Re: Problem in gnome terminal description

[Alain Williams]

On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 12:03:49PM -0400, Thomas Dickey wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 01:17:38PM +0100, Alain Williams wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > the entry for gnome appears to be wrong. The two entries and values:
> > 
> >     rmso=\E[m,
> >     rmul=\E[m,
> 
> I'm unsure about that (vidputs is "supposed" to allow for this sort of case).

Oh, one detail that I should have mentioned is that I am not using the curses
functions to output (draw the screen). My code is quite old ... I only updated
it from termcap to terminfo earlier this year - to be able to get extended
sequences like shift-left-arrow (kLFT). It does its own screen drawing.

Thus I have been able to implement a workaround: if the strings returned by rmso
& rmul are the same, assume that both SO & UL are turned off and then correct
from there (ie switch one back of, if needed) - it works.

I attach a crude test file that you can 'cat' on a Gnome terminal, it will set
SO and UL both independently and together. It shows that \E[m will switch both
off.

It does the same thing on an Xterminal.

> I had an older "gnome" entry before VTE, and see that I "updated" it in
> September 2003, but took a closer look in July 2004 in reference to
> 
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=122815

TERM=linux uses \E[27m & \E[24m

> However, I can add it (will test against vte-2012, and probably
> put the change there).

Thanks ... let me know when you have and I will raise a bug report at RedHat
that the need to update their terminfo files. (& Debian ... I'll see who needs 
it).






BTW: an idea that has been knocking around my head for a while ...
consider/ignore as you see fit.

This was sparked off by the Gnome Terminal developers who insist of nailing in
TERM=xterm in spite of it not conforming to the spec (eg Shift-F1). Their
justification is that a system might not have a 'gnome' terminfo description but
will have an 'xterm' one.

It might be nice to accept that the $TERM value could contain a ':' separated
list of alternatives, in the manner of $PATH (or like $TERMPATH).  The tgetent()
would use the first terminal that it finds.

Eg: TERM=gnome:xterm

This is backwards compatible and if you do not use a new $TERM changes nothing.

Since most programs will bring in libncurses via a shared object/library they
will accept the new syntax once their operating system receives an upgrade - ie
no need to recompile old programs.

The new syntax will, however, cause problems for scripts, shell or otherwise.
There are a few in /etc/profile.d/, also /etc/vimrc.
GNU emacs has /usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/term/

So: perhaps some symbol could be made available that gives the name of the 
terminal
that was found/used. For shell scripts the tput program could have an option 
that
gives the name of the terminal description that is used.

I suppose that other implementations of curses would need to buy in to this
idea; although if they do not then it should not be a show stopper - the
reluctant can always catch up later. This is an idea for the next 200 years more
than the next 2.

Thanks for reading.

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT 
Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
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