Re: Best Terminal Software

[taob@ionews.io.org (Brian Tao)]

In article <SKNKWRKS.93Dec6114749@mayall.cs.unlv.edu>, Scott Alfter writes...
> 
> There's also the consideration that ProTERM runs in text mode, so the
> displays are FAST (even on unaccelerated hardware).

    Yep... ANSITerm's strength is also its one major weakness.  Most of
the software I use at 14.4k is full-screen anyway, so there is very
little scrolling going on.

> I doubt that the file-transfer rates for ANSIterm and ProTERM, if
> different, are different by a large-enough value to matter.

    Agreed.  I've used both extensively and there isn't a noticeable
difference in transfer efficiency.  ANSITerm uses a 16K buffer while
Proterm has a 64K buffer, but that evens out over a large file transfer
anyway.

> Finally, ProTERM will work under ProDOS 8, which is where I spend most
> of my time.  Why wait a minute to boot into the Finder when ProDOS 8
> and Davex take about 2-3 seconds to boot?  After that, ProTERM takes
> another 5 seconds or so to load.  You spend less time waiting on the
> computer and more time getting things done...and that's what computers
> are supposed to be all about, right?

     ANSITerm *is* a ProDOS 8 program (actually, one of its other
drawbacks, if you ask me, but I'm a GS/OS weenie ;-)).  If I just want
quickly grab a file off a BBS, I can boot into ProDOS 8 and launch
ANSITerm in no time flat.  If the modem is online, ANSITerm is smart
enough not to try initialize the modem.  Proterm attempts to send the
init string several times, delaying the startup.
-- 
Brian Tao:: taob@io.org (Internex Online, 416-363-3783, 27 lines, v.32bis)
::::::::::: 90taobri@wave.scar.utoronto.ca (University of Toronto, 9T4)