On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 12:10:33AM +0000, Thomas Dickey wrote: ... > 20250426 > + expand note on extensions in curs_addch.3x > + add illumos, sun-16color, sun-256color, sun-direct -TD > + add wyse+cvis -TD
Here's an example of the problems that arise from mis-identification with the $TERM variable: + I was working on one of Branden's comments, and did not recall where I had found the original AT&T terminal descriptions, so as a shortcut went to my copy of illumos-gate. + That didn't go well, because someone had "reorganized" (i.e., a random shuffle) the locations of files. + So the relevant history only went back to 2017. + I _could_ have checked out an older version (not immediately, since it's kind of large) + But while I was there, I was curious about the terminfo file (I already knew it was copied from ncurses ~ ten years ago) + On inspection, it differed from (an old version of) ncurses by just a couple of lines. + That change altered the longstanding "sun-color", to change the number of colors and pairs, plus a couple of other minor changes. The developer had not altered setaf/setab to account for this. As a result, _any_ program which used those values would give disappointing (garbage) results on the screen. To see how it got there, I followed the trail through review (another developer advised creating a new terminal description) and source-code (which I documented in new terminal descriptions). The developer had replied that it would take years for a new terminal description to be available. This was in March 2017. Time passes. If they had done the right thing, a correct terminal description would have been available on (almost anywhere except illumos, I guess) several years ago from this comment. If that sounds familiar, at least in this instance there was no evidence of malice. ttyl -- Thomas E. Dickey <[email protected]> https://invisible-island.net
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