Re: Atari ST as Dumb Terminal
On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, John Miskinis wrote:
> Hello David,
>
> >I wish to connect my old Atari ST to my linux box running slink with a
> >serial
> >cable and use it basically as a dumb terminal.
> >
> >Could someone please point me in the direction of some useful documentation
> >as
> >to how to do this. Also does anyone know what software would be required
> >on
> >the Atari to be able to do this
> >
>
> As far as software, there is a package called "uniterm" that was
> written by a fellow employee at DIGITAL many moons ago. At the
> time it was free to employees, but I believe he released it into
> the public domain, a few years later. It has "full" VT100, and
> even VT102 emulation, and can be configured in a multitude of
> ways. I used it all the time when telecommuting back then (in
> the good 'ole days).
Thanks - I'll look into it
>
> In any case, if a web search does not turn up anything, I'm sure
> I can scrounge up a copy. I would prefer to make sure it's OK
> to distribute first, but I'm pretty sure it is out there on the
> web in a few places. If my memory serves me correct, .19 was
> the final version.
>
> Keep us posted, I've got some STs laying around, and I know at
> least one works, so I will probably be getting to this task myself
> soon. I'm not sure if a NULL modem will be necessary, I forget all
> that stuff. I believe the serial port on the ST is a MODEM port,
> which may have 2 signals switched from what a standard serial port
> on a linux box expects. I'm sure others can elaborate. I'd
> wait until someome confirms this. I do not believe it can cause any
> damage, it just won't work. But these days, I tend to take the
> safer route when experimenting with my hardware.
I got it working quite nicely using the advice given in a previous response to
my mail. I'm using what I think is a null modem cable (it was just advertised
as a data transfer cable). I'm still hunting around for a terminal emulator
though. It works with the basic vt52 emulator which came on the ST Language
disk, but the vt52 terminal lacks the features to run pine, so it's of
somewhat limited use. I also got results with kermit and a vt100 emulator
called miniterm, which I downloaded from www.shareware.com. This is still
not perfect, so I'll hunt around a bit longer.
>
> Also, somewhat off topic, there is an ST emulator called "STONX"
> (ST on X) which I also want to check out soon. I once wrote a
> small window system and Motif-like widget set layered on top of
> LINEA, and custom device drivers for the MIDI, mouse, and keyboard.
> It would be quite amazing if this could actually run on a linux box!
Further off the topic: I've experimented extensively with ST emulation under
win95 with excellent results. I did try to install STONX on one of the
university servers, but I didn't have sufficient rights to get it to go.
Some good resources on ST emulation on all platforms can be found at
www.lgd.fatal-design.com and www.atari.org
I'll probably eventually get around to trying STONX on my linux box as well.
David Purton
dcpurton@smug.adelaide.edu.au
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