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smart terminal
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smart terminal /n./ 1. A terminal that has enough computing
capability to render graphics or to offload some kind of front-end
processing from the computer it talks to. The development of
workstations and personal computers has made this term and the
product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear
variants of the phrase `act like a smart terminal' used to
describe the behavior of workstations or PCs with respect to
programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote server's
storage, using local devices as displays. 2. obs. Any terminal
with an addressable cursor; the opposite of a glass tty.
Today, a terminal with merely an addressable cursor, but with none
of the more-powerful features mentioned in sense 1, is called a
dumb terminal.
There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the blit
terminal): "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal,
but rather a terminal you can educate." This illustrates a common
design problem: The attempt to make peripherals (or anything else)
intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid `special
features' that become just so much dead weight if you try to use
the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility
and programmability, on the other hand, are *really* smart.
Compare hook.
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