Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!bellcore!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!yale!leichter
From: leichter@CS.YALE.EDU (Jerry Leichter)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Re: Can ANSI/DEC terminals report keypad mode?
Message-ID: <69006@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 8 Aug 89 16:27:59 GMT
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Organization: Yale Computer Science Department, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Lines: 26
X-from: leichter@CS.YALE.EDU (Jerry Leichter (LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU))

In article <1217@syma.sussex.ac.uk>, leilabd@syma.sussex.ac.uk
  (Leila Burrell-Davis) writes...
>On leaving a program, I'd like to put the keyboard back into the same
>state it was in at the start, in particular the numeric keypad into
>either applications or numeric mode. Can anyone tell me if ANSI/DEC
>terminals will report this information and, if not, suggest how I
>might do this?

There is no ANSI-specified code for determining this state.  In fact, I don't
believe the ANSI spec has anything to say about applications vs. numeric mode
at all - these are DEC extensions dating back to the original VT100 (actually
to the VT52, though the encoding used was changed to be ANSI-compatible when
the VT100 replaced the VT52).

DEC VT300-series terminals support the ability to read the state of all the
terminal settings, keypad mode among them.  I forget the exact name of the
control sequence involved.  This feature was added in the VT300's, and is not
in any earlier DEC terminal.  (As the person who originally spec'ed this
functionality - after having failed to convince people of its importance at
the time the VT200's were designed - I'm very aware of the distinction!)

I don't know whether any 3rd-party ANSI- or VT200-compatible vendors have
defined similar extensions for their products; I don't recall ever seeing
any, however.  Of course, any correct VT300-compatible will have to support
the DEC-defined extensions.
							-- Jerry