Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!husc6!encore!xylogics!loverso
From: loverso@Xylogics.COM (John Robert LoVerso)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Re: Data-compressing terminals
Message-ID: <6916@xenna.Xylogics.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 89 14:05:09 GMT
References: <30582@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: loverso@Xylogics.COM (John Robert LoVerso)
Organization: Xylogics, Inc., Burlington MA
Lines: 16

In article <30582@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Edward Wang asks about terminals
that support text compression by pre-programming common strings.

Someone at CMU did exactly this with some custon Ann Arbor ROMs, ~8 years
ago.  There was a tech report or two published about it.  I'll see if I can
dig up references.

What I remember from what I was told about it, a pre-compiled list of common
text strings was derived from internal CMU bulletin boards (and/or possibly
USENET).  This was part of the ROMs in each terminal.  Additionally, there
was escape sequences or the like to redefine common strings.  I think the
strings were asked for by the 128-255 codes.  Finally, I think a line disc
was introduced that knew how to compress text, but the same feature could
easily be placed into a `screen'-like program, etc.

John