13 Mar
2023
13 Mar
'23
5:17 p.m.
On 3/13/23, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
one more thing. In PDP-10 land, I think they would
have called
them 'sessions' but it was a similar idea - although the PC versions since
they also provided the 'terminal emulation' had to do a bit more.
TOPS-10/20 had the concept of pseudo-terminals (PTYs)--objects in the
OS that appear to be terminals to user mode software (and most of the
kernel as well). There was a utility called PTYCON (PTY CONtroller)
that would let one manage several login sessions (each on its own
pseudo-terminal) from a single terminal (which could of course itself
be a PTY).
IIRC PTYCON had the ability to split the VT-100 screen so that you
could view more than one PTY session at a time. Poor man's windows.
-Paul W.