TERMINFO to TERMCAP conversion.

[Michael Meissner]

In article <=5R2.MAxds13 at ficc.uu.net> peter at ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:

| I said: [Termcap is OK, and it's extensible]
| 
| > It's not all that extensiable, it still has the absurd 1024 byte limit
| > (and yes I have run into that limit with a vt320 description).
| 
| True, but that's fixable. I've already suggested having a compiled version
| (basically a hashed index table into the entries).

It is not fixable without fixing all of the old crufty programs that
have hardwired 1024 arrays.

| > You cannot really add new % operators to the core fields, without
| > recompiling all of the termcap utilities.
| 
| On the other hand you can't extend Terminfo at all. And recompiling is
| fine if you want to add a new capability that your new program needs
| but nobody else cares about.
| 
| Besides, with shared libraries you *can* add new operators without
| recompiling or relinking anything.
| 
| > Also, termcap cannot handle really weird terminals, due to the limited
| > expression capability of the % syntax.  Terminfo can, because it
| > provides general reverse polish calculations.
| 
| So add a "cp" to supplement "cm" with a more powerful syntax, and phase
| out "cm". Or just add a "%(expression)" form to "cm".

And then break all programs which use 'cm' as the specification calls
for.
--
Michael Meissner	email: meissner at osf.org		phone: 617-621-8861
Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA

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