On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 01:16:30 -0400, Doug McGarrett
At 12:59 AM 10/22/2004 +0200, you wrote:
Wed, 13 Oct 2004, by gorebofh@comcast.net: [..]
Why is an Xterm called that after a Terminal when a Terminal is where something ends.... What were they thinking calling it that. Isn't it properly called a console? Or what? What do you call a box that's only using a command line, like run level 3....That's not a Terminal is it? I have no idea what to call these things, because I've been told Terminal is where something ends, so it would be console, but... OK I've confused myself.... I think I'm going to run too the store and get a pack of smokes heh.
So what is a Terminal, and what is a console? Someone help! ;)
/snip/
I don't know if this is a troll, but if not, then this:
When computers were, sometimes, thousands of miles away, and connected by a telephone line--at perhaps 120 Baud--the device at the operator's
< SNIP>
Naturally, all the I/O was in text format, except for early pictorial output from the ATARI and Commodore machines, which displayed on a TV screen. Control I/O had to be formatted like BASIC I/O code.
been there--doug
Nice long answer, and correct, but not very useful for Linux today. A terminal is typically a serially connected device (i.e. Com Port). Most of the UNIX machines I worked with in the 80's only had RS-232 connected terminals. (VT100/Wyse50/etc.) They were referred to as time-sharing computers by some. Typically the console is a directly connected keyboard/monitor like most PC's have, but it can also be a serially connected terminal. ie. the words are not incompatible. The key things is that with Linux, the console is where certain system level errors go by default. (think oops, etc.) I don't even know if you can still buy a new terminal today, but you can still use the serial console (terminal) functionality. I typically use a laptop (running windows :( ) and run a terminal emulator. Then you run a serial cable between the laptop and the server. One reason for doing this today is that some kernel errors produce significant output before they crash. I don't know if it is even possible to capture this output with a directly connected console. Using the laptop/terminal emulator/serial console function, you can enable logging in the terminal emulator and save the oops to a disk file on the laptop. People doing kernel development are particularily found of serial consoles. HTH Greg -- Greg Freemyer