Hi Randall, Thanks once again and in response to your question as to why I am trying to chang TERM, it is because I need it to generate \EOP for pressing f1 and \EOQ for pressing f2. This is the reason why I got into this. These key sequences are what is produced when I use other telnet clients (such as hyperterm on windows) using ansi or vt100 terminal emulation. But the cygwin console generates \E[[A and \E[[B even when TERM is set to vt100. Given what is in the /etc/termcap file this is clearly wrong.
That's all I really am asking about. Either my understanding is wrong and the cygwin console should generate \E[[A for f1 eventhough TERM is set to vt100, in which case it would be nice to know what the role of /etc/termcap is. Or there really is a bug and all I need then is a workaround. Regards, Reza ----- Original Message ----- From: "Randall R Schulz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 3:31 PM Subject: Re: Problem with function keys codes with vt100 emulation > Reza, > > The TERM variable is most certainly _not_ broken. You're misunderstanding > what it's for. The TERM variable is how programs that must adapt to > different terminal types (emulators or physical hardware) find out how to > properly drive the terminal's display and respond to characters sent by it. > > Some applications use termcap, others use compiled terminfo. They're > conceptually the same thing (hence the possibility for a utility like > "captoinfo"). They simply are a way to capture the details of how software > should interact with a terminal (or a terminal emulator). > > There are many terminals out there (I think--I haven't seen one for years > now) and they all use distinct control sequences and produce distinct key > sequences. That's why one needs something like termcap or terminfo. > > Beyond curiosity, which is fine, there's no need for you to know the > details of the design and operation of a terminal emulator (any more than > you need to know how a hardware terminal works, as long as it does work...). > > I'm not sure you actually have a problem, do you? Any program that uses > either termcap or terminfo (correctly) should work under Cygwin as long as > the TERM variable is set properly. Why are you trying to change TERM? Just > leave it the way Cygwin initializes it and you should be fine. > > As I said, I don't know anything about captoinfo, so I can't help you with > it. Have you read its man page? > > Randall Schulz > Mountain View, CA USA > > > At 15:06 2002-11-06, you wrote: > >Randall, thanks for the quick response. > > > >So the TERM environment variable is somewhat broken, in that setting it to > >something else is a no-op. The first question that comes to mind is whether > >this is characterized as a bug or a feature, and if a bug how deep does it > >run, and how likely that it will ever be fixed. > > > >On the issue of 3 terminal emulation models (cygwin console, RXVT, and > >xterm) I am a bit lost. Forgive me for being slow here, but if I understand > >you correctly the terminal emulation model is hard-coded into these > >applications (knowing how would be nice). Does this mean that /etc/termcap > >is not used at all? For example, if I change the termcap entry for linux > >(cygwin inherits from linux) to generate vt100 function key codes then will > >I get \EOP for f1 in the cygwin console? > > > >Is there any reference materials I can read to bring myself up to date on > >the architectural issues/shortcomings here? > > > >On the problem with captoinfo the issue is that it prints nothing (other > >than errors) to stdout. I have captured the output of "captoinfo > >/etc/termcap" and "captoinfo -V /etc/termcap" in the two attached file for > >your reference. As I said before, considering the findings so far, this is > >probably unrelated to the topic of the discussion. > > > >Thanks again, > > > >Reza > > > -- > Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple > Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html > Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html > FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ > > -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
