Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!syd
From: syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Using $LINES before using stty's rows
Keywords: $LINES stty rows precedence
Message-ID: <1991Mar16.010258.18235@DSI.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 91 01:02:58 GMT
References: <1991Mar15.230957.10143@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM
Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc.  Huntingdon Valley, PA
Lines: 17

jbn35564@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson) writes:
>Why does ELM use $LINES (if $LINES is set to anything) before checking stty's
>rows setting when determining the the number of lines on a display?
Because the stty settings are often un-reliable.  First off under
System V they are even unavailable (Lets not talk about Vr4 with
the BSD merged code).  In many systems they don't return the current
size of the window, thus we allow a method of overriding them,
and that is by the LINES and COLUMNS variables.

Most systems don't set LINES and COLUMNS at all and Elm uses the stty
parameters.  If lines and columns variables are unreliable, wrap elm
in a shell script that clears those variables.
-- 
=====================================================================
Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP                   Elm Coordinator
Datacomp Systems, Inc.                          Voice: (215) 947-9900
syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd                        FAX:   (215) 938-0235