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On Sun, 2005-08-21 at 22:05 +0100, Ciaran McCreesh wrote: |
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[snip good description of problem] |
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> Now the proposal. This isn't something that can happen immediately, but |
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> it's something I'd like to see us working towards: |
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> |
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> * Make everything that isn't xterm set its own TERM value. Possibly the |
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> same for things pretending to be rxvt, although this is less of an |
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> issue since I think everything that pretends to be rxvt is "rxvt plus |
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> some patches". |
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Hear hear! I've been bothered with this in past as well - especially |
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when using screen over ssh from other unix flavors. |
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|
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We might even convince a few upstream vendors to "do the right thing" if |
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we force this through on our side. |
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|
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> * Install, either with the terminal (as is done by rxvt-unicode |
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> currently), or as part of ncurses, proper terminfo definitions for |
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> these terminals. |
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|
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One could argue for both solutions here: it would make sense to install |
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it along with the offending terminal, since this is where we change the |
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value of the $TERM variable. |
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|
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But once upstream has acknowledged the problem and corrected their $TERM |
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value, a patch should be submitted to ncurses anyway. |
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Perhaps we should just once-and-for-all submit a patch to ncurses which |
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includes these new terminfo definitions? We will then patch our |
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foo-terminal ebuilds to set a proper value of $TERM. Then when upstream |
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(hopefully) decides to change their $TERM value to something sane, |
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ncurses will already have the support, and we can remove the local patch |
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along with the version bump of foo-terminal. |
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|
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> * De-cripple the standard xterm definition and remove restrictions from |
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> programs which can make full use of xterm's capabilities. |
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> |
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> * Provide a short FAQ explaining what I said above in a more |
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> newbie-friendly way, along with a description of how to generate and |
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> use terminfo files under a user's home directory for compatibility |
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> with legacy systems and a note that users sshing from legacy systems |
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> to Gentoo may need to switch their TERM value. |
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A FAQ might also help convince upstream of the existence of a problem - |
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and help them understand why it is a problem. |
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|
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> * Include TERM stuff in policy so that the problem doesn't crop up again |
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> a few months later. |
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I'm not sure what you mean by "policy"? |
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> * Putty? Since I consider sshing from insecure systems irresponsible, I |
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> don't know much about this one, other than that it's another dirty |
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> liar and that said lying has caused various bugs in the past. Perhaps |
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> someone could clarify with details of what it pretends to support and |
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> what it really supports? |
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I generally only use PuTTY as a emergency solution - haven't looked into |
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its capabilities. |
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Sincerely, |
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Brix |
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-- |
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Henrik Brix Andersen <brix@g.o> |
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Gentoo Metadistribution | Mobile computing herd |
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