What does the name of the Turbo Pascal “crt” unit stand for?

Question

"Cathode Ray Tube"? "C RunTime"? Neither makes much sense to me; something else entirely?

Answer 1

You're right, it's "Cathode Ray Tube". A thing from the past already :) The most common display type before 2005.

Most of the functions in the CRT unit are related to text-mode output and color setup, the only "interesting" things that could be done on an older non-graphical pre-VGA displays.

I'm not that old, but I remember back in 1995 I've been using the Turbo Pascal on a typical 13'' CRT display (they were synonymous with the "display" actually) and it's been 100% natural that the unit containing functions to manipulate that very CRT display is called CRT. Yes, there are also the key presses and stuff, but CRT is pretty natural. Don't know how to explain it better. It's like a 3.5'' floppy disk icon which is a metaphor for "Save file" menu item. Many young people haven't even seen those floppy disks and now it is only a sort of a "cultural legacy".