In its most recent version the program supports ANSI cursor control, command history, line editing and display colors. Like many of my recent programs, this one uses the WxWidgets toolkit, and I designed its GUI with WxGlade. This Python program is by far the best - it has more features and is more robust in the face of unexpected circumstances. Since then I've written any number of serial terminal programs, most not very good. But some years ago I decided to virtualize it, intending that any handy computer could stand in for a serial terminal. Years ago I simply kept a real serial terminal around - glass screen, heavy, unreliable. I have always needed a serial terminal for one reason or another, some having to do with owning a boat, or being a radio amateur, or wanting to communicate with a shipboard satellite dish. And most real terminals (not virtual ones) communicate with a serial interface. Most people who use serial interfaces on small computers must rely on USB-to-serial adaptors, since the old-style serial connectors have vanished and few find a use for serial interfaces any more - they are slow, relatively unsophisticated, and a bit tricky to set up.īut there are a few niche applications - anything involving GPS will likely need a serial communications channel at some point. Figure 2: Old-style RS232 serial circuit tester Discussion