Re: lynx-dev INSTALLATION file changes (was: Fix --disable-trace, #includes)

[Klaus Weide]

On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, Ismael Cordeiro wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, Klaus Weide wrote:
> 
[about BOXVERT and BOXHORI, BOXCORNER]
> > 
> > None of them should be necessary if terminfo files had the right content
> > and people used the right term type...
> 
> The problem is that not all terminal emulators support alternate character
> sets.

No, that in itself is not the problem: if ncurses is informed that a given
"alternative character" isn't supported by the terminal type, it uses
approximations ('|', '-', '+' for box drawing).

> > Well the terminfo language isn't really expressive enough for all
> > situations. For the linux console, the display font can change during run
> > time, some fonts support the drawing chars and others don't. One would
> > have to change the term type at run time in order to always have the right
> > capability info.
> 
> Do you mean that terminfo has been "abused" long before I used color
> capabilities in the VT100 definition? I feel better now... :-)

No, I didn't mean that although it's probably true.  I meant what I
think I said: that there are terminal (or emulation) capabilities that
cannot be expressed in terminfo, unfortunately.  Especially if a
characteristic can change at runtime.

    -----

By the way, my xterm(1x) manpage (presumably from XFree86) mentions
"the vt100  foreground  and  background  colors" in one place, under
the -dc options...

    Klaus