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From: mac@tflop.UUCP (Mike Mc Namara)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.unix,net.info-terms
Subject: Re: Terminfo()--Ideas needed. System V &  Re: request for extended Termcap description.
Message-ID: <233@tflop.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-May-86 00:43:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: tflop.233
Posted: Fri May 16 00:43:02 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 17-May-86 04:14:47 EDT
References: <1135@bunker.UUCP> <155@molihp.UUCP> <2774@pegasus.UUCP> <1553@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: mac@tflop.UUCP (Mike Mc Namara)
Distribution: net
Organization: ESL, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.
Lines: 80
Keywords: terminfo,termcap
Xref: watmath net.unix-wizards:18090 net.unix:7877 net.info-terms:955

In article <1553@ecsvax.UUCP> bet@ecsvax.UUCP (Bennett E. Todd III) writes:
>In article <2774@pegasus.UUCP> hansen@pegasus.UUCP (60545457-Tony L. Hansen;LZ 3B-315;6243) writes:
>>... More to the point, when will Berkeley support terminfo? ...
>
>While I won't dispute the claim that terminfo is more expressive, I
>still find it to be a HUGE step backwards in design: there just isn't
>sufficient justification for making the active, working database a
>compiled binary file -- PARICULARLY when AT&T then doesn't include the
>sources to the terminfo descriptions. As shipped, the description for
>the DMD5620 is noticibly broken. To fix it, I'll have to completely
>rewrite the entire thing, since the readable (modifyable) version isn't
>available. Termcap isn't as expressive, perhaps, but I can write and
>modify termcap descriptions easily. Terminfo is a loser. Indeed, when I
>bring up full-screen applications (e.g. EMACSs) under System V, I use
>termcap. I have a public-domain rewrite of libtermcap, which a friend
>of mine wrote in response to AT&T's leaving it out of System V. Let us
>hope that Berkeley continues to support the better organized design, and
>doesn't attempt to corrupt BSD UNIXs too badly in the name of
>compatability.
>
>-Bennett
>-- 
>
>Bennett Todd -- Duke Computation Center, Durham, NC 27706-7756; (919) 684-3695
>UUCP: ...{decvax,seismo,philabs,ihnp4,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!duccpc!bet

	Ok, ready or not: Mark Horton, of ATT (just before he joined
	ATT), and Pavel Curtis, of Cornell, wrote a public domain
	package called terminfo, which came out, I believe, before
	AT&T's version. This system included ncurses, which was a
	much improved version of curses.  It also included vi(1) setup
	to use said ncurses.  It also included dump(1), an unfortuate
	overloading of the term, which would uncompile terminfo library
	entries.  As I don't have access to SYS5, I can't see if this
	works on those said libraries.  I also have a program which
	reads in termcaps and writes out terminfo input files.  Any and
	all of this is in the public domain, and available from me via
	return request.

I include the man page for dump:



DUMP(1)             UNIX Programmer's Manual              DUMP(1)



NAME
     dump - Print the contents of a compiled terminfo file in
     human-readable form

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/term/dump file ...

DESCRIPTION
     Dump reads the given files and decodes their contents to
     ----
     derive a reasonable representation of the terminfo entry
     which produced the file originally.  It should be noted, in
     case of emergency, that the output of dump is perfectly
                                           ----
     usable as the input to compile(1).
                            -------

SEE ALSO
     compile(1), term(5), terminfo(5)

AUTHOR
     Pavel Curtis, Cornell University
     (decvax!cornell!pavel or Pavel.Cornell@Udel-Relay)

BUGS
     You tell me.

-- 
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| Michael Mc Namara              | Let the words by yours, I'm done with mine.
| UUCP: dual!vecpyr!tflop!mac    | May your life proceed by its own design.
| ARPA: tflop!mac@ames.arpa      |
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