Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 18:17:37 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: mitayai@dreaming.org (Will Mitayai Keeso Rowe) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Terminal question Message-ID: <199604100117.SAA06432@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960409145814.2354A-100000@dreamlabs.dreaming.org> from "Will Mitayai Keeso Rowe" at Apr 9, 96 03:11:05 pm
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> Get out your rotten tomatoes, folks, i've got a termcap question. > > I am sitting here on my living room couch typing away on one of the four > dumb terminals i've got sitting on the coffee table. They were just > donated by a friend, and suprisingly they all work. The only stumbling > block to their efficient operation is my ignorance of their capabilities > and of termcap entries. > > I have three wyse160's, 2 with "pce" keyboards (exactly like a 101-key > IBM AT) and one with a wy60-ansi 16 function key keyboard (well, it didnt > come with it, i had it spare and i'm using it to type this). The fourth > is a visual-603 with a matching 603 keyboard. 160's? Are you sure? Are they color? > My questions are: > > 1) how can i get the most out of these terminals using FreeBSD? > i notice they have mouse-capabilities, but i'm not so mad as to hope > that i can get that to work. The Wyse's have a mode called "scan code mode". Using an escape sequence, you can cause them to send key down/up sequences and treat them as consoles. Mouse events (if they are wired for a mouse port) are sent in band -- just like mouse events on a PS/2 port. FreeBSD should (but does not) have the ability to manage scan-code terminals and terminals with mouse capabilities. If you added it, you could fix the keyboard and mouse handling in BSD while you were at it. 8-). If you did that, then you get alt-keys and all the other nifty features, like being able to make "ctrl-alt-del" to log you out. 8-). Might even be able to run a primative X server... Per the termcap/terminfo discussion on -current, these terminals support screen page flipping and transparent printing, IFF the terminal automaton is in state zero (the ground state -- no escape processing in progress). It would be a lot of work to support that properly. 8-(. > 2) What is the best way to get the damn function and cursor keys to work > (like in pine -k)? Put the escape sequences in a termcap entry. 8-). Try putting it in non-translate mode and cat'ing the keys into a file seperated by return keys, and edit the file in vi to show the sequences. Then edit the appropriate termcap attributes for your entry. > 3) Which termcap entry should i use, or am i going to have to build my > own to get everything out of the keyboards? You will probably need to build your own. Start with the SCO or VT100 or VT200, depending on what mode your setup has your terminal in. > Any information you can supply me with, or even better some pointer to > some docs or manuals so i can learn what the hell it is that i think i'm > talking about... i'd appreciate it. I used to have some photocopied scan-code mode documentation I got under non-disclosure. I don't know what I did with them. You might want to contact Wyse directly. I had the manuals to program an emulator. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199604100117.SAA06432>