Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cme!cam!blue
From: blue@cam.nist.gov (Jim Blue)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: IRIS Keyboard & etc.
Message-ID: <2715@fs1.cam.nist.gov>
Date: 2 Mar 90 16:25:36 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Lines: 25

Background: I am an experienced programmer and Unix user. I recently
got my Personal Iris, and have been porting my own editor, since (IMHO)
vi is brain-damaged.

I have been active at RTFM, all 31 volumes (though most of them don't apply)
but haven't found how to get the number of lines and columns inside a wsh.
(getsize() gives the size in pixels, but not in lines and columns.) Since vi,
among other programs knows how to do this, it must be possible.

Appendix A.2 of the "Using the GL/DGL Interface" in the "4Sight Programmer's
Guide lists the string supposedly returned by each key. I find that some
work and some don't. For example, F1 really does return "ESC [ 001 q" (without
the quotes and spaces), but F4 returns some garbage left over from an
old "ls" command. After powering the machine down and up, F4 returns some
other stuff (I don't know what).

Alt C with the right Alt key returns the correct value, but not with the
left Alt key.


Is there more wisdom hidden in the FM, or must one be telepathic?

Jim Blue
National Institute of Standards and Technology
disclaimer: The US Government doesn't know what I'm doing, and vice versa.