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From: rick@zeek.UUCP (Rick Wilhelm)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: how does xterm tell vi the window size
Keywords: xterm vi
Message-ID: <253@zeek.UUCP>
Date: 3 Oct 89 21:41:28 GMT
Organization: Arthur Andersen & Co., Chicago, IL
Lines: 29


Here is our problem, hope that someone can help out.

From an xterm, I logged on to a remote host and tried to vi a file.
vi thinks that the window is 24 lines deep.  It has no idea that I have
extended the window to >30 lines.
vi apparently goes to the termcap entry for xterm and finds out that
the default window size is 24x80.  However, the window is not necessarily
that size.

Without explicitly setting the window variable in vi (after counting the
number of lines in the window), how can vi act correctly?
Normally, when xterm is running locally, my guess is that it uses the
window i.d. to get the window size.  But since the vi session is on a
remote host, it has no idea about the window i.d.

So my question is two-fold.
1)  (this case)  How can we let vi know that the window is _not_ necessarily
    24x80?
2)  (in general) How does vi (or vnews for that matter) find out a window's
    size from xterm?
    
Thanks for your help

Rick Wilhelm
Andersen Consulting
Advanced Systems Center, Chicago
(312)517-5471
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