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From: J Wunsch <j@uriah.heep.sax.de>
Message-Id: <199604071202.OAA18082@uriah.heep.sax.de>
Subject: Re: Can we upgrade ncurses?
To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org (FreeBSD-current users)
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 14:02:05 +0200 (MET DST)
Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de (Joerg Wunsch)
In-Reply-To: <peter.828869674@jhome.DIALix.COM> from "Peter Wemm" at Apr 7, 96 09:34:34 am
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As Peter Wemm wrote:

> The thing that I *sorely* miss in termcap (after being raised on terminfo) is
> the more descriptive capability names.

> I can dream, can't I? ;-)

I think BSDi has been fixing this, at least for use with their login
classes.  passwd(5) login classes are used as an index into a termcap-
style database, but they've definitely cleaned up the code and allow
for long capability names.

I don't know whether they've done it as a `generic' XXXcap library, or
only for the login classes.

Our current way of doing things is a crock.  Consider

/usr/src/usr.sbin/lpr/common_source/printcap.c:

...

/*
 * termcap - routines for dealing with the terminal capability data base
   ^^^^^^^                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 *
...

#define PRINTCAP

...
                        if (bp >= tbuf+BUFSIZ) {
                                write(2, "Termcap entry too long\n", 23);
                                *bp = '\0';
...
        cp = getenv("TERMCAP");
        /*
         * TERMCAP can have one of two things in it. It can be the
...
        if (cp && *cp) {
                if (*cp!='/') {
                        cp2 = getenv("TERM");
                        if (cp2==(char *) 0 || strcmp(name,cp2)==0) {
                                strcpy(bp,cp);
                                return(tnchktc());
                        } else {
                                tf = open(_PATH_PRINTCAP, 0);
                        }
                } else
                        tf = open(cp, 0);
        }
        if (tf==0)
                tf = open(_PATH_PRINTCAP, 0);
#else
        tf = open(_PATH_PRINTCAP, 0);
#endif

...or /usr/src/usr.bin/vgrind/vgrindefs.c:

/*
 * Get an entry for terminal name in buffer bp,
 * from the termcap file.  Parse is very rudimentary;
 * we just notice escaped newlines.
 */
tgetent(bp, name, file)
        char *bp, *name, *file;
{
...


Just to name two of them.  (In addition, the code there is a clear
candidate for the IOCCC.  I wonder whether Bill Joy did ever
participate in it...)

-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)