Talk:VT320

Incorrect information

• The VT320 do not have the multiple sessions features. This was introduced with the VT330. The is both a DB-25 and an MMJ connector, but you cannot use them both at the same time on the VT320.
• You cannot split the screen horizontally, only vertically.
• You cannot do full bitmap pictures on the VT320. While you can define soft characters, a character set is limited to 96 characters, which also is the limit on how many different "cells" you can use for your bitmap pictures.

(Johnny Billquist, bqt@softjar.se) 68.50.62.100 (talk) 18:23, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

You are correct. I think the fundamental error in this article is it keeps saying "VT320" when it means "VT340", which was a vastly different machine. (The VT340 was also the predecessor to the "low-cost" VT320, not the other way around as the article implies). I wonder if this incorrect information was originally a separate article for the VT340 and somebody merged it with VT320 thinking that, surely, if DEC's marketing named them something so similar, they must be identical or "close enough to makes no never mind". Ben (talk) 23:02, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

The article originally stated that the VT320 was text-only. This is incorrect; the VT320 supported Sixel graphics, as can be seen here:

• https://www.vt100.net/docs/vt320-uu/appendixe.html - the VT320 programmer's manual documents the Sixel escape codes
• https://github.com/jmason/gif320 - contains a photo of the Sixel codes in action on a VT320!

Jmason (talk) 11:03, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

The programmer's manual documents the use of SIXEL for DRCS (which isn't at all the same as "SIXEL graphics" being limited to soft fonts). SIXEL graphics are documented for VT330 and VT340, but not for VT320. gif320 uses DRCS rather than SIXEL graphics TEDickey (talk) 19:57, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

full support for ANSI?

While some "VT340" terminal emulators supported ANSI color (and none of those are well documented), the VT320/VT340 reference manual mentions color only in the context of ReGIS (graphics) support. Technically, because X3.64 apparently didn't do color (that appeared in ECMA-48), full support for for ANSI might be measurable. Still, you'd have to find a verifiable copy of X3.64 to check off the features. VT340 lacks some of the ECMA-48 features even without color. TEDickey (talk) 22:27, 25 September 2026 (UTC)