented in 1989 the -ODIN- online card catalog system (Online Dakota Information Network. It ran the Minnesota State University System-developed PALS (Project for Automated Library Systems, one of the first computerized card catalog systems) software on a Unisys mainframe, with several Unisys green-screen serial terminals installed at the State Library and all the other schools, colleges, and universities in the state, all linked together via terminal servers and leased-line 4-wire Motorola Codex modems (the state of the art in 1989-era datacomm tech, and also with a dial-up line you could access from home (with internet access via telnet added later as well.
PALS used a command-line interface with abbreviated commands for searching books and other holdings, while Dynix was a bit more intuitive with list & menu-based commands, a la Gopher (as displayed at 2: 14. In fact, Infolynx had a menu where you could telnet and gopher to select sites using the -gopher- and -telnet- apps built into IBM AIX that Dynix would call for. One time it was slightly misconfigured, and instead of returning to the proper Dynix menu after logging off a telnet or gopher site on the menu, it hung at the -telnet>- prompt instead, where I could then telnet to any site I wanted! They fixed that bug shortly after. :(
Oh, and before I got an actual computer in 1993 (an IBM PC/XT, much like how Clint uses his VT-320 featured in this video to access telnettable internet BBSes using a WiFi232, I used a serial terminal (a C. Itoh CIT-101e, basically a DEC VT-100 clone) that I got from a friend back in 1992 for accessing the local dial-up BBSes (and a K-12 online service also ran by the ND University System, -Sendit-, where I got my first taste of the internet, connected to a 1200 bps Lockheed-GETEX dial-up modem donated to me by another friend who had upgraded his modem to a 2400 bps model.
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Pardon my TL; DR-length comment, but watching this video brings back a lot of fond memories of the first digital card catalogs my local libraries had implemented back in the 80s and 90s. The first online card catalog that my local public library brought online around 1995 (Bismarck (ND) Public Library's -Infolynx- system) was also Dynix-based (as mentioned at 2: 13, but they used color CRT Wyse terminals instead (I believe WY-325s, IIRC) with Infolynx's Dynix software running on an IBM RS/6000 server running AIX in the library's basement, that the Wyse terminals connected to. They also had a dial-up modem connected to the server so you could access it from home or elsewhere, pretty nifty back then. IIRC, they also later added the ability to telnet to Infolynx over the then-burgeoning internet.
And even going back further, the University of ND and the rest of the ND state university system, in addition to the ND State Library also in Bismarck, implemented in 1989 the -ODIN- online card catalog system (Online Dakota Information Network. It ran the Minnesota State University System-developed PALS (Project for Automated Library Systems, one of the first computerized card catalog systems) software on a Unisys mainframe, with several Unisys green-screen serial terminals installed at the State Library and all the other schools, colleges, and universities in the state, all linked together via terminal servers and leased-line 4-wire Motorola Codex modems (the state of the art in 1989-era datacomm tech, and also with a dial-up line you could access from home (with internet access via telnet added later as well.
PALS used a command-line interface with abbreviated commands for searching books and other holdings, while Dynix was a bit more intuitive with list & menu-based commands, a la Gopher (as displayed at 2: 14. In fact, Infolynx had a menu where you could telnet and gopher to select sites using the -gopher- and -telnet- apps built into IBM AIX that Dynix would call for. One time it was slightly misconfigured, and instead of returning to the proper Dynix menu after logging off a telnet or gopher site on the menu, it hung at the -telnet>- prompt instead, where I could then telnet to any site I wanted! They fixed that bug shortly after. :(
Oh, and before I got an actual computer in 1993 (an IBM PC/XT, much like how Clint uses his VT-320 featured in this video to access telnettable internet BBSes using a WiFi232, I used a serial terminal (a C. Itoh CIT-101e, basically a DEC VT-100 clone) that I got from a friend back in 1992 for accessing the local dial-up BBSes (and a K-12 online service also ran by the ND University System, -Sendit-, where I got my first taste of the internet, connected to a 1200 bps Lockheed-GETEX dial-up modem donated to me by another friend who had upgraded his modem to a 2400 bps model.
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greenaum
Aw maaaan! More than anything I can think of right this second, I want a terminal! A Wyse 60, that I first used Unix on. I'd even put up with bloody Linux and it's ugly clunky implementation, compared to the System V back in the day. Just let me use a computer with a terminal! You can even run DOS through a terminal through some command or other, I wouldn't be surprised if it worked for Windows command shell too. Imagine being able to type -START whatever. exe- and it'd pop up on the main Windows screen on your monitor. Smoooooth!
Back in the day somebody ported DOOM to libtty, or whatever it's called, that's right, DOOM in ASCII art! On a terminal! Please give that a go. I would hope a gentleman like yourself has an RS232 port on his PC. The woodgrain 486 might not be up to running DOOM and libtty together, you might need something newer. But it would be so great! Actually these days you can probably get 19, 200bps over the net with little enough lag you might even be able to have DOOM as a door game. THAT would work on the 486, if you just run a terminal emulator on it and run DOOM / libtty on a more powerful PC. From the PC to the 486 to the DEC term!
It would make a good video, PLZ do it if you read this.
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Aw maaaan! More than anything I can think of right this second, I want a terminal! A Wyse 60, that I first used Unix on. I'd even put up with bloody Linux and it's ugly clunky implementation, compared to the System V back in the day. Just let me use a computer with a terminal! You can even run DOS through a terminal through some command or other, I wouldn't be surprised if it worked for Windows command shell too. Imagine being able to type -START whatever. exe- and it'd pop up on the main Windows screen on your monitor. Smoooooth!
Back in the day somebody ported DOOM to libtty, or whatever it's called, that's right, DOOM in ASCII art! On a terminal! Please give that a go. I would hope a gentleman like yourself has an RS232 port on his PC. The woodgrain 486 might not be up to running DOOM and libtty together, you might need something newer. But it would be so great! Actually these days you can probably get 19, 200bps over the net with little enough lag you might even be able to have DOOM as a door game. THAT would work on the 486, if you just run a terminal emulator on it and run DOOM / libtty on a more powerful PC. From the PC to the 486 to the DEC term!
It would make a good video, PLZ do it if you read this.
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Richard
Back in the 1980's I ran the admin computer system for a large college. It was all VAX based and we had, eventually, several hundred terminals, VT220's and VT320's and a couple of dozen printers mostly DEClasers with a line printer and a couple of LA120 dot-matrix printers too. Amber was by far the most popular, -paper white- the next and almost no one wanted a green one. In the summer vacation one of the joys was to pull in the terminals to be -serviced-, aka cleaning them. We got through some cans of Amberclense I can tell ya. Man, you just wouldn; t believe how disgusting some of those terminals were, I swear people had their lunches on the keyboards. We used to pop out the keys to get at the muck under them. And oh yeah, we ran word processing software and it had two special functions for each key - accessed using a key combo, pressing a gold or green key and then a regular key to access the special function eg Gold-U for -underline-. And that meant attaching special stickers to each key at the front. About forty keys for each terminal over several hundred. urgh!
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Back in the 1980's I ran the admin computer system for a large college. It was all VAX based and we had, eventually, several hundred terminals, VT220's and VT320's and a couple of dozen printers mostly DEClasers with a line printer and a couple of LA120 dot-matrix printers too. Amber was by far the most popular, -paper white- the next and almost no one wanted a green one. In the summer vacation one of the joys was to pull in the terminals to be -serviced-, aka cleaning them. We got through some cans of Amberclense I can tell ya. Man, you just wouldn; t believe how disgusting some of those terminals were, I swear people had their lunches on the keyboards. We used to pop out the keys to get at the muck under them. And oh yeah, we ran word processing software and it had two special functions for each key - accessed using a key combo, pressing a gold or green key and then a regular key to access the special function eg Gold-U for -underline-. And that meant attaching special stickers to each key at the front. About forty keys for each terminal over several hundred. urgh!
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Lurker
All you anti-VAXers out there need to realize that to enjoy a VT320 the best, it should be connected to one of Digital's VAX computers of the time, such as the 6000 series, MicroVAX 3600, etc, and later, when the AlphaServers came out, plenty of VT320's found new life connecting as consoles to those if the customer didn't want to buy a new VT520. Oh: And if you ever stepped into a data center with HSC50's and such (basically RAID controllers the size of washing machines, they usually had a VT320 sitting on top with a printer attached to capture any events that happened before the storage went down. Ah yes, the memories. I might even have a VT320 and LA50 in my garage somewhere. Where my DECcies at?
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All you anti-VAXers out there need to realize that to enjoy a VT320 the best, it should be connected to one of Digital's VAX computers of the time, such as the 6000 series, MicroVAX 3600, etc, and later, when the AlphaServers came out, plenty of VT320's found new life connecting as consoles to those if the customer didn't want to buy a new VT520. Oh: And if you ever stepped into a data center with HSC50's and such (basically RAID controllers the size of washing machines, they usually had a VT320 sitting on top with a printer attached to capture any events that happened before the storage went down. Ah yes, the memories. I might even have a VT320 and LA50 in my garage somewhere. Where my DECcies at?
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Richard
Back in the 80s when I studied Mathematics and Physics at the Vienna University we had several VT52 terminals that were connected to a VAX 750. Those terminals were already outdated in those days, but I liked them, the sturdy keyboard and the blue writing on the CRT. I sometimes typed in FORTRAN programs and data for several more or less weird purposes over the years. Later around 1990 more and more Atari ST Computers were used with terminal emulations and standalone for Word Processing and such things. Then came the PCs, the Internet, the VAX 750 became obsolete very soon, everything changed.
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Back in the 80s when I studied Mathematics and Physics at the Vienna University we had several VT52 terminals that were connected to a VAX 750. Those terminals were already outdated in those days, but I liked them, the sturdy keyboard and the blue writing on the CRT. I sometimes typed in FORTRAN programs and data for several more or less weird purposes over the years. Later around 1990 more and more Atari ST Computers were used with terminal emulations and standalone for Word Processing and such things. Then came the PCs, the Internet, the VAX 750 became obsolete very soon, everything changed.
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Len
I hated those dec connectors. I threw away more of those than can be imagined. That keyed rj11 sucked if you got the cables mixed in with others. They pretty much stayed with the VT. No problem for the cables, a snip and an rj11 button. Pulled from ample supply of -hoods- we sometimes pinned ourselves. But found a guy that would build cheap. The Terminal server end is where things changed greatly. Dec-Servers originally attached via Type 1, 2 Ethernet to the network. Those were a royal pain to implement. Yes a whole other subject When the white pospher came out, Those were nice.
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I hated those dec connectors. I threw away more of those than can be imagined. That keyed rj11 sucked if you got the cables mixed in with others. They pretty much stayed with the VT. No problem for the cables, a snip and an rj11 button. Pulled from ample supply of -hoods- we sometimes pinned ourselves. But found a guy that would build cheap. The Terminal server end is where things changed greatly. Dec-Servers originally attached via Type 1, 2 Ethernet to the network. Those were a royal pain to implement. Yes a whole other subject When the white pospher came out, Those were nice.
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RICHARD
I used these along with the earlier VT 220s, VT 100s, and the earlier terminal that had a keyboard integrated with the monitor. I was a system administrator for 20 to 40 DEC PDP-11 and VAX computers from 1976 untill about 2003 when our plant shut down (Also SUN UNIX systems. We frequently had over 32 users connected to any one system. I could go on for hours about the good/bad old days. They were fun if you don't mind 60 hour weeks. The only thing i want to know is how did he restore the color of the terminal. The plastic turned yellow after years of use.
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I used these along with the earlier VT 220s, VT 100s, and the earlier terminal that had a keyboard integrated with the monitor. I was a system administrator for 20 to 40 DEC PDP-11 and VAX computers from 1976 untill about 2003 when our plant shut down (Also SUN UNIX systems. We frequently had over 32 users connected to any one system. I could go on for hours about the good/bad old days. They were fun if you don't mind 60 hour weeks. The only thing i want to know is how did he restore the color of the terminal. The plastic turned yellow after years of use.
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FMphoto
Reminds me of undergrad library days. I was at school when they were all there was. I always missed the amber displays and always thought trying to emulate ink on paper by blasting a white light background with black text NEVER made sense. Now the combination of the -dark themes- fashion combined with evolving away from back-lit LCD gives us the excuse of saving battery with a dark display! You can even use amber fonts so your retinas don't explode. The first thing I do on any computer I can control is change to a dark theme.
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Reminds me of undergrad library days. I was at school when they were all there was. I always missed the amber displays and always thought trying to emulate ink on paper by blasting a white light background with black text NEVER made sense. Now the combination of the -dark themes- fashion combined with evolving away from back-lit LCD gives us the excuse of saving battery with a dark display! You can even use amber fonts so your retinas don't explode. The first thing I do on any computer I can control is change to a dark theme.
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Izlude
Would you believe I pulled an ADM 2 out of the trash back in 1998 (i think that was the year? No keyboard, just the terminal itself. The screen was garbled, obviously could have been fixed. and wouldn't ya know it, the same system (exact same one I owned) appeared on ebay about 3 years back. I wish I bought it. funny thing is that I had it in storage, my parents couldn't pay the storage, we lost it all. (along with some other vintage computers. Ugh, I would love to have the ADM 2 again. but in working order.
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Would you believe I pulled an ADM 2 out of the trash back in 1998 (i think that was the year? No keyboard, just the terminal itself. The screen was garbled, obviously could have been fixed. and wouldn't ya know it, the same system (exact same one I owned) appeared on ebay about 3 years back. I wish I bought it. funny thing is that I had it in storage, my parents couldn't pay the storage, we lost it all. (along with some other vintage computers. Ugh, I would love to have the ADM 2 again. but in working order.
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GenoppteFliese
I couldn't work with these terminals when set to smooth scrolling like shown in the video.
I worked a lot on C. Itoh 101e (CIT-101) and later vt100 compatibles for 15 years, then came remote access ( -ILO- over IP, Linux terminal servers, VMs over VNC) and today we do not even know where servers are and cheap offshoring took many of our jobs, so our daytime work is now done by poor guys working unhealthy night shifts. Human rights - who cares.
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I couldn't work with these terminals when set to smooth scrolling like shown in the video.
I worked a lot on C. Itoh 101e (CIT-101) and later vt100 compatibles for 15 years, then came remote access ( -ILO- over IP, Linux terminal servers, VMs over VNC) and today we do not even know where servers are and cheap offshoring took many of our jobs, so our daytime work is now done by poor guys working unhealthy night shifts. Human rights - who cares.
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