Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!uunet!fsc2086!jim
From: jim@fsc2086.UUCP (Jim O'Connor)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Informix problem with escape sequences
Summary: just try to get users to stick to using control characters
	 instead of the arrow keys
Message-ID: <262@fsc2086.UUCP>
Date: 25 Sep 88 19:11:21 GMT
References: <483@pan.UUCP> <860@vsi.UUCP>
Organization: Filtration Sciences Corp., Chattanooga, TN
Lines: 29

In article <860@vsi.UUCP>, sullivan@vsi.UUCP (Michael T Sullivan) writes:
> In article <483@pan.UUCP>, jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson) writes:
> > 
> > The Informix products seem to be incapable of handling escape sequences,
> > such as are generated by the arrow keys on ansi terminals, reliably.
> 
> And how.  If you hit arrow keys too fast, sperform will goof up and
> interpret and escape sequence as separate characters, thus writing a
> possibly incomplete record.  There is an easy workaround, though.
> Are you familiar with how h,j,k,l are used in vi?  h=left, j=down,
> k=up, l=right.  In perform the control counterparts (^h,^j,^k,^l) do
> the same thing.  Use these control characters, NEVER use arrow keys
> in sperform.

I will probably be echoing Jamie's opinion that this is not a very robust
solution to the dilema at hand.  Once users are trained and have become
accustomed to the conveniences of arrow keys, weening them away is nearly
impossible.  ANY program which relies heavily on arrow key processing for
its basic function (ala "sperform", or even something like "vi") should be
expected to work correctly, given correct termcap/terminfo entries.  Since
I have just ordered the Informix-SQL product, I will be interested in seeing
if "sperform" works realiably or not.

To Jamie, thanks for the warning.
---
James B. O'Connor		+1 615 821 4090 x651
Filtration Sciences Corp.      UUCP:  uunet!fsc2086!jim
105 West 45th Street           or      jim@fsc2086.UUCP
Chattanooga, TN 37411