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From: Steinar.Haug@elab-runit.sintef.no (Steinar Haug)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: hpterm vs. xterm
Message-ID: <1991Feb1.130753*Steinar.Haug@elab-runit.sintef.no>
Date: 1 Feb 91 12:07:53 GMT
Sender: news@ugle.unit.no
Organization: SINTEF, Trondheim, Norway.
Lines: 28

We are just starting up with HP-9000/400 machines here, and we already have
a considerable base of Suns. The HPs we have received with internal disks
all come preloaded with HP-UX 7.03 and VUE. VUE by default uses "hpterm" as
the terminal emulator. I know that this default can be changed, but it
would be nice to use the vendor supported terminal emulator. The problems
I see with hpterm are:

	- The cursor keys by default don't send any escape sequences (they
	only work locally). However, I know this can be turned on.

	- The cursor keys (when turned on) send the "wrong" escape
	sequences (escape-A, escape-B, escape-C, escape-D). This is wrong
	because all these sequences are already used by the default emacs
	mapping which our users know and love.

I'm sure we'll see other problems as time goes by, but these are the most
pressing at the moment. Now the first point I assume can be solved by
suitably modifying the hpterm initialization in the terminfo file. Can
the second problem also be solved? If I could get hpterm to send the same
escape sequences as xterm (escape-O-A, -B, -C, -D) this would be fine. As
it is, hpterm is unfortunately rather useless to us, even if it looks nice,
is 8-bit clean etc. Should we simply switch to xterm as the default? I'm
very interested to hear what experiences other heterogeneous sites have.

Steinar Haug, system/networks administrator
ELAB-RUNIT, University of Trondheim, NORWAY
Email: Steinar.Haug@elab-runit.sintef.no,
	sthaug@idt.unit.no, steinar@tosca.er.sintef.no