Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!apple!agate!ucbvax!ulysses!kpv From: kpv@ulysses.att.com (Phong Vo[drew]) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: CURSES: magic cookie glitch characters Keywords: Curses magic cookie glitch Message-ID: <14017@ulysses.att.com> Date: 15 Nov 90 19:57:46 GMT References: <1990Nov15.061216.7165@csusac.csus.edu> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 16 In article <1990Nov15.061216.7165@csusac.csus.edu>, jetfuel@csusac.csus.edu (Dave Jenks) writes: > In article felps@convex.com (Robert Felps) writes: > >Can anyone shed some light on 'magic cookie glitch characters'? > > A "magic cookie" is a byte location on a terminal screen which alters > the "current attribute[s]". > Actually, the right characterization is that a magic cookie is a mark on the screen which alters the current attributes. There are two major families of terminals, HP26xx and Televideo, that have this (mis)feature. For the HPs, the marks have zero width (i.e., it does not take up one space on the screen) while for the TVIs, the mark is 1-char width. These cookie critters make life interesting for software like curses. The curses that I wrote, SysVr3.1 or later, handles the HPs correctly and does the best it can for the TVIs. Phong Vo, att!ulysses!kpv