I've been away from sdf.org / Gopher for about 8 months now
but thought I'd check in using a new computer setup. I'm
writing this short little Gopher entry using the following
configuration, at a surprisingly pleasant 2400 baud:
Genuine Commodore 64 "breadbin" (C64)
UltimateII+ floppy drive emulator
GGLABS GLINK-LT C64 "User Port" serial interface card
Serial cable from GLINK-LT to Raspberry Pi
Serial getty on Raspberry Pi
Novaterm v9.6c terminal software for C64 (wonderful!)
ssh on Raspberry Pi to sdf.org
vi
And, if only for my potential future use, I am using the
following settings in Novaterm:
Term emulation: VT102
Baud rate: 2400
Word/parity: 8N1
Carrier type: Inverted
Serial driver: User port
Flow control: Hardware
This setup took me a little while to figure out.
I'm still blown away by how well Novaterm maps onto the
sdf experience. The little left-arrow key in the
upper-left corner of the C64 keyboard works as ESC (very
useful for vi, etc) and the RUN/STOP key works as tab
(very useful for filename auto-completion in the shell,
etc).
Terminal emulation has been basically a perfect match so
far. Using PINE (ncurses) works like a champ.
I've also been doing a bunch of posting on "telnet BBSes"
using a similar setup over the last month or so and it
has been really nice.
2024 Gopher resolution: Get back to writing up my series
of Gopher articles on 1990s telephone system hacking.
