|TTY: Yes, teletype. I have used these beasts as the serial console in the
|dark ages. They were current loop interface, though, not RS-232. I think the
|name "tty" for the serial device stuck though as the Bell Labs people
|probably liked the TLA.
|Teletypewriter services are still offered by some organisations however you
|get a serial terminal / computer, not a clunky electromechanical teletype.
|I think if I were designing the interface from scratch, I might have called
|it /dev/ser rather than /dev/tty, but then I never worked for Bell.
Back in those days CRT terminals cost as much in $s as a PC now. To
emphasize the possibility of migration, one terminal manufacturer (Lear
Siegler?) advertised their terminals as "glass teletypes". Basser CS
Dept at the U of Sydney had a lab of printing teletypes, albeit dot
matrix and not hammer mechanism. Later this was supplemented by
Telerays. Vi? That was in the future. There were a couple of
full-screen editors, but students were taught an enhanced version of ed
called em, for the reason that everybody had to share a VAX 11/780.
Nowadays you have more CPU power on your desktop.
The other thing to remember is that we didn't think of the dichotomy
between serial and parallel interfaces that much. The Centronics
interface really became popular only with the advent of the IBM PC.
Another fossil name from that period is the parallel port: /dev/lp.
Teletype you could say, ok that sounds like what it does, allows you to
type remotely, but line printer? Not many people have seen a real line
printer, with hammers, print chains and all that.
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