Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari!aplcen!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: vt100 termcap (problem/question)
Message-ID: <12231@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 24 Feb 90 19:03:29 GMT
References: <1177@psc90.UUCP> <7013@celit.fps.com>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 19

In article <7013@celit.fps.com> hutch@fps.com (Jim Hutchison) writes:
>... (which is what tputs will do for you, based on the "number
>of lines effected").

affected.  Anyway, no it won't, because the affected-lines count is
used by tputs() only when the padding specification in the capability
string is immediately followed by an asterisk.

>... You can pad with any character appropriate to your terminal,
>although I've only every seen Null used as a pad.  Null will certainly
>work for most vt100-clones.

NO, this is not how to determine the padding character.  If the "pc"
string capability is specified, use its value for the padding (should
normally be just one character); otherwise assume NUL and nothing but
NUL for the padding character.

Remember, the whole point of termcap is to avoid wiring terminal-
specific assumptions into applications!