Re: ansi x3.64 specification

[Leonard Rosenthol]

At 1:08 AM -0800 11/5/00, address@hidden wrote:
> hi there. i'm writing this mail from a terminal written for ggi which
> uses freetype2 (i'm seeing everything in cmtt10!).

        Cool!


> there are a few
> problems with the terminal emulation, however. my plan is to make it
> ansi x3.64 compatible --- the problem is that i don't have a precise
> specification...

	It's been a LONG time since I wrote terminal emulators 
(mid-late 80's), but if I recall correctly ANSI x3.64 was the 
bastardized subset of VT100 that Microsoft introduced with DOS for 
screen drawing.  As such, there are very few commands that you need 
to add - mostly for things like setting colors.

	I don't have the details handy (as I'm sitting in a hotel 
room in San Diego), but I'll try to remember to look it up in my old 
manuals when I get back home.


> all i have is a vt100 specification, which doesn't
> have some commands (such as DCH), and doesn't specify some stuff
> precisely.

	Then you don't have a good version of the VT100 spec.  The 
original one from DEC had all the gory details of what to do, and how 
to behave.  It also helped (as I did at the time) to have a REAL 
terminal around to compare responses to certain commands.  There also 
used to be a place on the net that had a "VT100 tester" application 
that would run all sorts of great tests to push all the features - 
but I don't recall what it was.


> i also need very
> precise specifications of what to do when things like LF or CR are
> received. for example, do i clear the rest of the line or not on LF?
> (may seem stupid, but it seems that some programs assume that the line
> will be cleared)

	Depends on what mode the terminal is in, IIRC.  There was a 
mode setting on the VT1xx series that allowed you to change how line 
feeds vs. CR was handled.  The default, however, is that a CR moves 
the cursor down one line, the LF moves the cursor to the beginning of 
the line.  There is NO clearing involved!   If they want clearing, 
they should send one of the clear sequences.


Leonard
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Rosenthol                       <mailto:address@hidden>
Sr. Software Engineer                   (215) 922-3509 (voice)
Digital Applications                    (215) 440-0504 (fax)

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