intelligent terminal

1 definition found

intelligent terminal - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  intelligent terminal
  smart terminal
  
     <hardware> (or "smart terminal", "programmable terminal") A
     terminal that often contains not only a keyboard and screen,
     but also comes with a disk drive and printer, so it can
     perform limited processing tasks when not communicating
     directly with the central computer.  Some can be programmed by
     the user to perform many basic tasks, including both
     arithmetic and logic operations.  In some cases, when the user
     enters data, the data will be checked for errors and some
     type of report will be produced.  In addition, the valid data
     that is entered may be stored on the disk, it will be
     transmitted over communication lines to the central computer.
  
     An intelligent terminal may have enough computing capability
     to draw 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 behaviour of workstations
     or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely
     out of a remote server's storage, using said devices as
     displays.
  
     The term once meant 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 above, 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.
  
     (1995-04-14)