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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!BillW@SU-SCORE
From: William Chops Westfield <BillW@SU-SCORE>
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: termcaps *!#@$#!!
Message-ID: <7542@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 21:37:06 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7542
Posted: Fri Jan 18 21:37:06 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Jan-85 08:43:47 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 20

Well, i almost agree with you.  Some PCs have a built in terminal
emulator, and so it is ok to ask for a termcap for a DEC rainbow, or
an H89, or an HP150.  Frequently the problem with writing you own
termcap is that you dont know what the PC in question can do.  there
are plenty of programs that say things like "emulates a vt100", while
neglecting to tell you that scolling regions aren't implemented.  Telling
someone to write their own termcap is in some cases akin to telling someone
to write a terminal emulator that emulates some terminal already in termcap!

For people that request termcaps, you should be aware that in most cases,
the type of software that you are running is just as important as the
hardware, so requests should be "does anyone have a termcap for the Vic20
running version 4 of VicTalk from unfriendly software inc?".  Also, there
are a number of "standard" terminals that are "likely" to be emulated
if anything at all is emulated.  In decreasing order of capability,
these are: VT100 (ANSI), VT52, ADM3A - you can try out these termcaps
(or variations thereof reflecting real length and width of the screen),
before requesting some other termcap...

BillW