[TUHS] Re: virtual consoles / Alt-Fx

On 3/14/2023 11:42 AM, Derek Fawcus via TUHS wrote: The real question in my mind is whether PC/IX had this sort of thing. PC/IX was the first Unix I used regularly, and my recollection is that it did have something along these lines, but Heinz or someone else with ISC back then might be able to say definitively. When I got a PC/AT, I started using (SCO?) Xenix because it better utilized the hardware than PC/IX. I'm pretty sure Clem is correct that Xenix had virtual consoles selected by the function keys. AIX for the RT/PC definitely had such virtual consoles from the beginning. See the article by Baker et al in the RT Book (https://technologists.com/sauer/SA23-1057_IBM_RT_Personal_Computer_Technolo…) By the time I had my own RT, we had X in AIX, so I probably chose to use xterms. I'm pretty sure that the SVR3 Dell Unix would have had these along the lines described by Antoni, cited above, since SVR3 Dell Unix began with code from ISC, probably a little earlier than what Antoni used. I probably chose to use xterms instead. I just powered up my Dell 450DGX (“JAWS”) and verified that the SVR4-based Dell Unix had such virtual consoles. man keyboard excerpt: Switching Screens   To change screens (virtual terminals), first run  the  vtlmgr command   [see  vtlmgr(1M)].   Switch  the  current  screen by typing ALT-SYSREQ   (also labelled ALT-PRINTSCRN on some systems) followed by a key which   identifies  the  desired screen.  Any active screen may be selected by   following ALT-SYSREQ with Fn, where Fn is one of  the  function keys.   F1  refers  to  the  first  virtual  terminal screen, F2 refers to the   second virtual terminal screen, etc.   ALT-SYSREQ `h'  refers to  the   main  console  display  (/dev/console).  The next active screen can be   selected with ALT-SYSREQ `n,' and the previous screen can be selected   with ALT-SYSREQ `p.' I doubt that I ever used them with Dell SVR4 before today, used xterms instead. CHS