
	At our site, we have all of our terminal lines connected to
	the VAXen via a data switch.  Almost all of the terminals
	connected with the switch are VT100 compatible, so, instead
	of setting all of the terminals one-at-a-time, we decided
	to set them via the SYSGEN parameters TTY_DEFCHAR, TTY_BUF,
	and TTY_DEFCHAR2.  There is, however, one small problem with
	doing that:  While all of the characteristics of the terminal
	lines are set, the TYPE field (i.e. VT100, LA36, etc.) cannot
	be set by SYSGEN.  Because of that "feature," SETTYPE was born.

	SETTYPE sets all terminals at boottime to VT100 characteristics.
	It does this all in one shot in kernel mode.  I would NOT recommend
	running it interactively.

	SETTYPE was fine and dandy until V4.4 came along, and the terminal
	driver decided that it knew better than SYSGEN when it came to
	the terminal characteristics.  SETTERM was written to work around
	that particular deficiency -- it reads the SYSGEN parameters, then
	does $QIOs on each terminal line on the system to set the permanent
	characteristics.  Like SETTYPE, SETTERM should not be run anytime
	other than at system boot.

	Neither of these programs would be necessary if DEC decided to add
	a SYSGEN parameter TTY_TYPE or converted TTY_BUF to TTY_DEFCHAR3
	to reflect its usage (and allow the system manager to decide what
	he wants to call his terminals by default).  A suggestion SPR was
	submitted via CSC, but... who knows when that will be read?

	A command procedure GO.COM will build these programs.  The object
	library SETTERM.OLB contains the object files from the source code
	as it appears on the distribution.  SETTERM.OLB also includes the
	object file for GETDISKS, a wild-card device name subroutine.  See
	the source code from AUTOMOUNT for a source listing of GETDISKS.


					Eric F. Richards
					Gould Ocean Systems Division
					18901 Euclid Ave.
					Cleveland, OH, 44117
					216/486-8300 Ex. 3073
[6-Aug-1986]
