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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!unc!sherouse
From: sherouse@unc.UUCP (George W. Sherouse)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: more about the Rainbow
Message-ID: <6799@unc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Feb-84 13:29:13 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.6799
Posted: Tue Feb 21 13:29:13 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Feb-84 04:32:56 EST
Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lines: 47


The saga continues...

I wrote earlier that DEC is giving away Rainbows, presumably
because that was the only way they could get rid of them, but
that I for one would be glad to get a free terminal. (For the
uninitiated, the Rainbow is one of DEC's pc-type thangs and
has a built-in VT10* emulation mode.)

Well, it's here.  My enthusiasm for the Rainbow even as a free
terminal is on the wane.  For the faint of heart, I am about to
scorch the Rainbow keyboard.  You may want to look away.

The goddam ESC, BS, and BREAK keys are on the row of function keys
*ABOVE THE NUMBER ROW!!*  Clearly DEC has taken IBM's lead in
producing keyboards for the extraterrestrial market - i.e. for
users other than people.  Try using vi with the ESC key at 2:00
and a full 2 inches above the home row.  And the backspace is
smack up against it for minimum ease of use and maximum chance
of accidental mistyping.  At the risk of being a little fair,
there is a large, conveniently-placed key with what appears to
be the intergalactic symbol for backspace but vi clearly has
other ideas about the codes that key generates - probably something
that could be sorted out in the termcap.

PLEASE, someone tell me that the VT2** terminals don't use this
same awful key layout.  We just ordered a bunch (sigh).

I ordered an amber screen for this Rainbow.  It's marvie.  I'm
still not sure about this funny CRT-shaped monitor but it's
growing on me.

The machine itself seems to be quite solidly built.  We were impressed
by the apparent quality of most everything when we took it apart to
install the extra 192k memory board (which by the bye is a royal pain).
The only software, aside from OSs, we have is the "Learn Rainbow"
tutorial which seems to be designed more to impress you with the
features of the monitor than anything else, though it is sufficiently
informative I suppose.

Enough sniping for now, but stay tuned...

<< The views expressed are my own and are thus indistinguishable from >>
<<                          absolute truth.                           >>

(the real) George W. Sherouse