it is nice to have the power of all that useful but obsolete software out there

Subject: Re: Switching tasks and context
∂08-Jul-81 0232 Nowicki at PARC-MAXC Re: Switching tasks and context
Date: 6 Jul 1981 10:32 PDT
From: Nowicki at PARC-MAXC
In-reply-to: JWALKER's message of Wednesday, 1 July 1981 11:52-EDT
To: JWALKER at BBNA
cc: WorkS at AI

[...]

The important thing is that such a tool WORKS, and I find incredibly useful. The virtual terminal uses ANSI standard escape sequences, so we can use all the tools that have been around for a long time (like the SAIL Display Service, Emacs under TOPS-20 or Unix, etc.) with NO modifications. We are planning to use this to develop a more integrated system, but it is nice to have the power of all that useful but obsolete software out there.

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(via Chris, who's scouring Unix history for us)