On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 12:10 PM, Brian Knittel <[email protected]> wrote: > This seems like a good approach. Besides the PDP-1, the PDP-11 had the > VT-11 and the IBM 1130 had the 2250. These are very similar devices -- > asynchronous display-list vector display processors. Who knows -- maybe > someone can rig up an Evans and Sutherland PS2 for the PDP-11/70. (I > think Tom Ferrin's UNIX V6 drivers are available?). > > The approach would also work well for machines with pixel- and > character-based graphics like the IBM 5100 and 5110. (I have a SIMH > emulator working, but it's Windows-only at this point due to the > graphics issue). Then there are the e.g. Cromemco-type boards for the > Altair, and so on. > > It does sort of open a Pandora's Box though, as it invites the > proliferation of GUI control panels and other fluff. (Says the author > of a fluffy, hacked-up GUI control panel for SIMH IBM 1130). One thing > I like about SIMH is that the experience is all about the software, > rather than on reproducing the physical appearance of the hardware. > > The tricky part would be the asynchronous nature of these display > beasts. Could it be done without using a separate thread? Maybe. Or > could we work up an abstraction of a display thread that was cross- > platform and not too ugly? Maybe. It seems to me that this is where the > difficulty and elegance will lie. > > Brian
I kind of figured that the elegance would lie in the fact that all graphics could be simply written to a "virtual monitor" which would then be shown to the world by means of RFB/VNC. The outside world would never talk directly to the display hardware so any asynchronous aspects could be handled internally. Also, I don't see how emulating graphical hardware would open the gateway to GUI control panels. Viewing the output of the virtual Cromemco Dazzler or VT-11 would be no different in theory than connecting to a virtual serial port over TELNET is, it's just the remote client program would be one that shows pictures rather than just text. Mike _______________________________________________ Simh mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
