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Re: Q: kind of "memory mapped" terminal/console?

From: Marcus <>
Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 17:07:52 +0100

Ralf Ackermann wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> i'm just collecting the available information for the following scenario -
> so maybe that has been solved long before or somebody has valuable hints
> on it (it actually sounds very simple):
>  - Starting point: a system running Linux (either in text mode or using X)
>  - Intended mode of operation:
>    * i'd like to use a text "terminal" (with a size = lines*columns that
>      can be dynamically chosen) - so operations like "cursor goes to the
>      beginning of next line of previous is full", scrolling ... work well
>      inherently - and applications don't have to care for it
>    * the ASCII context of the display is transmitted to an external
>      display (e.g. a monitor/HMD using the BOB-II serial=>NTSC/PAL
>      converter)
>    * the "external" device is rather "dumb" - basically it can display
>      ASCII characters at a postion you specify (it's not a full featured
>      VT100, i guess then it would be very simple)
>    * "refresh" operations are either synchronous (whenever something on
>      the original display changes) or asynchronous (the external display
>      driver "polls" the original "screen" and may still do some kind of
>      optimization on whether and which data has to actually be
>      transmitted).
> 
> If we worked with some kind of "memory mapped terminal" that would be very
> simple - you just had to check a certain memory area for the information.
> 
> From what i understand the whole thing also has been done when treating
> the display data as "full graphics data" - that's what a graphics
> framebuffer device does (and those are well supported by Linux)
>  => a question to the MITthrill people - is it possible to access the
>     code you developed for driving the modified MicroOptical QVGA
>     displays (is it 320x240 color btw?) via a specialized framebuffer
>     driver?
> 
> Anyway - for the ASCII-text-only case - is this functionality already
> present or can be implemented in a very simple way using "standard means"?
> 
> Any ideas are very welcome! Having kind of a "xterm" with user specified
> size and the ASCII content of just that "xterm" (that can still "live" on
> a primary screen) transmitted to an external viewing device would also be
> great.

Modifing an X-term sounds line a way to go.
I have embedded an SSH-client from someone else with working
terminal-code that can get a specified width+height in characters
in jAugment. That could be easier to modify.
With trying to get everything to run in the microJava of a
POMA sometime this week I'll even make it compile in gcj, so
you get native code (not much faster but needs no 10MB VM in the flash).

> 
> best regards
>  ralf
> 
> --
> Best regards,
>  Ralf Ackermann

Marcus

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