Alternate charset under Terminfo

[Dave Hammond]

I am trying to make reasonable use of the Terminfo-based curses
A_ALTCHARSET capability, on the PC console.  Various different
attempts to output an alternate character set string results in
the remainder of the screen being switched into the alternate
character set.  The results are the same, whether I call attron()/attroff()
or just bitwise-or the output characters with A_ALTCHARSET, eg:

  addstr("hello");
  attron(A_ALTCHARSET);
  addstr("DDDDD");
  attroff(A_ALTCHARSET);
  refresh();

or:

  addstr("hello");
  addch('D'|A_ALTCHARSET);
  ...
  refresh();

Both result in "hello" being output correctly, a horizontal rule ("DDDDD")
and the remainder of the screen turning to alternate char set garbage.

There is no problem with direct output of the Terminfo capabilities
"enter_alt_charset_mode" and "exit_alt_charset_mode" -- however this
undermines curses, so it is not a reasonable solution.

Any ideas?

Dave Hammond
  UUCP: uunet!masa.com!{marob,dsix2}!daveh
DOMAIN: daveh at marob.masa.com
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