I've come across an old PS/2 Model 25 and want to run a simple RS232 console on it. Any suggestions for a simple, 3.5" floppy-based program that would fit in 640k (clearly I would never need more than that :)
3 Answers
MS-DOS Kermit is one of the most versatile and interoperable terminal emulation and communications programs. It can emulate ANSI, Heath-19, Honeywell VIP7809, Wyse50, VT52, VT100, VT102, VT220, VT320, Tek4010, PT200 (Prime), D217, D463, and D470 (Data General).
Any DOS based terminal emulator will do. I have http://www.sorgonet.com/8086/8088_linux_dumb_terminal/ bookmarked from when I was going to try the same thing with an old "portable" (I didn't in the end as the floppy drives seemed dysfunctional so I couldn't boot anything on it).
Though given how much power such an old desktop beast will draw, if you plan to use it much then you might be better off in the long run getting a cheap little old second hand laptop (anything 386+ with a network card will do, probably 486+ if you would want to run X at all) and using a small Linux setup to achieve most (admittedly not all) of what you could do with a serial based dumb terminal via SSH. Of course you could also use such a laptop as a dumb terminal just like the old 8086 based box too, either from DOS (with the method in the above link) or Linux (using much the same method but a different tool).
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You have a good point about the power draw. That ps/2 brings back so many memories of programming :)– Jé QueueDec 5, 2009 at 19:28