Editing Blit (computer terminal) (section)

==Functionality==
When initially switched on, the Blit looked like an ordinary textual [[dumb terminal| "dumb" terminal]], although taller than usual. However, after logging into a [[Unix]] host (connected to the terminal through a [[serial port]]), the host could (via special escape sequences) load software to be executed by the processor of the terminal. This software could make use of the terminal's full graphics capabilities and attached peripherals such as a [[computer mouse]]. Normally, users would load the window systems ''mpx'' (or its successor ''mux''), which replaced the terminal's [[user interface]] by a mouse-driven windowing interface, with multiple terminal windows all multiplexed over the single available serial-line connection to the host.

Each window initially ran a simple [[terminal emulator]], which could be replaced by a downloaded interactive graphical application, for example a more advanced terminal emulator, an editor, or a clock application. The resulting properties were similar to those of a modern Unix windowing system; however, to avoid having user interaction slowed by the serial connection, the interactive interface and the host application ran on separate systems—an early implementation of [[distributed computing]].