[comp.sys.att] 132 column window on 7300?

daveb@llama.UUCP (11/19/87)

Does anyone have a handy script that will fire up a window using the
small font, allowing either 132 columns full screen, or a less than full
screen 80 column window?  If so, please post it to unix-pc.sources.

-dB

Lance:  "I'll go.  I want to go"
{amdahl, cbosgd, mtxinu, ptsfa, sun}!rtech!daveb daveb@rtech.uucp

chute@chutepc.UUCP (Chris Chute MD) (11/21/87)

In article <1406@rtech.UUCP>, daveb@llama.rtech.UUCP (Dave Brower) writes:
> Does anyone have a handy script that will fire up a window using the
> small font, allowing either 132 columns full screen...

I hate people who post "me too" messages, but this would be very useful.
I would like to hear about such a script if it never makes it into a source
group.

Cheers,
Chris Chute M.D.			IntN: chute@hscfvax.harvard.edu
Harvard School of Public Health		UUCP: chute@chutepc.uucp
Department of Epidemiology		Voice:   (617)732-1480
677 Huntington Ave			Data:    (617)732-1843
Boston, MA 02115

vince@tc.fluke.COM (Craig Johnson) (11/23/87)

In article <1406@rtech.UUCP>, daveb@llama.rtech.UUCP (Dave Brower) writes:
> Does anyone have a handy script that will fire up a window using the
> small font, allowing either 132 columns full screen, or a less than full
> screen 80 column window?

I've had some success with getting the 7300 to display different fonts
using the information I got from the FONTS package from THE STORE!
However, I don't think you will have success with getting a 132
character display working unless you find a way to display proportional
fonts.  The reason being that the 7300 display is only 720 pixels
wide.  When you consider a character like "m" needs 6 pixels width to
display the character plus leave a gap between it and the next character,
then the 7300 is only capable of displaying 120 character columns.  Of
course, if you don't mind sacrificing readability you could create a
font mashed down to 5 pixels wide, then you would get 144 columns.

If you have received PCAL (the program they send you after you return
the warrantee information card) then you have received a 120 character
font.  It comes with it.  If you can't get the FONTS package from THE
STORE or have problems working with it I will do what I can to answer
your mailed questions.

So far I'm reasonably satisfied with the ability to display 120
characters.  It certainly is an improvement over 80 when you need more
width.  My problem has been that the command line editting does not
work well because the BACKSPACE key backs the cursor up, not just 6
pixels as needed, but 9 pixels as though there were an 80 column
display.  I think I saw this discussed many months ago on comp.sys.att,
but don't recall that anyone had a solution for it.  Perhaps someone
else remembers whether this was solved.


	Craig V. Johnson
	John Fluke Mfg. Co.
	Everett, WA

jr@amanue.UUCP (11/25/87)

In article <2316@sputnik.COM> vince@tc.fluke.COM (Craig Johnson) writes:
>So far I'm reasonably satisfied with the ability to display 120
>characters.  It certainly is an improvement over 80 when you need more
>width.  My problem has been that the command line editting does not
>work well because the BACKSPACE key backs the cursor up, not just 6
>pixels as needed, but 9 pixels as though there were an 80 column
>display.  I think I saw this discussed many months ago on comp.sys.att,
>but don't recall that anyone had a solution for it.  Perhaps someone
>else remembers whether this was solved.
>
>
>	Craig V. Johnson
>	John Fluke Mfg. Co.
>	Everett, WA

I've been meaning to post a query about this myself for weeks!  After playing
with both fonts and windy for a bit, here is my reading of what the tty driver
is doing re backspace and the cursor.  I believe that your curor has pixel
dimensions that correspond to the uw_hs and uw_vs entries in the struct uwdata
for the current window.  windy will nicely report these, but as they are
clearly indicated in window(7) as RO, windy can't set them.  Each font has an
ff_hs and ff_vs entry giving the maximum horizontal and vertical spacing for
the whole font.  (This is in font(4).)  What the driver *seems* to be doing is
setting your uw_hs to the max of ff_hs over all fonts currently showing on the
screen, and likewise for ff_vs.  The spoiler here is probably the status line.
If you boot loading a "normal" system font into slot 0, that has hs/vs as
9x12, so that loading a smaller font into a window will still leave 9x12 in
your uw_hs/uw_vs.  The real solution is to implore the powers that be at AT&T
to rewrite the driver so that uw_hs and uw_vs are affected only by those fonts
loaded into the current window, irrespective of the status line.

Now there is one possible workaround here, which frankly I haven't been brave
enough yet to try.  What happens if the machine boots with the smallest font
the laws of quantum mechanics will allow loaded into slot 0???  Will it work?
You will get your teeny weeny characters on the status line, and if my model
for how cursor size is working is correct it *should* allow you to put a
window on screen with a small font and get a cursor the right size for the
font.  The question is whether something will break.  There are all these
stern warnings about only loading fonts of a certain size into slot 0.  I have
a feeling that that's precisely because of this cursor/backspace problem.  I
**think** it should be safe to put one of these smaller fonts into
/etc/.fontload and boot the system with it.

Any volunteers to try this?  The thing that bugs me about the standard font
size is that you can't get a non-bordered window that's resizable with the
mouse, but you can't get a bordered window that will work decently with the
shell and also support an 80-column termcap entry.  So I too would sure like
to play with having a shell in a window with a smaller character size.
-- 
 Jim Rosenberg
     CIS: 71515,124                         decvax!idis! \
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