std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (Moderator, John Quarterman) (10/26/86)
From: gwyn@brl.arpa (VLD/VMB) Date: Mon, 20 Oct 86 10:00:13 EDT Many of us have long outgrown the fixed-size, constant-width font model of text characters. Such ideas as pagination to multiples of N text lines are not as useful as they might once have been. I would hope that simplistic models of terminal text do not become more deeply embedded in specifications such as POSIX. Limitations due to insufficiently general models are one of the worst problems with existing systems; we can do better. As to what TIOCGWINSZ should return: for some situations character cell array dimensions are appropriate; for others pixel array size is appropriate. It would be best to supply both, with the explanation that a "pixel" may just be a character cell for old-fashioned terminal devices (in which case both sets of dimensions would have the same numerical values). Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 80
std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (10/27/86)
From: guy@sun.com (Guy Harris) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 86 15:16:30 PST > As to what TIOCGWINSZ should return: for some situations character > cell array dimensions are appropriate; for others pixel array size > is appropriate. Bill Shannon's point was that those applications for which pixel array size is important are not necessarily going to be talking to a terminal-like interface. It is certainly *possible* to do graphics and window management through such an interface; whether this is *desirable* is another matter. Until it is established that all implementations will provide access to graphics or a window system through the terminal interface, it is inappropriate to require the terminal interface to supply data not applicable to plain text characters. Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 93