Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Re: A Question About the Infamous VT100 Line Wrap Bug
Message-ID: <1555@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Feb-87 13:25:40 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1555
Posted: Mon Feb  2 13:25:40 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Feb-87 18:45:56 EST
References: <1504@blia.BLI.COM> <121@lmi-angel.UUCP>
Sender: root@lsuc.UUCP
Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 27
Summary: VT-100 "bug" isn't so bad

In article <121@lmi-angel.UUCP> wsr@lmi-angel.UUCP (Wolfgang Rupprecht) writes:
>
>What is sad, is that this bug was actually introduced (by some
>misguided fool) in an attempt to solve another problem. With line wrap
>on and the normal behavior on column 80, it would have been impossible
>to write the last character on the last line of the screen without the
>terminal scrolling. (Now it's impossible to write the last character
>on any line..... without lots of extra work.) Why I wonder, didn't
>they just leave it alone, and tell people to turn off line wrap?

Yecch. That would be even worse.  I use a VT-100 compatible
terminal (Esprit 10/102) which supports this feature. Turning
off line wrap would lose data every time I wanted to display
something which goes beyond the end of the line (which happens
all the time).

Admittedly, the VT-100 feature (or bug, as you will) causes more
work for people who write termcaps and the like, but I think it's
a pretty neat way of using the last column.  It's not just the last
line -- it works on every line.  From the ordinary user's point of
view, the only time it's bothersome is when you want to erase char 80.

David Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
-- 
{ seismo!mnetor  cbosgd!utcs  watmath  decvax!utcsri  ihnp4!utzoo  } !lsuc!dave