felps@convex.com (Robert Felps) (11/14/90)
Can anyone shed some light on 'magic cookie glitch characters'? It is "mentioned" in the Xenix Programmer's Guide in the Curses section. I know that the termcap/terminfo mentions magic cookies for certain terminals. I just need an explanation of both. Thanks, Robert Felps felps@convex.com Convex Computer Corp OS System Specialist 3000 Waterview Parkway Tech. Assistant Ctr Richardson, Tx. 75083 1(800) 952-0379
jetfuel@csusac.csus.edu (Dave Jenks) (11/15/90)
In article <felps.658590420@convex.convex.com> felps@convex.com (Robert Felps) writes: >Can anyone shed some light on 'magic cookie glitch characters'? A "magic cookie" is a byte location on a terminal screen which alters the "current attribute[s]". For example, to change from normal to reverse video, there would be a byte on the screen which changes all subsequent bytes to be reverse. To write something in that location on the screen would cancel the reversal of the following characters. The obvious bummer is that the entire screen cannot be used - screen/ display attributes take up space. The *absolute worst* part is that some terminals do it, and some don't, making tty-independent software that much more of a pain. -- ======================================================================= "Pro is to con, as progress is to Congress..." >>-@@-> Dave Jenks {uunet | ucbvax!ucdavis}!csusac!jetfuel =======================================================================
kpv@ulysses.att.com (Phong Vo[drew]) (11/16/90)
In article <1990Nov15.061216.7165@csusac.csus.edu>, jetfuel@csusac.csus.edu (Dave Jenks) writes: > In article <felps.658590420@convex.convex.com> felps@convex.com (Robert Felps) writes: > >Can anyone shed some light on 'magic cookie glitch characters'? > > A "magic cookie" is a byte location on a terminal screen which alters > the "current attribute[s]". > Actually, the right characterization is that a magic cookie is a mark on the screen which alters the current attributes. There are two major families of terminals, HP26xx and Televideo, that have this (mis)feature. For the HPs, the marks have zero width (i.e., it does not take up one space on the screen) while for the TVIs, the mark is 1-char width. These cookie critters make life interesting for software like curses. The curses that I wrote, SysVr3.1 or later, handles the HPs correctly and does the best it can for the TVIs. Phong Vo, att!ulysses!kpv
decot@hpisod2.cup.hp.com (Dave Decot) (11/16/90)
> Can anyone shed some light on 'magic cookie glitch characters'? > > It is "mentioned" in the Xenix Programmer's Guide in the Curses section. > > I know that the termcap/terminfo mentions magic cookies for certain > terminals. I just need an explanation of both. When some terminals enter or exit standout mode, they generate a number of blank characters. "magic_cookie_glitch" is the number of blank characters left by the terminal. Dave