Tablet terminal sale: Telnet now, NS/VT soon
October 2, 2013
HP 3000 managers who'd like to try out a tablet user interface for MPE software can get a half-off price on Turbosoft's TTerm Pro at the iTunes store "for a couple of weeks," according to vendor representative Art Haddad. The app's being run through its paces by numerous 3000 veterans and stamped as suitable for production. For one California IT manager, however, TTerm Pro is going to get better in the future. That's because the app runs via telnet today, but won't have NS/VT services until a later version "In the not-too-distant future."
In the world of iPad apps, these kinds of upgrades are often downloaded at no charge. Dave Evans, systems Security and Research Manager of the San Bernadino Schools, said that telnet would work for him now, but it would require the customary batch job needed to launch telnet on his 3000s. The 3000's config file for inetd must be edited to enable telnet services for users. According to HP's documentation, the services file must include the line telnet 23/tcp. A batch job starts inetd to launch the Telnet server.
But TTerm Pro's half-off price is getting more managers interested in trying the tablet interface in production use.
"The interface looks really nice on the iPad," Evans said, "and at $25 I don't mind spending that much." Evans, who added that he has a lot more to manage at the schools' IT department than just the 3000, acknowledged that no terminal emulator was ever sold for 3000 users for even as low as $49.95, the non-sale price for TTerm Pro.
Of course, those Windows-based emulators -- you could sometimes find them on sale under $200 a seat -- employed extensive scripting features, something that TTerm Pro won't embrace wholesale from any that are already written for the Reflection emulator, for example.
However, tablets are already in use by the IT support staff at the school district, Evans said. That access runs through Citrix, "because the Citrix receiver client on the iPad works really well. I do it all the time from home when I get an email which tells me there's a 3000 problem. Instead of running over to my computer and firing up Reflection, I just fire it up on the iPad and work on it from there."
"The screen and the keyboard obviously take a little adjustment on the iPad," Evans said, "but when you need to do something in a bind, it's really nice to have a tablet available." Support access doesn't require the NS/VT block mode data entry. For production use of the TTerm Pro emulator, Evans sees a target "for occasional access out on the road type of use."
Support vendors have looked over the app. "I purchased a copy, and it works quite nicely," said Gilles Schipper of GSA. "There's a minor problem with a persistent incorrect complaint of invalid host, one that is only satisfied by aborting the app and restarting. The so-called 'invalid host' is then connected to just fine. In general, this is a nice app for a reasonable price."
The set of early adopters of the app have been posting positive comments about the response from the Turbosoft R&D team, too. "I also purchased a copy," said Allegro's Stan Sieler. "The R&D team responded to some enhancement suggestions I had, including increasing the amount of terminal memory, pretty quickly."