I was going to just send this as private email, but I realized it
*is* topical, or at least might help someone else out.

Xiamin Raahauge writes:

>I recently got a DataGeneral terminal (I have no clue about a model
>number, but it seems to be a vt100 type deal, [...] but I can't for
>the life of me get it to work.

Oboy, Terminal 101.  I've done this before in my Xenix286 days,
figuring out how to get a Tandy 600 to play terminal. :-)  You
might need to build a cable or two, or go to Radio Shack if you
can't or won't DIY.

First, get a paper clip & bend it into a U-shape (like some do for
the video port "monitor sense" pins), and short pins 2 and 3 on the
terminal.  At this point, you obviously can't have it hooked to your
Quadra. :-)  Turn on the terminal & start typing.

If the terminal doesn't echo what you type, try shorting pins 4 and 5
as well.  Also try 6 & 20, or 6/8/20.  Lots of terminals insist on
having certain modem control (or flow control) signals set before
they'll talk.  (The aforementioned 600 wanted pins 4 & 5.)  Once you
know what signals the terminal wants (if any), you're ready to hook
it up.

>It's hooked up to tty00 with a Mac->PC modem cable

Like someone else said, that won't work without a null modem adapter.
I've heard that some people have been able to use ImageWriter cables
for connections to terminals or PCs.  Otherwise, the null modem is
essentially a cable wired like this:

	2 --- 3
	3 --- 2
	4 --- 5
	5 --- 4
	7 --- 7

	6 --- 20		6-+  +-6
	20 --- 6   OR	8-+  +-8	(6/8/20 wired together on each
	8 --- 8			20+  +-20   side, no wires to the other side)

Now to data rates etc.  Terminals used two basic schemes to set
the data rate -- a block of DIP switches on the back of the terminal,
or a SET-UP screen accessed by a special key combination.  OTOH, you
could just forget it & let getty do an autobaud.  Just hit RETURN a
couple of times to get the login: prompt.


>I'm hoping I can use this terminal, and if I can't, I might be able
>to grab a WYSE but I'd rather not since I only have a bicycle and
>that would be hard to carry in my backpack.

Wish I could do that, go everywhere on a bicycle. :-)  Do you need
something portable, then???  You might want to think about getting
an old Tandy 100 -- it only weighs 4 pounds, I think there's a
termcap entry for it in *BSD already, and it's still useful while
*not* connected -- type text into it during the day & dump it into
the Mac when you get home.  The lesser-known Model 200 uses the same
termcap, but lets you see all 16 lines at once.  They turn up fairly
often in comp.sys.tandy; $100 was the going price last time I checked
(for one in very good shape, with 32K RAM & cables) or maybe $150
for a Model 200.

	Larry Kollar (send replies to my home address: kollar@stc.net)