Re: terminfo vs termcap

[Julian Coleman <jdc%coris.org.uk@localhost>]

Hi,

> I'm a bit suprised nobody suggested to use a plist based completely new
> format and extended termlib API + termcap compatible environement yet.

This might be a sensible suggestion.  However, one of the things we suffer
from at the moment is the inability to accurately determine terminal
capabilities.  This was not a problem when a terminal entry was tied to a
particular physical machine.  However, now we have several emulators calling
themselves "vt100", "vt220", "xterm", etc., and they are not quite the same.
For example: how many colours does your xterm support; what escape sequences
do the function keys send?  Some of this is handled via ad-hoc mechanisms
(e.g.  xterms's lines/columns and delete/backspace keys), but some way of
querying the terminal would make sense, if we were to start on a new API.

Thanks,

J

-- 
  My other computer also runs NetBSD    /        Sailing at Newbiggin
        http://www.netbsd.org/        /   http://www.newbigginsailingclub.org/