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From: inc@tc.fluke.COM (Gary Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: While we're blaming the terminal...
Message-ID: <844@tpvax.tc.fluke.COM>
Date: Fri, 12-Dec-86 17:13:01 EST
Article-I.D.: tpvax.844
Posted: Fri Dec 12 17:13:01 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Dec-86 00:27:47 EST
References: <8612020023.AA05566@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <533@omssw2.UUCP> <2789@slate.Diamond.BBN.COM>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 33
Summary: It's not time to scrap ANSI X3.41 just yet!

In article <2789@slate.Diamond.BBN.COM>, mlandau@Diamond.BBN.COM (Matt Landau) writes:
> In comp.emacs (article <533@omssw2.UUCP>), dps@omssw2.UUCP (Dave Schneider) writes:
> >
> >I would like to add a complaint about terminal manufacturers who set up the
> >arrow  keys  to  send  single character control codes.  
> >
> >Does anyone know why Televideo and Wyse made this  contribution  to  brain-
> >damage?
> 
> Well, one can argue that sending single-character 
> codes for arrow and function keys makes it a lot easier to write programs
> to use those keys.  Having to ... deal with arrow keys that send
> things like Esc-[-A is pretty much a crock.  It's just a crock that has
> been around for a long time, thanks to things like the VT100.  When 
> does it become time to say "We don't CARE if that's how it's been done
> for the past 10 years.  It's time to do something BETTER!"?
> -- 
>  Matt Landau      	 		BBN Laboratories, Inc.

Oops, I think your ignorance is showing there podner. ESC-[-A isn't just
something DEC pulled out of the air to confuse poor EMACS! The VT-100
terminal is so widely used and became an industry standard because it
implements ANSI standard X3.41. Standards are awfully tough to come by, and
it is not a trivial task to create them. X3.41 is responsible for ASCII,
the 8-bit character standard that makes it possible for you to so
effortlessly complain about "multiple character codes". So what if a
key generates a string? Computers deal with strings quite as well as
they do with single characters.

I'll vote in favor of scrapping X3.41 just as soon as you volunteer to
design the new standard. Then sell me on it. Then sell it to the world.
Until you're ready to do that, just relax, learn the rules of the game
and play by them.