Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site denelcor.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!hao!denelcor!lmc From: lmc@denelcor.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.info-terms Subject: Re: Termcap Standardization Message-ID: <153@denelcor.UUCP> Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 19:58:22 EDT Article-I.D.: denelcor.153 Posted: Thu Aug 29 19:58:22 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 08:25:28 EDT References: <192@medstar.UUCP> <445@baylor.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Denelcor, Aurora, Colorado Lines: 47 Xref: watmath net.unix-wizards:14639 net.info-terms:636 > > The line drawing character set definitions are equally confused. Many > > termcap entries just don't define characters that are there at all, and > > some leave out entries like GC, GL, and GR. Many terminals that have the > > Terminal graphics are really outside the scope of Termcap. Terminfo can > probably handle them, but Termcap was never designed to deal with anything > but BL through TILDE. > It is probably > inadvisable to require graphics character sets in a termcap program, as many > terminals don't support them... certainly damn few terminal emulators do. Well, its true that termcap was designed before the line drawing character sets were commonly available on terminals, but it doesn't seem too hard to get them into use through termcap. The set of caps that I use in my work with the Rand editor are: Gs - turn on line-drawing mode Ge - turn it off Tl - Upper left corner Tr - top right corner Bl - Bottom left corner Br - bottom right corner Vl - vertical line Hl - horizontal line Lj - left join Rj - right join Tj - top join Bj - bottom join Cj - center join (cross) Xc - some other distinct line-drawing mode character (Most of this was posted a long time back by eric@aerospace - credit where due.) This works well on vt100 types, freedom 100's, and every other line- drawing set I've seen (except the ADM 11 - would you believe magic cookies in the line-drawing stuff?). Note, this is not a general purpose graphics interface - just horizontal and vertical lines with corners and joins, for drawing windows. Its well within the capabilities of the design of termcap. A general question on the termcap function tputs: what is the easiest way to defeat the delay feature (avoiding the delays that are represented by the numbers on the front of the cap)? If the terminal is running in cbreak mode, the delays aren't needed (assuming some flow control mechanism alive in cbreak mode). It is unfortunate that there is no single authority on termcap as there is on terminfo (although Doug Gwynn does fill that function as well as it can be filled in the chaos). Adding caps (like the line-drawing set above) is purely ad-hoc; no where exists where they (or any reasonable facsimile) are accepted and made "standard", so termcap entries containing them are also non-standard, and aren't acceptable in general. Since there are no entries published with them, everyone invents their own,.....and so on.