jc@heart-of-gold (John M Chambers x7780 1E342) (04/12/88)
My question this time around is: Is there (or is anyone working on) a product that is the inverse of termcap and/or terminfo? What I mean by this is that I have a software package written to talk to terminal X (where X may be any entry in the term* databases), and I don't have a model X terminal. But I do have a coouple of workstations, such as this Sun. What I'd like to do is to open a window which will simulate the X terminal, then let me rlogin/telnet/tip/cu or whatever to the other machine and run the software there. I call this an "inverse" termcap or terminfo, because instead of telling the software what sort of terminal I have, I tell the terminal (window) what the software expects. This strikes me as a potentially useful way to build a windowing package. It also seems that I can't have been the only one to think of it, and there's a good chance that various companies may be developing it in a back room. (On the other hand, considering the way most companies resist general solutions, maybe I'm just dreaming. :-) Anyone know if such a product exists or is in beta test or whatever? If not, I may have to do it myself... -- [Send flames; they keep it cool in this lab :-] Am I the same John Chambers as jc@minya? You decide.... Hint: That guy over at ut-sally is an imposter. (;-)
montnaro@sprite.UUCP (Skip Montanaro) (04/27/88)
In article <147@heart-of-gold> jc@heart-of-gold (John M Chambers x7780 1E342) writes: >My question this time around is: Is there (or is anyone working on) a >product that is the inverse of termcap and/or terminfo? Psterm as delivered with Sun's NeWS product does a pretty good job of what you want. It only knows about what is actually in termcap, however. As an example, it doesn't really make a very good vt100 emulator for connecting to a VMS VAX, because DEC's software uses lots of escape sequences not normally found in the vt100 termcap entry. As a short-term "solution", I suppose I'd like to see at least a no-op field that would allow terminal emulators to parse but ignore certain sequences. Longer term solutions would have to include more capabilities so the terminal emulator could behave better. Skip Montanaro (montanaro@sprite.steinmetz.ge.com, montanaro@ge-crd.arpa)