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Newer page: version 7 Last edited on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 4:02:27 am by AristotlePagaltzis
Older page: version 6 Last edited on Monday, August 16, 2004 10:23:28 pm by CraigBox Revert
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
 An [Acronym] for __T__ele__Ty__pe. 
  
-A console; a device that looks like a typewriter. Something that has a screen and some kind of keyboard
+A console; a device that looks like a typewriter. In abstract terms, something with a standard input (stdin(3)), standard output (stdout(3)), and a standard error (stderr(3)). ''AddToMe: this is not very accurate; whoever knows better please correct this.'' There are many different standards for [TTY]s defining keymaps and capabilities and the control sequences these generate and are accessed by, respectively. [VT100] is the most widely followed such standard
  
-An abstract TTY has a standard input , standard output, and a standard error -- stdin(3) , stdout(3) and stderr(3)
+[ TTY]s are rarely implemented in hardware these days; typically , their behaviour is provided by a TerminalEmulator. In fact , what looks like a [TTY] is nowadays often a [PTY]
  
-There are many different kinds of TTY. These days you'll find terminal emulators (such as xterm(1 ) and [Screen]) using a "vt-100" compatible terminal type , used for things like mapping key codes to characters . getty(8) or similar is often invoked by Linux distributions on boot to start terminals on the virtual consoles (ctrl+alt+f1 and up ). 
+In [Unix]-alike systems, an instance of getty(8) is given initial control of an actual [ TTY] . Its purpose harkens back to the days of serial connections; getty (8 ) is responsible for setting things up so the terminal and the computer can talk to each other. It then displays the familiar login prompt , waiting for a user to identify himself, and passes control on to login(1) . On [Linux] systems, some variant of getty(8) ( often agetty (8)) is launched for every virtual console configured ). 
  
-You can use stty(1) to modify some characteristics of your terminal - for example, characters used to delete previous character/word, local echo (for entering passwords).  
-  
-The Windows [SSH]/[Telnet] program [PuTTY] is a play on the TTY acronym
+You can change the settings of a terminal using stty(1), allowing you to configure such settings as characters used to delete previous character/word, whether local echo is disabled (for entering passwords), and others more