Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!opal!net
From: net@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Oliver Laumann)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Screen 2.0 change
Message-ID: <2921@kraftbus.cs.tu-berlin.de>
Date: 21 Mar 91 12:38:24 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.203404.21113@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> <1991Mar19.164204.21361@eci386.uucp>
Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany
Lines: 18

In article <1991Mar19.164204.21361@eci386.uucp> woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) writes:
> Why do you say screen is less flexible when using terminfo?  Why
> change the terminal definition on the fly?

Because the capabilities of the virtual terminal that is emulated by
screen depend on the capabilities of the physical terminal on which
screen has been started.  Example: screen cannot emulate the "blinking"
attribute if the physical terminal doesn't support this capability.

Thus, screen has to dynamically create a TERMCAP environment variable
on startup.  It doesn't change anything "on the fly".

screen tries hard to fully emulate a virtual VT220/X3.64 terminal,
but, of course, it is unable to support certain capabilities if
your "real" terminal is sufficiently dumb.

--
Oliver Laumann    net@tub.cs.tu-berlin.de  net@tub.UUCP  net@gnu.ai.mit.edu