Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:11491 comp.unix.aux:658
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ncar!ames!oliveb!3comvax!bridge2!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.aux
Subject: Re: terminfo vs. termcap
Keywords: Why do we need two different terminal capability widgets?
Message-ID: <941@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 3 Feb 89 19:58:00 GMT
References: <6966@june.cs.washington.edu> <358@tcsc3b2.UUCP> <1312@umbio.MIAMI.EDU> <6912@ig.ig.com>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 19

>Just a note to say that /etc/termcap didn't originate at Berkeley.
>Version 7 and System III from AT&T used it, too.

Just a note to say that the above claim is completely false.  V7 most
definitely did *not* come from AT&T with "termcap", and neither did
System III. 

"termcap" originally came from Berkeley with the first Berkeley Software
Distribution ("first", not "First", since there was only one at the
time), which was based on V6.

(Historical note: V6 didn't have the notion of "environment variables",
so the Berkeley V6 enhancements included had some hack involving a file
in, as I remember, "/etc", which stored a two-character terminal type
for each port; that's why there are those two-character names in
"termcap".)

Some vendors may have *added* "/etc/termcap" to their V7 or S3 systems,
but that's a different matter.