What practical applications does teletype and interactive shell have for modern computers?

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CrazedNerd

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I was trying to figure out what what exactly an interactive shell is, and somehow teletype came into it during my search. For those of you who do not know, teletype machines are neworked computers from the 70s/80s that would be used to send messages to people in other buildings, to put it bluntly. I'm a little confused how these could possible have any relevance now adays, by the "tty" command still gives me an output in the terminal, they also seem to be associated with virtual terminals, which are always running in the background.

What is an interactive shell? If you care to respond, explain it as if i were a complete moron!
 


Essentially, noninteractive shells are background shell processes, run by services/daemons, with specific user contexts, but never interact with a user. I think the concept of a "noninteractive shell" is a bit advanced, requiring someone to have some knowledge how a shell works in general, so it would be difficult to explain at the "moron" level.

I would say you're incorrect that teletype machines are no longer relevant. They have just evolved into mostly virtual terminals. When you telnet or SSH into a remote system, you are teletyping. The ANSI protocol that overlays tty could maybe use an update to something like xml/html styling. But why change something that is very mature, and proven technology?
 
Essentially, noninteractive shells are background shell processes, run by services/daemons, with specific user contexts, but never interact with a user. I think the concept of a "noninteractive shell" is a bit advanced, requiring someone to have some knowledge how a shell works in general, so it would be difficult to explain at the "moron" level.

I would say you're incorrect that teletype machines are no longer relevant. They have just evolved into mostly virtual terminals. When you telnet or SSH into a remote system, you are teletyping. The ANSI protocol that overlays tty could maybe use an update to something like xml/html styling. But why change something that is very mature, and proven technology?
Good to know that teleyping means now adays means using using secure shell and telnet, i will have to research ANSI protocols when i have time.
 

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