Re: Answer, Re: Quick question: Anybody remember the "alphabet soup" status line from WSF and RUMBA?

Hello James,

Am 08.11.2022 um 19:02 schrieb James H. H. Lampert via MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

LOL! Realistic compared to… what? :-)

The most realistic depiction of a real 5250 terminal (InfoWindow, InfoWindow II, or a 3180), compared to what PCS/WSF and Wall Data's RUMBA were doing.

Hm, okay. But you stated, these "looked nothing like an InfoWindow status line"? I'm confused.

I fired up SNA•ps and had a look at the online help facility. Indeed, there's no real alphabet soup you referred to, but arbitrary graphical symbols. Lest alone "X" for a locked keyboard and a strange symbol referring to "message waiting", an activated insert is indeed indicated by a caret.

Even MacTwin has a "graphical" output for status: https://try-as400.pocnet.net/wiki/Andrew_MacTwin

And I found a V2R2 PCS manual!

Now that's pretty cool!

Graphics: "G" (never seen it)

This was only a thing with AFAIK the 5292 and the 3489. Probably others? IBM somehow managed to bring B/W pixel graphics (CCITT 1 Bit per pixel TIFF G4, aka Fax) to hardware terminals, and emulator windows (of their own, that is). Sadly, documentation about this capability is scarce. Search Google for DSPFAX to get some clues, if you're interested. Plus, I feel IBM might just have implemented a full-screen viewing capability within the 5250 data stream (for capable devices) but no way to, say, embed graphics in a given data stream.

I know that mainframe hobbyists have written software to show pixel graphics on capable 3270 terminals. As far as I've understood by dynamically redefining character slots to certain arrangements of best-fit pixels.

https://www.prycroft6.com.au/misc/3270grfx.html

This is somewhat akin to the VTxxx world and it's (ab)use of Sixel-Graphics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixel

I wonder what can be done with 5250 and custom-written emulator applications. :-)

Fore sure no thing for me for the current decade. Already way too many "that would be cool" ideas on my slate. ;-)

Compressed aspect ratio: "C" (never seen it)

Might be related to 27x132 mode? Or in tandem with some graphics displays.

Special character: "+" (I think that's the same as it is on an InfoWindow).

Whatever this means.

Pause State: "PS" (never seen it)

Graphics Mode: "GM" (never seen it)

Local Select Mode: "SM" (never seen it)

Same here, for all of the above.

:wq! PoC