Owner`s manual
Page 5-4 Chapter 5
5.3TERMINAL
The terminal statement tells the computer what kind of terminal is connected to the
interface board, and thus what kind of terminal driver to load into system memory from
account [1,6] of the System Disk. Different terminals process characters differently.
A terminal driver is the program that does the necessary code conversion and character
processing required by the particular terminal that it supports. It is the terminal driver,
then, that takes care of the special functions (for example, cursor control, Control-U,
rubout, null characters after RETURNs, etc.) that differ between terminal types.
Terminal drivers have the extension .TDV and are sharable; that is, a given driver is
loaded only once into system memory, no matter how many terminals of the same type
are defined. Some of the terminal drivers currently available on the computer are:
5.3.1PSEUDO
This is the driver for the software-controlled pseudo terminals. PSEUDO.TDV merely
stops echoing of input characters and allows buffering of input to and from the controlled
job. Use it only with the PSEUDO interface statement. The PSEUDO terminal driver is
built into the monitor, and is not in the [1,6] account of the System Disk.
5.3.2NULL
This driver is identical to the PSEUDO driver, except it discards the terminal output from
the job, instead of buffering it to wait for some other job to pick it up. Use this terminal
driver when you want to control a job whose terminal output is of no importance (such
as the printer spooler).
When using this driver for a job like the printer spooler, you will usually use the FORCE
command to send commands and data to that job; make sure the buffer sizes you
define in the pseudo-terminal’s TRMDEF statement (see below for information on
buffers) are large enough to accept the lines of data you are going to FORCE to the job.
5.3.3ALPHA
The ALPHA.TDV terminal driver supports the Alpha Micro AM-60 and compatible
terminals. An Alpha Micro AM-60 compatible terminal is any terminal using the same
internal codes as an AM-60. See your dealer for terminal compatibility information.
System Operator’s Guide to the System Initialization Command File, Rev. 03