Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 07:29:24 GMT From: abc@ai1.anchorage.mtaonline.net To: "freebsd-questions" <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: vt/ansi codes Message-ID: <200307010729.h617TOkh086166@en26.ai1.anchorage.mtaonline.net>
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i am trying to develop terminal I/O based code, and found myself meandering down a path to acquire terminal knowledge (i don't need to be told of SLang/ncurses/...). i can't readily find an answer to this, but i am assuming DEC terminals don't scroll left/right? i've never used a "terminal", so i wouldn't know. there are ANSI escape codes that would be great to use, but from the knowledge i have been able to acquire, it appears vtXXX stuff is a fairly "lacking" subset of ANSI 3.64 terminal display functions. there's many aspects of ANSI 3.64 that would make display updates over serial connections MUCH more efficient than using vtXXX only codes. any comments providing a better understanding about this would be appreciated - cuz i'd hate to write a bunch of inefficient code just to find out i *could* scroll left/right with an ANSI escape sequence, etc. my goal is to generate a minimal set of reliable cross-platform ANSI escape codes one can use without fear of incompatibility. maybe this is an impossibility - i dunno - but there are a few sequences that seem to permeate most data sheets. as i read that this ANSI stuff was done way back in 1979 - before i bought my Apple 2e, i can't help but "gawk" with disbelief as i find UNIX vtXXX terminal stuff to still be fairly primitive a quarter century later. i mean, an entire screen shouldn't have to be sent over a serial line just to move a cursor past the rightmost column in 2003 :) also, i assume: ioctl.h struct winsize, and termios.h struct termios are available in one form or another on most platforms? is the "RAW" termios state a cross-platform state? or is it a BSD specific state? thank you (please ditto any replies off-list).
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