[vox-tech] Xterm and terminal types

[Josh Parsons]

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004, Rod Roark wrote:

> > As I recall, vte (the terminal widget used by gnome-terminal) was designed
> > to read a termcap file and configure itself...
>
> Would that be a source tweak?  I can't find any command line...

OK, here's all I know.  The README for vte says:

"You could say that VTE is something of a research project of mine, based
on the simple question:  'if programs can use a termcap file (through
either libtermcap or curses or ncurses) to determine how to drive a
terminal, why can't a terminal emulator use a termcap file to determine
how to behave?'"

Some source spelunking finds an API function:

/**
 * vte_terminal_set_emulation:
 * @terminal: a #VteTerminal
 * @emulation: the name of a terminal description
 *
 * Sets what type of terminal the widget attempts to emulate by scanning
 * for control sequences defined in the system's termcap file.  Unless you
 * are interested in this feature, always use "xterm".
 *
 */
void
vte_terminal_set_emulation(VteTerminal *terminal, const char *emulation)

grepping for "vte_terminal_set_emulation" in gnome-terminal finds nothing,
so I guess you're right, source tweaks would be needed.  If you don't want
to modify gnome-terminal, there is also a sample terminal application that
comes with vte itself, which might be easier to hack on.

---
Josh Parsons
Philosophy Department
1238 Social Sciences and Humanities Bldg.
University of California
Davis, CA 95616-8673
USA

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