From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) Subject: Re: linux-0.98.3 termcap problem Date: 1 Nov 1992 17:22:35 GMT
In article <1992Nov1.144417.25896@wam.umd.edu> joel@wam.umd.edu (Joel M. Hoffman) writes:
>In article <1992Nov1.101439.10943@klaava.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) writes:
>>
>>Arggh. Yes, the kernel did change some terminal info in 0.98.3 - namely
>>the standard TERM variable. Instead of using the "con80x25" etc names
>>(which resulted in terrible /etc/termcap files), 0.98.3 initializes TERM
>>to be simply "console". The terminal size is available from the termios
>>size structure, and is no longer encoded into the terminal type name.
>
>Is this paving the way for run-time resizing of the screen? Or,
>better, different VC's with different sizes?
Well, not directly, no - I wouldn't mind it but it does require a lot of
programming that I don't feel is quite worth it (programming SVGA
directly, handling dynamic virtual console screen buffers etc.. Too
much bother when there are more important things to worry about).
The change mostly reflects the fact that the old "con80x25" naming is
simply outdated: using a more general "console" name is more normal.
Programs that want to work correctly in an xterm had better use the
winsize structure anyway, so using special TERM values just encourages
bad programming..
The main reason for "conXXxYY" names were originally old programs that
didn't understand the winsize structure - using special environment
variable values made the linux SVGA startup code an easier transition.
That doesn't seem to hold true any more: most if not all linux binaries
now use winsize instead of the termcap numbers.
Other old features that have gone away or will do so soonish are (a)
direct directory access (also disallowed in 0.98.3) and (b) the old
'stat()' system call interface (probably will be disallowed in the next
release). I try not to break old binaries, but on the other hand I
refuse to be caught in the "100% backwardly compatible" trap, so I'd
rather break something than continue to carry around old features that
aren't supposed to be used.
Linus