Bug 170276

Summary:	RFE: build termcap from the ncurses source package
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin>
Component:	termcap	Assignee:	Petr Raszyk <praszyk>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	rawhide	Keywords:	FutureFeature
Target Milestone:	---
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Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Enhancement
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2005-10-11 14:51:58 UTC	Type:	---
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Embargoed:

Description Nalin Dahyabhai 2005-10-10 14:43:09 UTC

When the termcap and terminfo databases aren't synchronized, weird behavior
starts cropping up in applications.  The termcap file is already generated from
the terminfo sources, so it probably makes sense to merge the source packages
for the two to reduce the maintenance overhead.

Comment 1 Petr Raszyk 2005-10-11 14:49:51 UTC

At first sight you are right. 

 termcap/terminfo should be synchronized. But there is one important thing:
 termcap is very old terminal-capability description. It should not be used
 'today'. For instance: a termcap-record should not be greater than 1024 bytes.
                        a terminfo-record can be 4096 bytes 'large'.
 Therefore (and not only), not all (described in terminfo) can be translated 
 into termcap.
 Yes, ncurses ('new version only') can translate termcap-record > 1024, but 
 not all 'old programs' use ncurses (for instance Jove - my last 'bug').
 !!! By translation I mean 'removing some capabilities' !!!
   
 As described above, we should 'fight', that termcap will not be used.
 
 Resume: 'termcap' should not be used. This information is 15-20 years 'old'.
          It is a crime, that we have (today 2005) two terminal-descriptions
          for one terminal/terminal emulator.
          One 'full description'    == terminfo
          One 'reduced description' == termcap
          We should not spend our power to keep this schizophrenic
          constellation alive.
          We should not 'build' a Linux-specific-extension for termcap to
          keep this nonsense alive.

 We should have a power to 'stay hard' .