[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Telix VT102 emulation

mms@sordid.Sun.COM (Michael Silverstein) (03/02/89)

In article <3308@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh) writes:
*> 
*> Finally, when I use VI the 'h' (move left) key removes characters from
*> the screen (ick), but fortunately does not delete them.  What have I got
*> set wrong?  I've noticed other VT102 flakiness, mostly characters
*> disappearing from the screen.

I also like Telix very much, but have had problems with the VT102 emulation.
Not exactly the one mentioned above, but the "r" command (replace char)
leaves a blank; then redrawing the screen with ^L shows the new char right
where it should be. My termcap works fine with other VT102 emulators (I've
never tried it on a real VT102), so I don't think that's the problem.

There are a few other instances of flakey behaviour -- nothing serious,
but food for the next release. I've tried to reach Exis via their bulletin
board, but it's busy even at the weirdest of hours. Perhaps they are listening.


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karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM ([Karl Denninger]) (03/03/89)

>Response 1 of 1 (2095) by mms at sordid on Thu 2 Mar 89 14:2
>[Michael Silverstein]

>*> Finally, when I use VI the 'h' (move left) key removes characters from
>*> the screen (ick), but fortunately does not delete them.  What have I got
>*> set wrong?  I've noticed other VT102 flakiness, mostly characters
>*> disappearing from the screen.
>
>I also like Telix very much, but have had problems with the VT102 emulation.
>Not exactly the one mentioned above, but the "r" command (replace char)
>leaves a blank; then redrawing the screen with ^L shows the new char right
>where it should be. My termcap works fine with other VT102 emulators (I've
>never tried it on a real VT102), so I don't think that's the problem.

I've got the same problem with a few of our customers and their myriad 
terminal emulators.

The problems all come about with Unix and Xenix applications that use a 
terminfo or termcap entry for a REAL terminal of some description.  I'm 
constantly SHOCKED at the number of emulators that don't do the job 100% -- 
some of the ones that I've run into with regards to VT102 compatibility are 
Telix, Procomm (PLUS and 2.4.2), and others.

Our applications tend to be REAL demanding on terminal capabilities.  We use 
these things for both VAX/VMS work (where complete compatibility is 
CRITICAL) and on Unix systems (which expect a "real" terminal as well).  
It's real nasty to have to tell a customer "well, you'll have to get some 
properly-working terminal software" and hear them say "but it works 
everywhere else!"

I would think it would be in the terminal manufacturer's interest to go 
after those people who write programs (especially shareware or commercial!) 
that emulate their terminal types improperly, and then brand it as a "VT100" 
emulator.  After all, it does detract from the perceived value of the real 
article!

BTW: In my experience ZCOMM is one of the FEW that gets it completely right 
with regards to VT100 emulation; I've not noticed a glitch yet.  It's only 
limitation is in the hardware (no double-high/wide characters).

--
Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, ddsw1!karl)
Data: [+1 312 566-8912], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910]
Macro Computer Solutions, Inc.     "Quality solutions at a fair price"

wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (03/03/89)

In article <3308@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh) writes:

	Finally, when I use VI the 'h' (move left) key removes
	characters from the screen (ick), but fortunately does
	not delete them.  What have I got set wrong?  I've
	noticed other VT102 flakiness, mostly characters disap-
	pearing from the screen.

In article <91936@sun.uucp> mms@sun.UUCP (Michael Silverstein) writes:

	I also like Telix very much, but have had problems with
	the VT102 emulation.  Not exactly the one mentioned above,
	but the "r" command (replace char) leaves a blank; then
	redrawing the screen with ^L shows the new char right
	where it should be.  My termcap works fine with other
	VT102 emulators (I've never tried it on a real VT102),
	so I don't think that's the problem.

Make sure you have "non-destructive" backspace mode set, both in the
main options menu and also in any dialing directory entry you use that
sets VT102 mode.

Also, there is at least one bug in Telix 3.11's VT102 emulation that I
am aware of.  The "insert character" code -- ESC [ @ -- is incorrectly
treated as a no-op.  If you add an explicit character count -- i.e.,
ESC [ 1 @ -- it works.

I am including below a modified "termcap" entry which seems to work
satisfactorily with Telix 3.11's VT102 emulation.  I would welcome any
comments or suggestions for improvement.

Note that I changed the "emphasis" parameters ("so" and "us") to use
boldface (attribute 1), instead of reverse video (attribute 7) or
underlining (attribute 4).  Also, since I turned off the status line,
I changed the number of lines ("li") from 24 to 25.  Finally, I took
out all the null-padding (not needed!), and added a "delete character"
code (which, for some reason, wasn't in the VT102 "termcap" I started
out with; maybe it isn't accepted by a "real" VT102?).

Does anyone know when the next release of Telix (3.12?) will come out?

#
# VT102 termcap entry, modified for Telix (1/11/89):
#	Added:		:dc=\E[P:
#			:ic=\E[1@:
#	Removed:	All null-padding
#	Changed:	:li=#25:	(was :li=#24:)
#	Changed:	:so=\E[1m:	(was :so=2\E[7m:)
#	Changed:	:us=\E[1m:	(was :us=2\E[4m:)
#
# NOTE:	"\E[@" should work as "insert character" -- but Telix 3.11
#	treats this as a no-op and will do the operation only if a
#	count of "1" is explicitly inserted.
#
dy|telix|telix-vt102|dec vt102:\
	:bs:\
	:cd=\E[J:\
	:ce=\E[K:\
	:cl=\E[;H\E[2J:\
	:cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:\
	:co#80:\
	:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:\
	:dc=\E[P:\
	:do=^J:\
	:ho=\E[H:\
	:ic=\E[1@:\
	:is=\E[1;24r\E[24;1H:\
	:k1=\EOP:\
	:k2=\EOQ:\
	:k3=\EOR:\
	:k4=\EOS:\
	:kb=^H:\
	:kd=\EOB:\
	:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
	:kl=\EOD:\
	:kr=\EOC:\
	:ks=\E[?1h\E=:\
	:ku=\EOA:\
	:le=^H:\
	:li#25:\
	:mb=\E[5m:\
	:md=\E[1m:\
	:me=\E[m:\
	:mr=\E[7m:\
	:nd=\E[C:\
	:pt:\
	:rc=\E8:\
	:rs=\E>\E[?3l\E[?4l\E[?5l\E[?7h\E[?8h:\
	:sc=\E7:\
	:se=\E[m:\
	:so=\E[1m:\
	:sr=\EM:\
	:ue=\E[m:\
	:up=\E[A:\
	:us=\E[1m:\
	:ve=\E[?7h:\
	:vs=\E[?7l:\
	:vt#3:
#
# (end of termcap entry for "telix")
#

-- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 (213) 825-5683
   3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024-1596 // USA
   wales@CS.UCLA.EDU      ...!(uunet,ucbvax,rutgers)!cs.ucla.edu!wales
"The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank."

bga@bgalli.eds.com (Billy G. Allie) (03/03/89)

In article <91936@sun.uucp>, mms@sordid.Sun.COM (Michael Silverstein) writes:
< In article <3308@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> frank burleigh writes:
< *> 
< *> Finally, when I use VI the 'h' (move left) key removes characters from
< *> the screen (ick), but fortunately does not delete them.  What have I got
< *> set wrong?  I've noticed other VT102 flakiness, mostly characters
< *> disappearing from the screen.
< 
< I also like Telix very much, but have had problems with the VT102 emulation.
< Not exactly the one mentioned above, but the "r" command (replace char)
< leaves a blank; then redrawing the screen with ^L shows the new char right
< where it should be. My termcap works fine with other VT102 emulators (I've
< never tried it on a real VT102), so I don't think that's the problem.

I believe you will find that you have the type of backspace used set to
DESTRUCTIVE.  This causes the character that is backed over to be replaced
by a space.  You need to change the type of backspace to NON-DESTUCTIVE,
which will cause the 'h' and 'r' vi commands to work as expected.
-- 
____	   | Billy G. Allie	| Internet..: bga@bgalli.eds.com
|  /|	   | 7436 Hartwell	| UUCP......: uunet!{mcf|edsews}!bgalli!bga
|-/-|----- | Dearborn, MI 48126	| Compuserve: 76337,2061
|/  |LLIE  | (313) 582-1540	| Genie.....: BGALLIE

brian@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM (Brian Onn) (03/05/89)

In article <91936@sun.uucp> mms@sun.UUCP (Michael Silverstein) writes:
>In article <3308@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh) writes:
>*> 
>*> Finally, when I use VI the 'h' (move left) key removes characters from
>*> the screen (ick), but fortunately does not delete them.  What have I got
>*> set wrong?  I've noticed other VT102 flakiness, mostly characters
>*> disappearing from the screen.
>
>I also like Telix very much, but have had problems with the VT102 emulation.
>Not exactly the one mentioned above, but the "r" command (replace char)
>leaves a blank; then redrawing the screen with ^L shows the new char right
>where it should be. My termcap works fine with other VT102 emulators (I've
>never tried it on a real VT102), so I don't think that's the problem.
>
>There are a few other instances of flakey behaviour -- nothing serious,
>but food for the next release. I've tried to reach Exis via their bulletin
>board, but it's busy even at the weirdest of hours. Perhaps they are listening.

Actually, what's happening in this case is that VI is backspacing over the
characters you just entered, and Telix is set up for a destructive backspace!

In the setup screen, ALT-O, Terminal Options, you can turn destructive
backspace on or off at a global level.  However, if you use one of the 
dial screen entries to get access to your system, then there is also a 
per-entry setting for destructive backspace, that overrides the default
global settings.  In the Dialer, ALT-D, Edit menu, you will see a line that
says 'Rcvd BS is dest'. This defaults to ON, and you have to turn it OFF
for access to most Unix systems.

Granted, there are some problems with Telix 3.11, but this isn't one of them.

Brian.

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