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! ;)
A bit late, but an answer I haven't seen yet. Terminal comes from the Latin Terminus, meaning 'boundery' or 'border', which is exactly what it is: a boundery between human- and machine logic. A terminal can be any place where {users} log in and work on a time-sharing system. "To console" means 'support', 'sustain'. Also a well chosen word for its purpose, as a special terminal for the capo-di-capi I think. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: console 1. The operator's station of a {mainframe}. In times past, this was a privileged location that conveyed godlike powers to anyone with fingers on its keys. Under {Unix} and other modern {time-sharing} {operating system}s, such privileges are guarded by passwords instead, and the console is just the {tty} the system was booted from. Some of the mystique remains, however, and it is traditional for {sysadmin}s to post urgent messages to all users from the console (on Unix, /dev/console). 2. On {microcomputer} {Unix} boxes, the main screen and keyboard (as opposed to character-only terminals talking to a {serial port}). Typically only the console can do real graphics or run {X}. See also {CTY}. Theo -- Theo v. Werkhoven Registered Linux user# 99872 http://counter.li.org ICBM 52 13 27N , 4 29 45E. + ICQ: 277217131 SUSE 9.1 + Jabber: gurp@nedlinux.nl Kernel 2.6.5 + MSN: twe-msn@ferrets4me.xs4all.nl See headers for PGP/GPG info. +