dhb@rayssd.UUCP (David H. Brierley) (07/07/86)
I have been working on converting larn to using termcap and was
wondering if anyone else has also attempted this. I have the
code about 99% converted and working, the only real problem area
is the help and .mail files. The conversion was not really
difficult, basically just read the strings from termcap at startup
and then replace all the hard-coded escape sequences with variables.
I also ran into a problem with the fact that the program was using
the 'clear to beginning of display' sequence but that sequence is
not defined in the termcap file. I had to change the code in a couple
of spots to account for this lack.
While I was doing the conversion I was also testing out all of the
features to make sure they worked and ran into one thing which is not
really a bug but just something I didn't like (from a user viewpoint).
If you have tried using the 'monster:' option in the .larnopts file
you will have quickly discovered that you can only rename monster
whose representation on the screen is a lower case letter. The reason
for this is a line in the file tok.c that reads "j = lcc(j);". If you
take this line out you will be able to rename any of the monsters. I
also increased the number of monsters you can rename from 26 to 50.
To conclude all of this rambling, if you want a copy of the termcap
version when I get it finished send me mail. If I get enough requests
I will post to the net. I will make available a context diff of the
affected files.
If anyone else out there has attempted this task please let me know
what approach you have taken. Especially let me know if you have
figured out a way to handle the escape sequences that are hidden
inside the data files.
--
Dave Brierley; Raytheon Co.; Portsmouth RI; (401)-847-8000 x4073
{ allegra, ccice5, linus!raybed2 } !rayssd!dhb