Vermont Views

[Greg A. Woods]

In article <price.659585351 at chakra> price at chakra.unl.edu (Chad Price) writes:
> In <274AD9FB.218D at tct.uucp> chip at tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
> >>It do not work through curses and instead they invented a "better idea".
> 
> >This complaint is valid.  Why invent /etc/vvtermcap when /etc/termcap
> >is 90% of what you need?  Although that last 10% includes most of the
> >neat display features, like color escape codes.
>[....]
> >works best.  And if the behavior isn't right for a given terminal,
> >just edit /etc/vvtermcap; no biggy.
>[....]
> While creation of yet another termcap is a nusance (!!), since the regular
> termcap does not support many of the nicer features, it seems the only
> reasonable option. 

Nope.

In fact, maintaining several different types of "termcap" databases is
the worst possible nightmare for an administrator.  I know, since I've
done it (for curses, Word Era, Word Perfect, and Business Basic; and
there were only three different types of terminals!).  NEVER AGAIN!

Uniplex almost got it right, though their system is a wee bit too
"dumb" to work well.  They attempt to automatically intuit what can be
gathered from either terminfo or termcap, and convert to their own
"database".

However, their system is extremely complex to maintain, especially for
site which has to maintain curses databases for other applications.

In addition, Uniplex fails in tasks where curses shines (e.g. with the
LINES/COLUMNS variables).  Neither do they utilize all of the possible
info in a termcap or terminfo entry (eg. acsc).

Now, as for VV, I have no first-hand opinions.  I refuse to use a
package that does not use the existing facilities of UNIX properly.
Curses (and termcap or terminfo) have done a wonderful job for many
applications, and there is absolutely no need to re-invent them.

I have used two packages which I would recommend to anyone needing a
layer of functionality between curses and their application.  The most
complex and complete package is C-Scape from The Oakland Group.  The
least complex is a shareware package called fast from Apsen Scientific.

Neither of these packages use anything more than bare curses (although
fast will work with Aspen's enhanced curses).  Both provide much of the
advanced functionality for a character interface some people want.

One other third-hand opinion I've heard about VV is it is difficult to
use, and seems to require very convoluted and complex code.
-- 
						Greg A. Woods

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