terminfo

[Gregg Siegfried]

In article <24729 at bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd at bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost) writes:

>My vote is against terminfo.  I found several problems with the
>supplied terminfo entries for the AT&T terminals (4435 I think)
>attached to 3b2's running SysVr2, as well as on the DMD graphics
>terminals.
>
>I tried to fix the problems, but there was NO documentation on how to
>do it, and the terminfo information is not in a format such that it
>can be figured out in a reasonable amount of time.

I have identified and repaired numerous terminfo descriptions, as well
as written a few from scratch.  Terminfo is well documented in the
TERMINFO(4) section of the FM.

>Using termcap, I had some problems with the AT&T-supplied TERMCAP
>entry but I editted the entry and all was well.  Similar problems with
>X11's xterm program were remedied the same way.  The documentation was
>easy to find, but was also unnecessary in both cases.

I'll assume you don't have source for the terminfo entries.  When I
want to fix a terminfo entry on a machine without source, I make the 
fixes on a machine with source, and send the file to the other machine ;-)  
No, seriously, if you have the infocmp(1M) program, you can generate the 
terminfo source from the compiled entry.  You can even generate termcap 
source from a compiled terminfo entry.  Then, armed with the manual pages
and the terminfo source for the terminal in question, you can modify 
whatever you want.

>Perhaps terminfo is functionally "better", but my experience has shown
>it to be much less "maintainable".  A broken "better" doesn't do much
>good.

I don't see it as any less maintainable at all.  The only extra steps in
reworking a terminfo entry are the infocmp and tic steps.  Otherwise,
it's exactly the same as modifying a termcap.  Additionally, due to the
more expressive syntax available with terminfo, it very likely takes
less time.

>jim frost
>adt!madd at bu-it.bu.edu


-- 
 Gregg Siegfried            | Nothing I say should be construed as AT&T
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