Tek-Term
Tek-Term is a cross platform emulator for the Tektronix 4010/4014 Direct View Bistable Storage Tube (DVBST) terminal. This remarkable device was manufactured by Tektronix inc. Until 1985. There are not many functioning system still in existence, most being in computer museums. This application is intended to provide a reasonable facsimile of the display on these devices. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010.
The emulator is based upon SDL2 for graphics services. To achieve a convincing display, the basic window size has been increased from 1024x780, the native resolution of the 4010 terminal by a factor of 1.5 to 1536x 1170. This increase permits a degree of antialising to give the appearance close to that of the original. I would note that the actual hardware resolution of the 4014 (and later systems) is 4096x3120 using 12 bit DACs to drive the CRT display. This resolution has only recently become available in the digital domain at a �reasonable� price. However, the dot size on a storage display is much larger than that required for 12 bits of resolution due to �bleed� of the charge pattern on the storage plate. In general, these terminals tended to be configured with a degree of defocusing as at the time, users were not quite used to the idea of pixilation. To this end, the emulated display is scaled as above and the antialising configured to blur the individual pixels. This does mean that the display will not fit on a cheap 1080p monitor and due to the antialiasing, a reasonable GPU is required. Having said this, even a Raspberry Pi3+ will generate a quite satisfactory 1920x1280 display on a suitable monitor.
This project is very much work in progress such that numerous features are not quite functional as yet.
Specifically: Graphic in is not implemented but
the cursors appear and moves on mouse down in the window.
Smaller
fonts cannot be selected. This will require further thought as to the best
presentation without excessive pixilation.
Variable
luminance graphics is not supported.
Try �gnuplot GnuPlotTest.txt� on your target system..... And, there are many example files on the web.
Prerequisites and Build
Requires SDL2:
1. Linux: - sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev (or equivalent). Build using the included makefile.
2. OSX: - brew install sdl2. Build using the included makefile.
3.
Win32: - The
�windows-build� directory contains all of the required (SDL2) components. Build
using Visual Studio 2008 or later.
Open
the included Tek40xx.sln file in the Tek40xx directory.
Using the application
The application executable name is tek40xx. This refers to the device name used by GNUPlot to create graphic code for these terminals.
Tek40xx is a simple telnet client:
Usage:
tek40xx <hostname or IP address> [<port> default:23]
Useful �magic� keys: HOME: Erase screen. END: Close connection and terminate application.
License
The application is provided under the GPL V3.0 license: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Dr Ian S Schofield
May 2019.
This application has been substantially updated. In particular, the
Visual Studio build process and the graphics system.
The app has been tested in Windows (Visual Studio 2022), OSX Sonoma (make) and
Fedora 64 (make).
Dr Ian S. Schofield
Nov 2023