
APL terminal program for MS-DOS wanted
Quote:
>I've just been given an account on a colleague's SUN workstation, where he
>wants us to work together on some math research projects using his favorite
>language, APL. :-) I'd like to be able to do some of the work from my
>home, where I have a PC-clone with VGA graphics and a modem. So the question
>is, what exists in terms of software to allow such a micro to function as an
>APL _terminal_?
There are two ways I've done this one. The first is to use MS-DOS Kermit
3.x and remap the keyboard and screen appropriately, and use IBM APL2/PC's
font TSR. You will probably have to make your own map, but it isn't
particularly hard; just boring. MS-Kermit will also allow you to do
color Tektronix graphics over the modem, which means if your APL can handle
that kind of output this is a cheap (i.e. free) and fast solution. This
is what I set up for myself when I worked at Morgan Stanley.
The second way is to get SLIP/PPP running on the PC and the workstation
and then put up X Windows on the PC. This costs some money, and isn't
quite as quick as the Kermit solution, but it does a lot more for you.
Now My favorite way to get SLIP and X running on a PC is called Dell SysVR4
but this is likely to be a bit of stretch for your project.
Now there is always the chance that some sort of ASCII mode will be supported
by the APL in question, but this will likely drive one of you nuts when
you try to talk over your code...
Quote:
>P.S. I have another machine in my office from which I can run NCSA telnet
>to connect to other machines. If there was a way to get that to act as an
>APL terminal also, that would be ideal. But for now, the home machine is
If this machine does X Windows you shouldn't have too much trouble. If
it's a DOS box, MS-Kermit is cool with some networks, so that remains a
possibility, too.
Later,
Andrew Mullhaupt