Nerding out with termcap

aka: nostalgia right under our noses This is one of those admissions like enjoying listening to Barry Manilow or something... So I'm making a computer for my car (freeBSD on a mini-ITX box) and I'm hacking a "terminal" in an old AM radio chassis (a PIC, two rotary encoders (VOLUME and TUNE), two momentary switches on the shafts and a 4x20 LCD) to run a Perl script that drives mpg321. I need to borrow a simple (trivial!) cursor control scheme for the LCD, so I decide to peruse /etc/termcap. The comments in termcap are hilarious. There's a lot of obsolete knowledge and funny comments in there, from when the unix world was a lot smaller. I assume the same ancient crud is lodged in linux also. Check out the 'homemade' entries! You can know your bones are foundation of the earth when your homemade terminal is documented in distribution termcap! # ^S is an arrow key! Boy is this guy in for a surprise on v7! sol:\ ... # dmchat is like DM2500, but DOES need "all that padding" (jcm 1/31/82) # also, has a meta-key (MT) # from goldberger at su-csli.arpa dmchat|dmchat version of datamedia 2500:\ ... # The Visual 200 beeps when you type a character in insert mode. # This is a horribly obnoxious misfeature, and some of the entries # below try to get around the problem by ignoring the feature or # turning it off when inputting a character. They are said not to # work well at 300 baud. (You could always cut the wire to the bell!) # From mike at brl-vgr Mon Nov 14 08:34:29 1983 vi200|vis200|visual 200 with function keys:\ ... # From cbosg!teklabs!davem Wed Sep 16 21:11:41 1981 # Here's the command file that I use to get rogue to work on the 4025. # It should work with any program using the old curses (e.g. it better # not try to scroll, or cursor addressing won't work. Also, you can't # see the cursor.) # (This "learns" the arrow keys for rogue. I have adapted it for termcap - mrh) 4025-cr|tek 4025 for curses and rogue:\ ... # i: INFOTON (GENERAL TERMINAL) # # Infoton is now called General Terminal Corp. or some such thing. # gt100 sounds like something DEC would come out with. Lets hope they don't. i100|gt100|gt100a|General Terminal 100A (formerly Infoton 100):\ ... # l: LEAR SIEGLER (ADM) # # If the adm31 gives you trouble with standout mode, check the DIP switch # in position 6, bank @c11, 25% from back end of pc. Should be OFF. # If there is no such switch, you have an old adm31 and must use oadm31 adm2|lsi adm2:\ ... # q: HOME MADE TERMINALS # bill croft homebrew:\ :do=^J:am:le=^H:bs:cm=\E=%+ %+ :cl=^Z:co#96:ho=^^:li#72:\ :nd=^L:up=^K:vb=: ... # This came from the comp ctr who got it from some user. Smart indeed! sexidy|exidy smart:\ ... # Special "terminals". These are used to label tty lines when you don't # know what kind of terminal is on it. The characteristics of an unknown # terminal are the lowest common denominator - they look about like a ti 700. # The last one, "other", is like unknown but it allows an escape from software # that insists that a "real" unknown terminal is merely so far unspecified. ... arpanet:\ :tc=unknown: ... plugboard|patch|patchboard:\ :tc=unknown: ... # "Teleray Arpa Special", officially designated as # "Teleray Arpa network model 10" with "Special feature 720". # This is the new (1981) fast microcode updating the older "arpa" proms # (which gave meta-key and pgmmable-fxn keys). 720 is much much faster, # converts the keypad to programmable function keys, and has other goodies. # Standout mode is still broken (magic cookie, etc) so is suppressed as no # programs handle such lossage properly. # Note: this is NOT the old termcap's "t1061f with fast proms." # From Univ of Utah, J.Lepreau Tue Feb 1 06:39:37 1983 # lepreau at utah-cs, harpo!utah-cs!lepreau ... # New version from ee178aci%sdcc7 at SDCSVAX.ARPA Fri Oct 11 21:27:00 1985 apple-80|apple II with smarterm 80 col:\ :am:bs:bt=^R:bw:cd=10*^K:ce=10^]:cl=10*^L:cm=^^%r%+ %+ :\ :co#80:cr=10*^M:do=^J:ho=^Y:le=^H:li#24:nd=^\\:up=^_: lisa|apple lisa console display, black on white:\ ...