John E. Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Maybe, or maybe not. The simple truth is that this is neither an
> ncurses, slang, nor a mutt problem. The root of the problem is with
> the terminal itself second guessing the context of what is on the
> screen. Not even the screen management software itself knows this
> context.
While I have no doubt that you've spent a lot more work on exactly this
sort of subject, I can't help but wonder why this would be the case.
If Mutt is printing lots of spaces to the end of the line, why doesn't
this cut/paste behavior always show up? Why is it only happening when
color is enabled?
I don't really want my xterm to decide that, if there are spaces going
to the end of the line, that it should simply ignore them. I really
*like* the way it pays attention to exactly how many spaces were
printed, and will cut them exactly the way they were printed out.
> Its only role is to update the display in a way that is as efficient
> as possible based upon the capabilities of the terminal. If it is
> more efficient to write spaces, then spaces will be preferred over an
> escape sequence.
I cannot believe that Slang would really determine on its own, that
"<space><space><space><space><space><space><space><space>" is more
efficient than "<esc>[K". Or any screen-management package.
> In fact, until the BCE capability was implemented in the X11R6 xterm
> (Dickey's version), it was impossible clear to the end of a line in a
> color other than the default without writing spaces.
But what about when the color chosen is simply "default;default"?
> As I said, the problem is with the terminal. A while back, I posted a
> patch for rxvt that fixes the problem.
I have noticed that rxvt treats spaces-to-end-of-line as simple a
newline. I don't like that behavior, because sometimes spaces at the
end of the line really are important.
> All applications that use curses or slang will usually use the second
> screen and switch to the primary upon suspension or exit. The primary
> screen is used by mainly by the shell.
But then, folks like me, who turn off the alternate screen, can't get
correct behavior.
Can you supply more information about the BCE capability you mentioned?
I am running Dickey's xterm, but I suspect that my terminfo might not
contain all of the information needed to utilize the capability. But
then, Slang uses termcap.. doesn't it? Hmm...
--
David DeSimone | "The doctrine of human equality reposes on this:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | that there is no man really clever who has not
Hewlett-Packard | found that he is stupid." -- Gilbert K. Chesterson
UX WTEC Engineer | PGP: 5B 47 34 9F 3B 9A B0 0D AB A6 15 F1 BB BE 8C 44
