Title:  Retro-computing Followup
Date:  20190927
Tags:  retrocomputers
========================================


Just some retro-computing related tidbits and follow-ups from previous phlog
articles.

I wrote about my home made terminal[0] and even had an addendum[1] already.
Since then, I purchased a kit of Geoff's ASCII VT100 card but haven't assembled
it yet.  I had also suggested that I might have to learn how to program the
PiGFX code to fix problems I was having.  While waiting for the VT100 kit to
ship, I did just that.  The first big problem was the DMA mode which was enabled
in the default build.  That was the cause of my backspace and cursor artifact
issues.  Turning that off made things much cleaner.  I also added a couple
missing VT100 commands and fixed some bugs in others.  I can now use WordStar on
CP/M in "Minimum ANSI" mode.  In fact,  I am writing this post with WordStar*.
Unfortunately, I think PiGFX might be abandoned and I doubt my fixes will get
merged.

I am still super excited about mhj's BBS zine[2].  I've been checking out
various BBSes and software as a result.  I might set up a BBS just to play
around.  I got WWIV to compile on OpenBSD and also want to try x/84 which is
written in Python so should be fairly simple to get going.  I can't convince
myself that I need to run a BBS for anything, though.

I have also recently discovered PLATO[3] at IRATA.online.  This was probably the
third or fourth time checking it out, actually.  This time it seems to have
stuck.  I ported the PLATO terminal emulator, pterm, to OpenBSD and I am waiting
for it to be imported.  It's a really neat BBS-like system that was initially
intended for education and training.  It predates just about anything popular
like it in computing but is largely unknown.  Tons of info on IRATA.online
including client software for various retro-computers and on cyber1.org so I
won't rehash it here.  Check it out, IRATA.online has free accounts and allows
guest logins.

As a final note, after a summer more focused on old cars than retro-computers, I
am back to playing with the Altair clone and 8080 assembly.  Good times.  But I
forgot a lot in the last several months. :(

*So I didn't realize this, but WordStar documents are not just ASCII text.  Took
some converting and cleanup to make work once it hit the PC.


[0] gopher://kagu-tsuchi.com:70/0/phlog/modern_terminal.txt
[1] gopher://kagu-tsuchi.com:70/0/phlog/terminal_addendum.txt
[2] gopher://colorfield.space:70/1/~mhj/zine/
[3] https://irata.online/#about
    https://cyber1.org/index.asp