Re: (getenv "TERM") always returns "dumb"

[Richard Stallman]

    Most processes started from within Emacs do not talk to a smart
    terminal, but they believe they do.

Why do they believe they do?  Is it because the Lisp code that starts
them does not specify "dumb" as the terminal type?
If so, the straightforward solution is to change the Lisp code
that invokes them.

It may seem inelegant, but at least it doesn't cause any problems.

So I have reverted the change.

    A side remark: Emacs running in a window system appears to inherit the
    terminal type from the terminal it was started from.  That is, this
    Emacs has (getenv "TERM") => "linux" because it was started from
    ~/.xinitrc, but an Emacs started from an xterm will have (getenv
    "TERM") => "xterm".  But in both cases, M-x shell RET provides the
    same terminal capabilities.

Yes, and M-x shell (through comint) sets TERM to `dumb' or `emacs'.