> From: Elias Mårtenson <loke...@gmail.com> > Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2019 13:33:49 +0800 > Cc: Egmont Koblinger <egm...@gmail.com>, unicode <unicode@unicode.org> > > Moreover, emitting the control sequences that set the mode is in > itself a complication, because if the terminal doesn't support them, > the result could be corrupted display. You will need methods of > detecting the support, and those detection methods usually involve > sending another control sequence to the terminal and waiting for > response, something that complicates applications and causes delays in > displaying output. > > That's what the TERM environment variable is for though.
That's not indicative enough when some version of a terminal starts to support a feature not supported by previous versions of the same terminal. Happens a lot with terminal emulators such as xterm, which are under active development, and add features all the time.
