Setting TERM

[x0705]

> > ... in many
> > environments today, the terminals are connected through some sort of network
> > and it is not possible to know what kind of tty is connected through any
> > port....
> Any network (or port switch, or whatever) that isn't willing to tell you
> the connectivity so you can get this information is broken.  Caveat emptor.
> 				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
> 				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
I disagree with you strongly on this one, Henry:
1) Consider 1200 baud modems + the local phone company. Sure it's not
	high-tech, and I'll be glad to use the next generation of data
	transport (Universal Information Service? ISDN? Fiber-optic+tin-cans?)
	if the price is right, but for a lot of the world it's reality,
	especially for people offering public information services.
2) My desk has a couple of terminals on it, an IBM PC (sorry), a 3B2,
	and occasionally other stuff, and generally I trade out one box a
	month, not to mention periodically stealing my officemate's data
	cables.  Aside from that, the PC and the DMD 5620's I use all run
	terminal emulator programs; I commonly have different emulators in
	different windows *on the same terminal* because they're good at
	different jobs.  No way my network administrator can keep up with
	that for 150 people; I have enough trouble getting flow control
	turned on or off.  (Admittedly, the network SHOULD let the users
	manage that, but that was a local political decision, and the next
	set of ROMs should make it obsolete anyway.)

While it's nice if the computer ALWAYS KNOWS which lines / virtual circuits /
dialup ports have what model terminal on them, it's always changing, and
there needs to be some convenient mechanism for keeping track of it.
-- 
## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs