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And one may add that true blue professionals referred to ASCII terminals as DUMB terminals (as they could not probe the mainframe functions directly)
– MKhomo
Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 23:29
It should be mentioned that BCDIC is an acronym for "Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange Code".
– Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні
Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 11:45
1

@MKhomo Nope, they were "dumb" because they couldn't process text without help. The "smart" terminals could do simple text manipulation themselves, without help from the mainframe.
– John Doty
Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 12:48
I suppose you're right if one discounts as processing, the holding on to what you've 'keyed' until you 'Hit' the Xmit key. My mainframe exposure is limited, but I remember when they wanted to provide me with a remote 'smart' terminal, the thing was as big as my desk and had more keys than an alligator had teeth, and the mainframe techs liked it because it could waltz with the consoles, in an arcane console-speak VTAM is all I remember of it; whereas I was more used to the little pedestals that fed little punched tapes with pre-ASCII BCD for a mini (HP3000 I think).
– MKhomo
Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 14:37

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