I started the project without any clearly defined goals for the terminal functionality other than it had to scroll. I wanted a terminal to connect to a nebulously defined future computer project but was stuck with testing with modern computer...which still speak to command line environments with ANSI escape sequences. Why not emulate the classic computer terminal progenitors then? I started with the VT100 but soon found I liked the additional features that DEC added with the VT102 such as the ability to support printers and more efficient editing capabilities. This meant a lot of escape sequence decoding. I ended up wading through a lot of websites describing various ANSI escape sequences but finally found http://vt100.net as the best source. Obviously I couldn't deal with commands to change the font or font-size so I ignored those but I tried to deal with everything else and I added a couple of escape sequences from more advanced terminals that supported some function (like cursor blink) that my display could also support. I tested my code using both a Raspberry Pi running Raspian and my Mac OS X laptop. Interestingly the OS X system wanted a much more modern set of ANSI escape sequences even when I thought I told it to limit to the old VT102 set. I ended up adding code to ignore entire classes of escape sequences such as "Operating System" types. My main test was bash shell interactivity and the vi text editor. I used a diagnostic mode in my code to dump the incoming stream to the USB serial port so I could see what the terminal had seen when the display didn't match what I expected (which, at least at first, was a lot). It was entertaining if nothing else. A lot of modern code thinks nothing of sending the same escape sequence multiple times in a row.

Ultimately for my first go-around I ended up with the following control character and escape sequence "command set" for the terminal. I made the conscious decision not to support all the control characters in the same way DEC terminals did to match some more "stupid" terminals that I had run across over the years.

Control Characters Implemented

     CTRL-C                           EOT - Break command for Tiny Basic (ignored in Terminal mode)

     CTRL-G                           BELL - sends BELL to keyboard (rings keyboard bell)

     CTRL-H                           BS - backspace cursor

     CTRL-I                           TAB - forwardspace cursor to next tab position (default values: 1, 2, 4

                                            or 8 positions, configurable)

     CTRL-J                           LF - Linefeed character (moves cursor down one row; may also

                                           be configured to include a CR)

     CTRL-K                           VT - Vertical tab (moves cursor up one position) (**)

     CTRL-L                           FF - Formfeed (clear screen) (**)

     CTRL-M                           CR - Carriage return (moves cursor to start of line; may also

                                           be configured to include a LF)

     ESC (*)                          Escape - starts escape sequence

     DEL                              Delete - backspace cursor, deleting character first (**)

     

     Notes:

      *  The EOT key on the keyboard is treated as an Escape in terminal mode and a CTRL-C

         (break) in Tiny Basic mode.

      ** These control characters are not VT100/ANSI compliant.  They exist for compatibility with

         other, more primitive, terminals.



ANSI Sequences Implemented (numeric arguments in decimal ASCII notation are contained with <>)

     ESC[;H                           Cursor Position

     ESC[;f                           Horizontal and Vertical Position (same as Cursor Position)

     ESC[A                            Cursor Up

     ESC[B                            Cursor Down

     ESC[C                            Cursor Forward

     ESC[D                            Cursor Backward

     ESC[s                            Save Cursor Position

     ESC[u                            Restore Cursor Position

     ESC7                             Save Cursor Position, origin mode and cursor attributes (*)

     ESC8                             Restore Cursor Position, origin mode and cursor attributes (*)

     ESC[J                            Erase Down

     ESC[1J                           Erase Up

     ESC[2J                           Erase Display

     ESC[K                            Erase End of Line

     ESC[1K                           Erase Start of Line

     ESC[2K                           Erase Line

     ESC[L                            Insert Line

     ESC[M                            Delete Line

     ESC[P                            Delete Character

     ESC[c / ESC[0c / ESCZ            Query Device Attributes (responds with VT102 ESC[?6c)

     ESC[5n                           Query Device Status (responds with Report Read, no malfunctions ESC[0n)

     ESC[6n                           Query Cursor Position (responds with Report Cursor Position ESC[;R)

     ESC[?15n                         Query Printer Status (responds with

                                        ESC[?13n if printer is offline

                                        ESC[?11n if printer is out of paper

                                        ESC[?10n if printer is ready to print

     ESCc                             Reset Device

     ESCD                             Scroll Down One Line

     ESCE                             Next Line

     ESCM                             Scroll Up One Line

     ESCH                             Set Tab

     ESC[0g / ESC[g                   Clear Tab at position

     ESC[3g                           Clear all tabs

     ESC[;r                           Set scrolling region

     ESC[r                            Reset scrolling region

     ESC[4h                           Enable Character Insertion

     ESC[4l                           Disable Character Insertion

     ESC[7h                           Enable Line Wrap

     ESC[7l                           Disable Line Wrap

     ESC[12h                          Disable Local Echo
     ESC[12l                          Enable Local Echo

     ESC[20h                          Set New Line Mode (new line also includes CR, CR sends CR+LF)

     ESC[20l                          Reset New Line Mode

     ESC[?6h                          Set Origin Mode

     ESC[?6l                          Reset Origin Mode

     ESC[?25h                         Make Cursor visible

     ESC[?25l                         Make Cursor invisible

     ESC[0q / ESC[1q                  Cursor Blink (**)

     ESC[2q                           Cursor Solid (**)

     ESC[i / ESC[0i                   Print Screen or scrolling region (based on Printer Extend Mode)

     ESC[?1i                          Print Line with cursor (followed by CR/LF)

     ESC[4i                           Disable Print log

     ESC[5i                           Start Print log (send incoming data to printer instead of screen)

     ESC[?4i                          Turn off Auto Print

     ESC[?5i                          Turn on Auto Print (print line after cursor moved off line w/ LF, FF, VT)

     ESC[?18h                         Set FF as print screen terminator

     ESC[?18l                         Set nothing as print screen terminator

     ESC[?19h                         Set full screen to print during print screen

     ESC[?19l                         Set scrolling region to print during print screen

     ESC#                             Line Attributes (IGNORED)

     ESC(                             Select Character Set (IGNORED)

     ESC)                             Select Character Set (IGNORED)

     ESC];BEL                         Operating System Command (IGNORED)

   Notes:

    *  This isn't ANSI compliant, instead of storing character attribute, we are storing cursor attributes

    ** These are VT520 commands