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From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: A question regarding xterm on Sparcstations
Message-ID: <1991Jun28.234824.12427@Think.COM>
Date: 28 Jun 91 23:48:24 GMT
References: <1991Jun28.140624.4260@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Reply-To: barmar@think.com
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 31

In article <1991Jun28.140624.4260@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> naras@clio.stat.fsu.edu (B. Narasimhan) writes:
>Can xterm work directly with a sun terminal? Or can it only do via an
>emulation of some other terminal such as the vt102?

Xterm has to emulate *some* terminal.  It currently contains emulators for
a vt100-like terminal and the tek4010.  It shouldn't be too hard to modify
it to emulate a different terminal instead of the vt100.

Xterm can't easily work "directly" with the terminal.  Its only access to
the terminal is via the X protocol.  The X protocol only passes generic
"keysyms" indicating which keys have been pressed or released.  It is up to
the client software to interpret the keys appropriately (there are library
routines and widgets that automate the common cases, such as interpreting
graphic characters and shift keys).

>Has anyone ever told xterm to use a sun terminal? (After all, the capabilities
>of a sun terminal are known to sun machines.) 

The terminal emulator Sun includes with Open Windows probably provides Sun
console emulation.

Also, xterm allows you to configure what is sent for any key by setting
"translations" resources.  Users frequently use this to implement macro
keys (e.g. a function key that sends a frequently-used command line), but
you could use it to make xterm send the same escape sequences as the Sun
console.
-- 
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
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