On Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:41:20 -0800
Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 14:54:25 -0800
> Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I plan to use gnome2-emulating Mate with newer distros
> > (specifically, from Scientific Linux 6 to S.L.7, then to
> > CentOS 8 someday).
> > 
> > However, I vaguely recall being told that gnome3 can be
> > configured to behave very much like gnome2. 
> 
> Sadly, this seems to be very much NOT true.  I've spent the
> last week trying to make either Gnome3 or Gnome classic or
> Mate behave like I was used to, and failed.  Indeed, the
> worst behavior was the text pixel rendering in an xterm.
> After spending hours trying various frobs with fonts and
> scaling and hinting, I could not make the characters crisp
> and clean like gnome 2.
> 
> I use a pattern like this for rendering tests in xterms:
> 
> 888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888880
> 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
> MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
> mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
> NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
> jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
> ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅ
> M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
> 
> Cheesy ascii-art example for "mmMjÅ" characters in a
> 6*13 matrix on gnome2:
> 
> ..............................
> ..........................█...
> .........................█.█..
> ............█...█.....█...█...
> ██.█..██.█..██.██.........█...
> █.█.█.█.█.█.█.█.█....██..█.█..
> █.█.█.█.█.█.█.█.█.....█.█...█.
> █.█.█.█.█.█.█...█.....█.█...█.
> █.█.█.█.█.█.█...█.....█.█████.
> █...█.█...█.█...█.....█.█...█.
> █...█.█...█.█...█..█..█.█...█.
> ...................█..█.......
> ....................██........
> 
> Each "." "white" pixel is a three stripe "RGB" on my laptop
> screen using gnome2.  With gnome3, the leading two pixels
> of each character are a half-brightness smear.  If I turn
> off hinting, some pixels vanish.  Rows of "MMM" turn into
> a grey smear.
> 
> What can I use for a compact 6x13 pixel font in Gnome3,
> without smearing?  Most of my screens are 1024x768. 
> Low resolution, but so are my eyes.
> 
> Keith
>  

So most of the gnome2 terminals are going to be based off a library
called 'vte'. During the switch over to gtk+3 this library was
completely overhauled, albeit not in a good way, but what we had to
start out with either was not good to begin with either.

I was able to manage compiling it on a modern system but was always
left unhappy when some obscure when would show itself when say for
example attempting to open alsamixer or any ncurses program. very
similar issues to what your describing above.

So I set out to find a non-gtk3 non-vte based terminal emulator.
Konsole (KDE's terminal) works very well and includes some convenient
features. However It also pulls in several hundred megabytes of KDE
dependencies so I had to continue my search. I ended up on Qterminal
from the LXDE and LXQT project. They aim to have each component be
modular so it's very easy to take the good parts and mix/mash them with
other software.

To this day I still user Qterminal. It works very well. My only
complaints are behavior emulation isn't exactly on pair which is
usually resolved by switching it around from linux to default or vt420
emulation. The other the bell doesn't work but is resolved in recent
versions.

You can grab a copy here https://github.com/lxqt/qterminal.git and it's
easy enough to compile.

Here is a screen capture of me running your test pattern with Qterminal
0.14.1 with Font set to "Courier Prime 12 pt"
https://0x0.st/zD5k.png

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