Awesome

What is this?

In the decades since the DEC VT340 terminal was released, knowledge of how it functioned has been lost. Mostly for archaeological purposes, but also so that the lsix program works correctly, hackerb9 purchased a VT340+ and is running tests, many of which were submitted by j4james, and documenting the results here.

Anyone who has questions or knowledge that can fill in the gaps in the Archaeological Computation record is encouraged to file an issue.

Test files and output

Please see

• The j4james directory for test files and their output.

• sixeltests for sample sixel graphics images and test scripts; WordPerfect for Character Terminal Unix.

• regis for a ReGIS graphics test scripts and notes.

• docs for documentation on the VT340, usually in PDF format.

• charset examines the VT340's multilingual capabilities, soft fonts, and mathematics.

• colormap how the VT340 color lookup table works and how to reset it when it goes wrong.

• mediacopy test scripts and output from the VT340 of sixel images created using the "Hardcopy to Host" ReGIS command. Of particular use may be mediacopy/mediacopy.sh which takes a screenshot of the VT340 and saves it to the host computer system as a file.

• vms VT340 support files and programs that originally came from VAX VMS systems.

• compose how to use the <kbd>Compose</kbd> key on the VT340 to type characters beyond normal ASCII.

• usage how to configure a VT340 to be reasonably usable as a terminal in modern times.

• Demos

  • kermitdemos Graphics demo files that came with the Kermit communications program in the 1980s that exercised Kermit's ability to emulate the VT340. Includes sixel and tektronix files, but not ReGIS.
  • ode ReGIS graphics demo files for an ordinary differential equation solver. Emulators and screenshots don't do this justice as they only show the end result, while on the VT340 it appears animated as it lazily draws the solution to a world with two suns.

Notes on Hardware VT340

• The VT340 feature two different ways of showing color graphics: as vectors using ReGIS or as bitmaps using Sixels. (It could also do Tektronix 4014 graphics).

• Unlike its primitive ancestor, the VK100 (AKA "Gigi"), the VT340 does not use "ANSI color" for text. Instead, the VT340 shows all text on the screen in one color. It is not yet clear why DEC did not add escape sequences to change what value is used for drawing pixels of text on the VT340. Likely there were other concerns, such as backwards compatibility with the VT241 or that the VT340's indexed color model doesn't fit well with ANSI's direct color model.

• There is a way to fake multicolor text by changing the pixel values after the fact. It is undocumented, slow, and a bit of a hack.

• DECSDM (Sixel Display Mode), when enabled, DISABLES Sixel Scrolling in the Graphics Set-up screen and vice versa. Some of DEC's manuals get this wrong.

• While not documented anywhere, showing sixel images with more then 6 colors changes the foreground text color. After 16 colors, the background is changed, too. This often makes the screen unreadable. (See colormap for details). There is no obvious way to reset the colors once they have been changed, but there is a sequence of keys one can hit. See Colormap Reset for details.

  • Unlike REGIS, sixel color numbering is different from VT340's setup screen numbering! No matter what number a sixel color is referred by, it is only the order of the assignment that matters in terms of where it is put in the VT340 color map. Note that the first sixel color defined is mapped to VT color #1, not color #0. The sixth color assigned (color #7) becomes the foreground color. The sixteenth assigned color wraps around and modifies VT color #0. This is probably intentional: only a sixel file that uses all 16 colors would change the text background.

  • To change the foreground and background text colors, don't use Sixel. Simply set color indices 7 and 0 in ReGIS.

Number of colors on a genuine VT340

• A genuine VT340 can show 16 colors from a 12-bit palette, which means there are 4096 (2^12) different colors available. ImageMagick calls this -depth 4, because there are 4-bits per color channel.

• Red, Green, Blue vary from 0 to 100% intensity.

  RGB can specify 101×101×101 different colors (nearly 2^20).

• Hue varies from 0 to 360 degrees, Lightness and Saturation vary from 0 to 100%. (Hue 0 and 360 are identical).

  HLS can specify 359×101×101 different colors (over 2^21).

• Thus there are roughly 250 different RGB values and 1000 different HLS values for each possible color that can actually be shown.

• ReGIS cannot use RGB to specify nuanced colors. For anything other than the most basic colors, use HLS.

• When quantizing colors (reducing the color palette to 16) using ImageMagick, it may help to specify -depth 4 so ImageMagick doesn't allocate two colors that are functionally identical.

  • However, it is often not as useful as it could be because ImageMagick has no known way of specifying that certain colors (particularly, fg, bg, and bright text) are in specific slots (7, 0, and 15, respectively).

  • OPEN QUESTION: How does one convert an image to sixteen colors, but with three of the colors (fg, bg, and bright) fixed and the others free?

• Note: lsix splits the montage into rows to reduce waiting when there are more than 21 images to show. However, each montage has separate color map, which means the previous row's colors will get messed up. I'm not sure there's a good solution for this other than to force a fixed palette (would grayscale be a good idea?).

VT340 Screen Resolution

Graphics screen resolution is 800x480, but sometimes is quoted as 800x500, which includes the 25th line (the status line).

• The status line is only addressable by sending a special escape sequence (DECSSDT, DECSASD):

  tput tsl; tput rev; echo; echo -n $(date); tput fsl)
  

  Even if one wanted to muck with that, the status line ignores sixel commands, so it is still not possible to use it for graphics.

REGIS

• To enter REGIS: send from host ESC P 3 p

• To exit REGIS: send from host ESC \ or hit Control-L

• Example of using REGIS

    clear
    echo -n $'\eP3p'        # Enter interactive REGIS mode
    echo -n $'P[150,200]W(S1)C(W(I1))[+100]C[+66]C(W(I2))[+33]' # RAF roundels
    echo -n $'\e\\'     # Exit REGIS mode
  

• From the amount of documentation DEC dedicated to ReGIS, it appears that ReGIS was meant to be the primary graphics system used with the VT340. This makes sense as it is an extremely efficient vector graphics protocol, using very few bytes and allow great savings using "macros", whereas Sixel graphics are poorly compressed bitmaps that are quite slow at 19,200 bps.

  • Additionally, there are certain things that can only be done with ReGIS, but cannot be done using Sixels.

    • Media Copy to Host (see below).
    • Easily set the system color map.
    • Modify the color of existing pixels (using bitplanes).
    • Read the value of a pixel or a region of pixels.
    • Use the mouse for interactive input.

MEDIA COPY TO HOST ("screenshot"):

Media Copy tells the VT340 to transmit a sixel copy of the current screen to the host.

See:

• mediacopy/README.md: Investigations of how Media Copy works on VT340.
• mediacopy/mediacopy.sh: script that saves a screenshot in "print.six".

At the moment, it is required to use the VT340's Printer Set-Up to manually change the Sixel Graphics Mode to "Level 2" before using media copy. Without that, it sends Level 1 output with pixel aspect ratio set to 2:1.

The script isn't working quite right yet because occasionally the VT340 pauses transmission in the middle and causes an 8-bit glitch in the output data. (Could just be hackerb9's terminal or his serial port connection?) [Bug was in hackerb9's script]

Keyboard

• The ESC key on the LK-201 keyboard only functions in VT100 mode. Instead, one must press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd><kbd>[</kbd> or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd><kbd>3</kbd>.

• Despite what the manual says, you cannot use <kbd>Return</kbd> to select elements in Setup. You must press the <kbd>Do</kbd> key.

• The LK-201's <kbd>Shift</kbd> does not affect , and .. Instead the < and > symbols are on their own key next to the left shift. This is not changeable from the VT340 Set-Up menu.

Locator Devices

The VT340 could be attached to a mouse (VSXXX-AA) or a graphics tablet (VSXXX-AB). The tablet could use either a stylus or a special "puck" which was like a mouse with a very precise reticule for clicking on locations on maps. There may also have been a barcode attachment and possibly a lightpen. (See also, [VSXXXX-CA/CB peripheral repeater][VSXPR]).

There will be more information about peripherals here once hackerb9 has some to test. In the meantime, there is good information about the common protocol they spoke in the [VCB02 manual][vcb], particularly the appendices on the ([keyboard][]), mouse[mouse][], and [tablet][].

[vcb]: [docs/kindred/EK-104AA-TM-001_VCB02_Video_Subsystem_Feb87.pdf "VCB02 Video Subsystem Technical Manual"] [keyboard]: [docs/hardware/AppdxB-kbdprotocol.pdf "DEC keyboard protocol details (extracted from VCB02 techref)"] [mouse]: [docs/hardware/AppdxC-mouseprotocol.pdf "DEC mouse protocol details (extracted from VCB02 techref)"] [tablet]: [docs/hardware/AppdxD-tabletprotocol.pdf "DEC tablet protocol details (extracted from VCB02 techref)"] [VSXPR]: [docs/kindred/EK-VSXPR-TM-001-mod.cat] "DEC VSXXX-CA/CB Protocol Repeater Technical Manual"]

Tek 4010/4014 mode

• Entering and exiting this mode leaves VT340 with autowrap mode turned off. This appears to be a firmware bug.
  • To test: echo $'\e[?38h\e[?38l'
  • To fix, set DECAWM after exiting Tek mode: echo $'\e[?7h'
• Sixel print to host appears buggy; last portion gets sent to screen instead of to the host.

80/132 column mode

• Despite the documentation recommending DECSCPP (set columns per page) and deprecating DECCOLM (column mode) to switch between 80 and 132 column mode, they do not appear to be equivalent.

  • DECSCPP: Esc [ 8``0 $ | or Esc [ 1``3``2 $ |

    Terminal now thinks it has that many columns, but the screen font doesn't actually change. Has the benefit of not clearing data in page memory or changing number of lines per page. If you switch to 132 columns, but are using an 80 column font, then text that is off the screen simply isn't shown. It is unclear how this is beneficial.

  • DECCOLM: Esc [ ? 3 l or Esc [ ? 3 h

    Terminal switch to 80- or 132-column mode, the same as if it had been changed in the Set-Up -> Display screen. Both the logical width and the actual font size change. Resets page memory.

Dual sessions

The VT340 allows two login sessions simultaneously. While it is possible to do that over a single serial cable using DEC's proprietary SSU protocol, it is easier to just use the VT340's two communication ports. (See MMJ for how to build a DEC423 cable for Comm2).

Sixel images persist on completely separate framebuffers. While each session can have a separate color palette, the VT340 hardware can only use one at a time. That means split screen images will only look correct for the session that is currently active.

Note that when split horizontally, the VT340 attempts to scroll the view up or down to where the cursor is. This works well most of the time, but full-screen applications can have problems. Consider a text editor in which one types at the top of the screen while a status line at the bottom shows the cursor's current location. On each keystroke, the cursor would zip from top to bottom, causing the entire screen to jitter up and down rapidly . One workaround is to use stty to tell host programs to use a smaller screen area, e.g., stty rows 12.

Printer port == another keyboard!

The printer port is actually a third serial port, with the same DEC423 wiring as Comm1 and 2. As you'd expect, a print command, such as Esc [ i, sends data to it. What is unusual is that any data received on the printer port is typed into the active session as if it was from the keyboard.

Although it defaults to 4800 baud, the same as the actual keyboard port, it can be set to run at 19.2Kbps.

This could be useful in the future for automating compatibility tests by connecting the printer port to a host computer. [Hackerb9 currently has Comm1 and 2 on /dev/ttyS0 and S1 and the printer on /dev/ttyUSB0.]

Note that DEC's printer port is necessarily bidirectional because the VT340 needs to listen for XOFF so it can pause when the printer is being overrun with data.

Pages and Lines per page

The VT340 can store several "pages" of text in memory.

The VT340 has 144 lines of memory, divided by default into 6 pages of 24 lines. One can use <kbd>Set-Up</kbd> or DECSLPP to set more "lines per page" and fewer "pages", or vice versa. Actual number of lines shown on a VT340 screen is always fixed at 24.

@hackerb9 does not fully understand the purpose of Page Memory, but @j4james has suggested it is mainly for form filling applications, see Page Memory.

XON/XOFF Flow Control is Required

It does not appear that the VT340 firmware can perform RTS/CTS ("hardware") flow control, although electrically it should be possible. See flowcontrol for more details. The most important point about XON/XOFF is that the host's serial card must handle XON/XOFF on the UART chip to prevent garbled data.

Smooth scrolling is on by factory default

Instead of scrolling the page up as fast as possible ("Jump" scrolling), the VT340 defaults to "Smooth-2" scrolling. Smooth-1, Smooth-2, and Smooth-4 are the three possible smooth scrolling speeds available in Set-Up -> Display -> Scrolling.

On the VT340, this setting does not affect sixel images when first being drawn. Graphics New Line ('-') at the end of the screen still scrolls the entire screen as fast as possible. However, once on the screen, sixel images do scroll smoothly along with the text upon receiving a text New Line ('\n').

Documentation varied about how fast the different speeds were supposed to be, so hackerb9 measured the speeds using the scrollspeed.sh shell script.

Results:

While the VT340 allows the scrolling speed to be changed in the Set-Up menu, it does not appear to be programmatically changeable (as it is on the VT5x0 using DECSSCLS, Set Smooth Scroll Speed). Instead, DEC Private Mode #4, DECSCLM, Smooth Scroll Mode, is used as a binary switch. When a program sets DECSCLM, Smooth-2 is selected (even if one of the other Smooth speeds was already enabled). When DECSCLM is RESET, Jump scroll is used. Querying the private mode via DECRQM returns SET when any of the Smooth speeds are selected. If the user selects "No scroll" in the Set-Up menu, then DECRQM returns NOT RECOGNIZED.

Note that, although Smooth-2 is the factory default on the VT340, the most popular terminfo file for the VT340 (as of 2024) disables Smooth Scroll Mode when the "reset" sequence is sent, which is often done at user login (e.g., tset). This makes having a user preference of Smooth-1 or Smooth-4 overly onerous as they would require repeated manual configuration in Set-Up.

Character Sets

It appears the easiest way to use a VT340 in modern times is to enable the Latin1 character set in Set Up and and export LANG=en_US.iso8859-1. However, there may be ways to get more glyphs out of the VT340 without even down-line loading a new font. Please see the charset subdirectory.

Hackerb9 has also made a tool, uplineloadfont, for automatically capturing a font from the screen. It works on the VT340, but should work on any terminal that supports ReGIS's Media Copy to Host. It creates separate images for each glyph, but can also make a montage, like this: