[net.games.hack] hack is too slow

emr@hal.UUCP (Edward M. "Harold" Rynes) (04/10/85)

   I have also noticed that hack can run painfully slow at times.
It will run sooooooo sloooooow as to make the game imposible to enjoy.
(it can take up to 15 seconds to move the '@' one space)  It seems to
effect some users and not others.  The problem apears to originate in
the .login (or .cshrc) file.

   I was able to fix the problem by changing the way I set term (or TERM)
NOTE: The problem has nothing to do with CE!!!  Switching from an adm3a
which does not have CE to an adm5 which does did not effect the speed at
which the program ran.

   Originaly I had the line:

	set term=adm5

in my .cshrc file and hack was imposible to play.  So I changed it to:

	set term=`tset - -Q -m dialup:adm3a adm5`

and that fixed the problem.  To make sure that that was the problem I
put it back the way it was originaly.   IT STILL WORKS!  I tried:

	set term=adm3a

IT STILL WORKS!

   I guess my solution to the problem is to play around with your
.login (or .cshrc or .profile) file until it works.

				Good Luck,

					Harold the Slime
					decvax!cwruecmp!hal!emr

phil@osiris.UUCP (Philip Kos) (04/12/85)

> . . . .  So I changed it to:
> 
> 	set term=`tset - -Q -m dialup:adm3a adm5`
> 
> and that fixed the problem.  To make sure that that was the problem I
> put it back the way it was originaly.   IT STILL WORKS!  I tried:
> 
> 	set term=adm3a
> 
> IT STILL WORKS!
> 
> 					Harold the Slime

From the responses I've heard to this problem, it sounds like a lot
of people would benefit from having TERMCAP set to the /etc/termcap
entry for their terminal.  Everyone here does it, and full-screen
stuff runs a LOT quicker.

The following csh code uses 'tset' to initialize terminal settings,
and also puts the termcap entry into the environment.  (Change
'tvi970' to the appropriate terminal type.)


set noglob
set term = `tset -Q -S -m :?tvi970`
setenv TERM $term[1]
setenv TERMCAP "$term[2]"
unset term
unset noglob


Notice that if you use this procedure and then reset 'term' or
'TERM', the environment 'TERMCAP' is still the same.  Thus, the
above code is a csh script that must be sourced when you change
'TERM' (e.g. toggling from 80 to 132 column mode or vice versa).
If you just reset 'term' or 'TERM', "smart" programs will see that
you have a TERMCAP in the environment, and not look any further.


					Phil Kos
					The Johns Hopkins Hospital