View Full Version : When did terminal programs go the way of the dinosaur?
Floppies_only
June 17th, 2008, 01:16 AM
Gang,
Does anyone know what was the last version of Microsoft Works that included a terminal emulation program, and optionally if that version comes on CD? I'm interested in both Windows and DOS versions.
Thanks in advance,
Sean
tezza
June 17th, 2008, 01:42 AM
Not sure when it disappeared from Works, but I don't think they have gone the way of the dinosaur just yet. I'm not sure about Vista but XP has Hyperterminal, so terminal programs are still hanging in there.
Comes in handy to check the RS-232 and old comm programs on my vintage computers.
Tez
Floppies_only
June 17th, 2008, 01:59 AM
Not sure when it disappeared from Works, but I don't think they have gone the way of the dinosaur just yet. I'm not sure about Vista but XP has Hyperterminal, so terminal programs are still hanging in there.
Comes in handy to check the RS-232 and old comm programs on my vintage computers.
Tez
I guess it's possible that my Mother has a terminal program that she can use. Do you know when Windows started including it? (If Tez doesn't know, does anyone else?)
I want to equip her with one, if necessary, so that I can type with her with a real terminal on my end.
Sean
Jorg
June 17th, 2008, 02:34 AM
If Tezza doesn't know, it is not known to mankind ;)
Win95 already had it- but if it is installed depends on if the box was checked during the windows 95 installation.
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/dialup/win95_term/
As far as I know, all windows versions also have telnet from the command line.
chuckcmagee
June 17th, 2008, 08:24 AM
and ftp (from command line) too.
Hyperterminal has been around long time.
im_an_alien
June 17th, 2008, 09:19 AM
I was pretty sure hyperterminal wasn't included in XP... Maybe it's pro only?
NathanAllan
June 17th, 2008, 09:36 AM
Vista has it as an optional download as far as I can remember. I took the class a year ago, and most memory is dedicated to RAM, not storage, in my skull :) But I am pretty sure that it wasn't included with Vista.
I know term programs are still used in business, but I have no practical applicatioin for one yet. Heck, doesn't even Cisco use something else rather than the RS232 setup these days on their newer machines? I don't have one to check.
Nathan
barythrin
June 17th, 2008, 10:49 AM
Well cisco went to an ethernet style jack years ago but it's still just rs-232, you just need a converter. Cisco for a while had USB but the units we just bought had the standard console (not sure if it's considered rj-45) jack.
Some of the new Sun servers we have only have console access as well, no video card or keyboard. So an XP laptop with hyperterminal it was... actually I take that back.. the notebook I grabbed was a subnotebook VIA with gentoo and minicom but you get the jist.
tezza
June 17th, 2008, 05:43 PM
I was pretty sure hyperterminal wasn't included in XP... Maybe it's pro only?
Hmm..Well, I do use XP Professional so you could well be right. I don't have the home edition.
Tez
chuckcmagee
June 17th, 2008, 11:13 PM
Nope, I just looked. Hyperterminal is right there, in accessories. That is on my laptop with XP Home.
Mike Chambers
June 17th, 2008, 11:15 PM
Hmm..Well, I do use XP Professional so you could well be right. I don't have the home edition.
Tez
if you don't see it for some reason, or are otherwise in doubt... just click start -> run
then type hypertrm and click ok
Mike Chambers
June 17th, 2008, 11:25 PM
a really nifty feature of HT is that it supports x-modem, y-modem, z-modem, and kermit for all your vintage computer file transfer needs. :p
one of the better utilities that come with windows, for sure. it figures MS didn't write it, they paid somebody else for it. i can't knock their programmers too much though, they did write Windows XP after all.
writing Windows XP > writing DOS IRC software
Bungo Pony
June 18th, 2008, 10:48 AM
Hyperterminal is my least favorite terminal program. The interface is too clunky for my liking. Bitcomm was my favorite one for Windows, Telix is my favorite for DOS, and when I was BBSing, Robocomm was my favorite. I don't really have a favorite for Linux, but Minicom is the one that seems to work the best.
I use terminal programs quite regularly, but that seems to come with vintage computing. It's just faster, easier, and more reliable transferring programs with a serial cable than it is to write multiple floppies.
As for them going the way of the dinosaur, It's really difficult to say they're actually extinct. Other people at my workplace still use these programs quite regularly.
tezza
June 19th, 2008, 12:54 AM
Telix is my favorite for DOS, ....
Yep, mine too.
Tez
NathanAllan
June 19th, 2008, 09:02 AM
Nope, I just looked. Hyperterminal is right there, in accessories. That is on my laptop with XP Home.
Does anybody remember back when XP was released, the programs that were left out but then included in the service packs? I can't remember if HT was one of those programs. Defrag was one left out at first, that much I recall. Glad they brought that one back. Again, maybe that was Vista...
I haven't seen a new Cisco unit yet, hope to never again see one, so can't say if they still use RS232. The ones at domino's were a couple years old, and they had it. But if you have one, you're the man.
*IMHO*, I think term programs will go the way of the floppy drive: the general public will think it's useless but every server on the planet still has the need for one eventually. In my windows server class, they were talking about floppy drives and restoring from one, and it was new tech. Noone but I really understood why it was included in the class, and they kinda skipped over that section (not me). With serv2003, you can take over the machine with a floppy drive. So with a term program.
Nathan
billdeg
June 19th, 2008, 08:00 PM
terminals phased out with the phase in of the Internet browser
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