Re: sparc wscons behavior in -current and netbsd-6

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>>> [...] a reason to keep the default to WSEMUL_SUN on sparc.  [...]
>> How much does NetBSD care about compatability with historical
>> practice and/or with other OSes on the same hardware?
> A lot, in general.  And emulation type "sun" will stay around, so if
> you prefer it, you can use it.

> However, in most cases the change is not user noticable, as long as
> the term type is set correctly and everything "just works".

Well, except that vt100 isn't "set correctly", not unless you're on a
VT-100.  The terminal size is wrong, there are a number of sequences it
doesn't emulate, the keyboard layout is wrong, the speed is all
wonky...that it works as often as it does is a testament to the extent
to how much software doesn't use all the capabilities of VT-100s.

> I bet you have some ASCII art games that only work with hardcoed
> TERM=sun?

Personally?  No.  I have no personal horse in this race; my personal
view is that this would be a switch from one broken emulation to
another broken emulation - I find anything without :am:bw:, or with
:xn:, broken enough for general-purpose use I tolerate it only when I
must.  My own kernels include WSEMUL_MTERM and
WSEMUL_DEFAULT="\"mterm\"" - well, on wscons-capable <port,version>s,
at least.

> If there are serious reasons to keep using "sun" or "ss5" [...]

Well, you said it yourself, though you perhaps don't realize it:

> However, in most cases the change is not user noticable, [...]

"Most cases".  So, there are others.  How much does NetBSD care about
those others?

For that matter, what would be the downside of keeping it at sun?
Going back to the start of this thread, it looks to me as though the
price is that the sparc wscons.conf differs from other ports'.  To me
this does not outweigh the reasons to keep sun.

To me.

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