Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!GYRE.UMD.EDU!chris
From: chris@GYRE.UMD.EDU (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  TCP/IP terminalservers and BREAK(/^C)
Message-ID: <8810310855.AA00401@gyre.umd.edu>
Date: 31 Oct 88 08:55:25 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29

In regard to telnet `virtual terminal driver' mode:

Michael Patton <map@gaak.lcs.mit.edu>:
>... implementation problem ... where the server process can't
>get at the information.
	
Stuart Levy <slevy@uc.msc.umn.edu>:
>... once there's a mechanism for using the information, mechanisms will
>be developed (operating systems will be modified) to make it available
>where necessary.

Agreed; I think that a `virtual terminal driver' would work well, provided
(alas!) it matches well with existing terminal drivers (and there are so
many that this is likely to be difficult).

>4.3BSD "almost" does it ... don't think they have any way to notify the
>server of application-initiated changes; I haven't seen 4.3-tahoe though.

The only way for a server to find out about changes would be for it to
poll the pty driver continuously, which is not workable for the obvious
(I hope it is obvious!) reason.  But fixing this would take only a few
lines of code.

>This is a classic chicken vs. egg problem, might as well allow a few
>species of birds to evolve before predicting we'll never taste an omelet.

But will we end up with the electronic equivalent of hardening of the
arteries?  :-)

Chris