🚀 go-pugleaf

Wanted:  Information on DEC Rainbow

I operate a DEC RB 100+ with ram full-up, graphics, color monitor, and 10
MByte disk, as well as having the dubious privilege of owning a similar, but
diskless 100B at home.  Lately I have been using the machine a lot more, which
has led to attempts at more understanding.  I would greatly appreciate help
on the following questions:

1.  Is there a way to change screen foreground and background color attribute,
such as with ANSI escape sequences?  The IBM usage is {ESC}[nnm, where nn from
30-37 is foreground and 40-47 is background, but the rainbow doesn't
understand this.

2.  Is there a convenient way to type the DEC line graphic characters to the
screen?  Again, with an IBM, ALT-nnn ( on the keypad) will yield the decimal
character nnn.

3.  How different is the RX-50 drive interface from a standard 360 kB drive?
In other words, what does the commercially available IDrive do to make a
standard drive play?  I would like to put a 1/2 height 360 kB floppy and a 20
M hard disk on my machine at home at _minimum_ cost.  (Drives are cheap, the
controllers seem prohibitive.)

Incidently, I use WordPerfect (as do most of the ~150 Rainbow users at this
site).  I recently received a new newsletter from WordPerfect Corp, which
didn't mention support for our favorite doorstop.  However, after a phone call
I am awaiting an update to the faster version and will report if it arrives and
works.  The slow version is 4.2 release date 12/22/86; the new one supposedly
4.2 rel. date 9/8/87.

ps.  This is my first posting.  If you think it an inappropriate use of the
net, please let me know via email.
-- 
Craig Johnston (salt@tc.fluke.com), John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA, USA
{uw-beaver,lbl-csam,hplsla,ssc-vax,microsoft,sun,allegra,...}!fluke!salt