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From: goldberg@su-russell.ARPA (Jeffrey Goldberg)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Lines and columns under 4.3
Message-ID: <234@su-russell.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 8-Jan-87 23:22:10 EST
Article-I.D.: su-russe.234
Posted: Thu Jan  8 23:22:10 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Jan-87 22:44:02 EST
Reply-To: goldberg@su-russell.UUCP (Jeffrey Goldberg)
Organization: Stanford University, CSLI
Lines: 40
Summary: Workaround needed for known "bug"

Basically my question is is there a work around to the fact that
under 4.3 some programs (vi and more in particular) don't inspect
the termcap entry to determine the number of lines or the number of
columns of a given terminal.

I recently got an account on a 4.3 machine (a VAX 780) and I moved
some stuff over from a machine running 4.2.  What I have is my own
little termcap file that contains the entry for an hp9836 which I
found on one of the local Vaxen and works fine, and my own thing
which is just a 36 with 40 lines instead of 24.  This works fine on
the 4.2 machine, but doesn't on the 4.3 machine.  Vi and more
behave as if I were working on a 24 line terminal.

Looking at the manual page for termcap on 4.3 I find under BUGS and
CAVEATS:

"Lines and columns are now stored in the kernel as well as in the
termcap entry.  Most programs now use the kernel information
primarily; the information in this file is used only if the kernel
does not have any information."

I don't pretend to begin to understand where the kernel gets its
information about these terminals, but there is no indication that
anyone has ever defined a terminal with the name that I give it.
So I don't understand how the kernel could have prior knowledge of
it.

I do use tc extensively in my entries.  Should I just duplicate the
stuff in different entries instead of using tc?

Jeff Goldberg 
ARPA:   goldberg@russell.stanford.edu, goldberg@csli.stanford.edu
UUCP:   ...!hplabs!russell.stanford.edu!goldberg

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