Branden Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 2) There needs to be a new terminal type, xterm-debian, which tracks the
> latest XFree86 xterm entry but incorporates our keyboard policy (and
> anything else we want to customize). I need to coordinate with the
> ncurses-base maintainer and some other folks about this. Ideally I should
> provide an xterm-debian termcap entry to the maintainer of termcap-compat
> as well. There are some issues with terminfo/termcap I don't grok yet, so
> yesterday I bought the O'Reilly book on them and will be dredging it for
> clues. An "xterm-debian" terminal type may sound strange at first, but
> please don't jump on me saying it's a bad idea. Ian Jackson, Mark Baker
> and I took at this issue and it looks like the best solution. I don't have
> the bug number for that discussion handy.
Would this be the default TERM value for xterm? I assume you realize that this
means any user telnetting from a debian machine to any other distribution or
OS will not get a useful terminal.
I think this is an truly awful idea, instead we should simply not make local
customizations beyond the necessary BackSpace/DEL handling. Few programs
depend on the setting of the kdch and many other machines also use DEL for
BackSpace, so really that isn't a problem. Just resist the temptation to
customize various other keys and you'll avoid problems.
Really, it would suck a lot to not be able to telnet to other hosts without
manually setting TERM to a useful value. Many people won't even realize what's
wrong. Providing an additional entry for use by people who want it might be a
nice feature, but only if it's not the default, and not necessary for Hamm.
What should really happen is that X11R6.n should provide a new terminfo entry
for the new xterm behaviour which should include using DEL for kdch and we can
assume that entry is widely available. Trying to fix it with a local hack like
"xterm-debian" will only cause more problems than it will solve.
greg
PS: I'm sorry for ignoring your expressed wish not to be told it was a bad
idea, but, well, it's just that it's a really really really bad idea.
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