intelligent 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)