Hello! John was this a 717 type device as described in, "Granted, we had a 3270ish box on the 3274's coax network that would allow a "regular" ASCII terminal to be used instead of, say, a 3277."? And can you point to an appropriate location to see what a 7171 type device would look like.
Your description struck a chord based on your reference to that MVS3.8 Turnkey disk. As it happens I lurk over on most of the lists there, I also manage a few, so your reference caught me, and I thought I would ask. (The list in question was discussing the right way to attach almost anything else to an emulated environment on Intel. It happens I triggered it, but that's all I'll say.) -- Gregg C Levine [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The Force will be with you. Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi > -----Original Message----- > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John > Campbell > Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 6:15 PM > To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU > Subject: [LINUX-390] Fw: [LINUX-390] Let Novell Know if you want a easy CMS- > friendly starter system! > > > I cannot help but think that this is a job for inverse TN3270. > > (Not sure what else to call it. Maybe "reverse protocol conversion"?) > > Making a Linux distro CMS-friendly is one thing, and is VERY useful. > > But making it 3270-friendly is closer to "same as a PC", which is > > what some customers expect. The principle of least astonishment > > comes into play. Let me explain. > > > > Getting the *output* from 'yast' and other textual (but full-screen) > > tools to display on a 3270 is easy. It's the *input* from a 3270 > > which is more challenging, and that only because the text mode apps > > presume on byte-at-a-time keystroke interaction. But we who live in > > the 3270 world know full well that block-mode input is fully interactive. > > Actually, I can see how some of this _could_ almost be done... but it > may take some creativity in using a "non-tty" interface/driver which > would front-end the TTY driver (well, a wedge into it, at least). > > (laughs) > > Look, I've been around a bit. I'll admit that I'm underwhelmed by > the local capabilities of a 3270-ish device (it's just a buffered > display w/ little in the way of local intelligence... though you can > make various chunks of the screen "protected" for forms). I have to > admit the times I've written the bisync drivers for a 3270ish terminal > enemalator that I liked the protocol, it was just the "tube" that I > really didn't like. Heck, I even wrote a handshake for data transfer > between hospital ancillary systems on the Unix end that basically, as > I look on it now, acted like a robot. Granted, we had a 3270ish box > on the 3274's coax network that would allow a "regular" ASCII terminal > to be used instead of, say, a 3277. Heck, I played with a "black box" > device that made the "327x" terminal look like a vt220, too, so this > kind of "faking" can't be all that hard. Been there, done that. > > I _did_ have fun, however, with Uniscopes-- the Sperry+UNIVAC buffered > terminals which DID have a lot of local intelligence but had, to my > eye, an annoyingly clunky bisync protocol (UCCP was _not_ fun and had > a lot of "features" I didn't like to deal with... but it was that > clunky handshake that caused me to write a full screen editor for the > Uniscope and UTS-400 terminals just to cut down on the number of the > poll/select handshakes to display a line for editing... and be ready > for the next editing/entry. > > I'm wondering if there's a cute way to simulate this whole bizarre > handshake inside the line discipline logic? In some ways you have > to emulate the terminal internally and just push the buffer out to > the display frequently enough to do the job... but, to my limited > knowledge, the 3270 doesn't really pass keystrokes at all, but does > want to enter into a field and transmission is implicit. > > (laughs) > > A virtual KD terminal with a text-mode frame buffer... > > (shakes head) > > 'tis a pity I ain't a mainframer. > > I *will* grant that some things may be harder to enemalate within > such an environment... so, maybe, "vi" will be "out"... or, maybe, > not. > > I'm still hoping for a "turnkey" Linux CD, kind of like the turnkey > MVS 3.8 CD I've played with, which might make it easier for me to > understand how it all fits together. I've put Linux on pSeries, > Sparcstations along with PCs, thinkpads and PCs... but the big 'ol > mainframe *still* throws me a curve... even though I played with > the architecture back in the days of the V5 USF being mapped to it > without "Guest VLANs" (you know... using CTCs and IUCVs) but could > never get my own hands "dirty". > > -soup > > -------------------- > John R. Campbell, Speaker to Machines (GNUrd), Stand-Up Philosopher > Phone: (813) 356-5322 (t/l 697) > Adsumo ergo raptus sum > MacOS X: Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging > Windows. > Red Hat Certified Engineer (#803004680310286) > IBM Certified: IBM AIX 4.3 System Administration, System Support > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or > visit > http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
