Why doesn't ncurses use my Terminfo file's `cols` and `lines`?

[Stefan Monnier]

I apologize for this question which is not intended to be a bug-report,
but I'm not sure where else to post it (and neither have I found the
documentation about the meaning of each element in a Terminfo file).

I have an old Terminfo file which used to work OK many years ago
according to my memory, but now it refuses to obey the `cols` and
`lines` settings (and potentially others, since the cursor keys don't
work right either, but I haven't looked in detail at that problem yet).

Here's an example session showing the problem:

    % echo $LINES $COLUMNS
     
    % tput -T hds3200-w50 cols
    80
    % tput -T hds3200-w50 lines
    24
    % infocmp hds3200-w50
    #       Reconstructed via infocmp from file: 
/home/monnier/.terminfo/h/hds3200-w50
    hds3200-w50|Human Designed Systems HDS3200 model 20; VT220 7bits; 50x132; 
auto-wrap=no,
            mir, xenl, xon,
            cols#132, lines#50, vt#3,
            acsc=jjkkllmmnnqqttuuvvwwxx, bel=^G, blink=\E[5m$<2>,
            bold=\E[1m$<2>, civis=\E[?25l, clear=\E[H\E[2J$<50>,
            cnorm=\E[?25h, cr=\r, csr=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dr, cub1=^H,
            cud1=\E[B, cuf1=\E[C, cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH$<10>,
            cuu1=\E[A, dch1=\E[P, dl1=\E[M, ed=\E[J$<50>, el=\E[K$<3>,
            home=\E[H, ht=^I, if=/usr/share/tabset/vt100, il1=\E[L,
            ind=\ED$<20/>, is2=\E[1;24r\E[24;1H, kbs=^H, kcmd=\E[17~,
            kcub1=\E[D, kcud1=\E[B, kcuf1=\E[C, kcuu1=\E[A, kdl1=\E[3~,
            kf1=\EOP, kf10=\E[11~, kf11=\E[12~, kf12=\E[13~,
            kf13=\E[14~, kf14=\E[15~, kf17=\E[18~, kf18=\E[19~,
            kf19=\E[20~, kf2=\EOQ, kf20=\E[21~, kf3=\EOR, kf4=\EOS,
            kf6=\E[7~, kf7=\E[8~, kf8=\E[9~, kf9=\E[10~, kfnd=\E[1~,
            khlp=\E[16~, kil1=\E[2~, knp=\E[6~, kpp=\E[5~, kslt=\E[4~,
            lf1=pf1, lf2=pf2, lf3=pf3, lf4=pf4, rc=\E8, rev=\E[7m$<2>,
            rf=/usr/share/tabset/vt100, ri=\EM$<14/>,
            rmacs=\E(B$<4>, rmam=\E[?7l, rmir=\E[4l, rmso=\E[27m,
            rmul=\E[24m, rs2=\E>\E[?3l\E[?4l\E[?5l\E[?7h\E[?8h,
            rs3=\E[?3h, sc=\E7,
            
sgr=\E[0%?%p6%t;1%;%?%p2%t;4%;%?%p4%t;5%;%?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;m%?%p9%t\E(0%e\E(B%;,
            sgr0=\E[m$<2>, smacs=\E(0$<2>, smam=\E[?7h, smir=\E[4h,
            smso=\E[7m, smul=\E[4m,
    %

My terminal has a 132x50 screen and my Terminfo file sets `cols#132` and
`lines#50` accordingly, but applications that use ncurses all believe
that it's only a 80x24 screen.
What am I doing wrong?   Where should I look?


        Stefan