Final call for testers: TERM=xterm

Dag-Erling Smørgrav des at des.no
Wed Nov 11 21:34:04 UTC 2009


sthaug at nethelp.no writes:
> That may be so. However, I (like others on this list) hate that feature
> and its default usage in Linux with a passion.

I don't understand why you are blaming Linux for this.  It's an xterm
feature that probably goes back twenty years or more (xterm turned 25 a
few months ago).  We're not talking just xterm, either; searching for
"ti=" in /etc/termcap reveals that it was available on dozens of
terminals, including several IBM and TekTronix models, just to drop a
couple of big names.

Modern Unix was built on the "mechanism, not policy" principle, and
there is no reason why we should make an exception in this particular
instance.  If our termcap hadn't been intentionally sabotaged, those who
hate this feature (as I used to) could easily turn it off, but as things
stand, those who like it (as I do now) can't easily turn it back on,
especially if they work in mixed environments.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des at des.no


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