3B2 and 'tset' (the answer)

[Greg Noel]

>< Back in the good(?) old days of System III and Version 7 there was a
>< terminal initialization program called 'tset'.  Even though this is still
>< referenced in the 3B2 documentation in TERMINFO(4) I can find neither hide
>< nor hair of it.  If anyone has implemented the equivalent function or knows
>< of one I would very much appreciate hearing about it.

I've had this same complaint.  The answer I've received has been that the
"tabs" program is supposed to do terminal-specific initialization.  Now, while
there is a certain kind of sideways logic to using "tabs" that way, the problem
is that "tabs" doesn't do it -- in fact, the version we have doesn't even know
about curses/terminfo; it has wired-in knowledge about a few specific terminals
and makes no attempt whatever to send out generic initialization strings, nor
is it smart about baud rates or terminal padding.

I don't care if the logic is in "tabs", "tset", or a totally new program; this
information is readily available via terminfo and it should be usable somehow.
Like the directory-reading routines, this is an area where AT&T has dropped the
ball and probably needs some encouragement to get its act together.  Maybe if
we knew where we could send some nastygrams, we could inundate them with memos
until they saw the light........
-- 
-- Greg Noel, NCR Rancho Bernardo    Greg at ncr-sd.UUCP or Greg at nosc.ARPA