Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!ispi!jbayer
From: jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Grrr... uEmacs 3.10 doesn't work under Xenix
Keywords: uEMACS 3.10
Message-ID: <591@ispi.UUCP>
Date: 13 Apr 89 22:56:41 GMT
References: <56344@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <9313@j.cc.purdue.edu> <13576@steinmetz.ge.com> <588@ispi.UUCP> <13592@steinmetz.ge.com>
Reply-To: jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer)
Organization: Intelligent Software Products, Inc.
Lines: 50

In article <13592@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
}In article <588@ispi.UUCP> jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer) writes:
}
}| Why?  What is the matter with reading the termcap entry and interpreting
}| the keys according to the termcap info?  Why must the keys for ANSI be
}| hardcoded into the program, therefore increasing the program size and
}| complexity?  I have been able to make version 3.10 work with all the
}
}  For someone on one machine, who is root, changing termcaps is just
}fine. When running on a number of machines for which you may not have
}permission to change the /etc/termcap file, and when you have two years
}of accumulated emacs macros, you would like to not reinvent the world.

So you set your termcap locally.  uEmacs reads the environment, not the
termcap file.  If you cannot change the system termcap file you can
certainly set the TERMCAP environment variable locally.

}
}| and being able to use whatever function keys are available knowing that
}| their function will be the same.  I think that the current solution is
}| much better than a hardcoded one.
}
}  This is not in keeping with the portable approach. You could just as
}well decide the VMS is better than UNIX so pull support out for UNIX.
}There are a lot of people who have been using memacs in one mode who
}would like to continue. It would be better to have one set of changes
}installed by the author than a group of changes done by various people.
}The VT100 option for keystrokes is just another option like AMIGA or
}IBMPC. It shouldn't require taking one useful thing out to add another.

If you want VT100 keys then get a VT-100 termcap and set it locally.  It
is the same functionality, and removes some special, wierd code which is
specific for one terminal.

Portable to me means that I can use the same code with many different
types of hardware without any modification other than setting
environment variables to inform the program what is going on.  If you
are at an environment which has several different types of terminals the
_portable_ vt-100 just doesn't hack it.  On the other hand, setting the
TERMCAP variable does.  It is easy, and there is no need to hack around
with the code.  All you have to do is set the TERMCAP.



JB
-- 
Jonathan Bayer			      Beware: The light at the end of the
Intelligent Software Products, Inc.	      tunnel may be an oncoming dragon
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