Re: kterm question

[Bruce Bowler <bbowler bigelow org>]

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:50:00 -0800
Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com> put fingers to keyboard and said:

> Bruce Bowler wrote:
> > On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:27:36 -0600
> > Bob McClure Jr <robertmcclure earthlink net> put fingers to keyboard
> > and said:
> > 
> > 
> >>On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 01:58:16PM -0500, Bruce Bowler wrote:
> >>
> >>>not strictly a redhat question, but it's on a RH system :-)
> >>>
> >>>Please forgive the stupidity of the following question, but I've
> >never>>understood termcap and/or terminfo, and probably never will...
> >>>
> >>>I have one application (in the metaphorical sense) for which xterm
> >>>doesn't work but kterm works (almost) perfectly.  The one think I
> >>>can't figure out how to do in kterm (which works in xterm) is to map
> >>>the backspace key to perform the same function as the delete key
> >>>(alternately, please retrain my brain to use the delete key instead
> >of>>the backspace key :-)
> >>
> >>See http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
> >>
> >>
> >>>I have a launcher set to execute the following, which, from reading
> >>>kterm/xterm man pages should work, but doesn't
> >>>
> >>>	/usr/X11R6/bin/kterm -bg white -fg black -geometry 80x46
> >>>			-xrm'backarrowKeyIsErase:true' 
> >>
> >>There should be a space after "-xrm".  Or is that just a copying
> >>error?  If so, what doesn't work?
> > 
> > 
> > Guess I should have been a bit more complete in my problem statement
> > :-)
> > 
> > Yes, there really is a space after -xrm, it was the mailer that
> > reformatted "automagically" at one point and when I manually
> > un-reformatted, I forgot to add that space back in...
> > 
> > What I'm trying to do is ssh into a remote system, running VMS.  When
> > I get to the VMS system (and here's where I think Rick hit the nail on
> > the head, something on that end is acting "weird"), the delete key
> > still deletes but the backspace key, which "deletes" while I'm "local"
> > suddenly starts "backspacing".
> > 
> > If I do exactly the same thing, but use xterm instead of kterm, when I
> > get to the VMS system, the backspace deletes and delete simply echos
> > the last line, fully intact.
> 
> Oh, VMS!  The xterm and VT-100/VT-220 sequences aren't the same.  What
> does VMS' "set/term" show as your terminal type?
> 
> You may need to change to the "xterm-vt220" emulation mode (or else
> things like "blink" will show up as inverse-video black-on-yellow).

DECUServe> sh term
Terminal: _FTA1061:   Device_Type: VT200_Series  Owner: Bruce Bowler
                                              Username: BOWLER
Remote Port Info: xx.xx.xx.xx

   Input:    9600     LFfill:  0      Width:  80      Parity: None
   Output:   9600     CRfill:  0      Page:   46      

Terminal Characteristics:
   Interactive        Echo               Type_ahead         No Escape
   Hostsync           TTsync             Lowercase          Tab
   Wrap               Scope              No Remote          Eightbit
   Broadcast          No Readsync        No Form            Fulldup
   No Modem           No Local_echo      No Autobaud        No Hangup
   No Brdcstmbx       No DMA             No Altypeahd       Set_speed
   No Commsync        Line Editing       Overstrike editing No Fallback
   No Dialup          No Secure server   Disconnect         No Pasthru
   No Syspassword     No SIXEL Graphics  No Soft Characters No Printer Port
   Numeric Keypad     ANSI_CRT           No Regis           No Block_mode
   Advanced_video     Edit_mode          DEC_CRT            DEC_CRT2
   No DEC_CRT3        No DEC_CRT4        No DEC_CRT5        NoAnsi_Color
   VMS Style Input

Note that the primary problem (backspace \= delete) is 100% independant of 
VMS terminal setting (i've tried unknown, vt100, vt200 as well as a few 
others) and doesn't exist with xterm (but there are other, more severe, 
problems w/xterm).

I'm not a C wizard so I'm not sure where in the code to look, but there's 
certainly a difference between kterm and xterm in how they handle backspace.

Bruce

PS Does there exist a GOOD VT-100/VT-220 emulator for linux?  Based on your 
comments above, xterm isn't...

-- 
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
Bruce Bowler        | We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's
1.207.633.9600      | never a candidate.  - Kim Hubbard   
bbowler bigelow org | 
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+