Re:The Terminal Escape Sequences Ocean Is Deep and Dark
by gumby on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @09:42AM
(#34427137)
> There are an many types of escape sequences. I've yet to find even a complete listing of all of them. No terminal supports all of them.
It's impossible to even find them all; there were no standards (until the ANSI controls were standardized quite late in the process) and every terminal mfr (most of whom are long dead) made their own. Eventually many started by copying the VT100 set, because DEC was a big company, but even then they'd implement a subset and/or add more. And of course there would be namespace collisions. So yes, no terminal ever supported all of them, and that wouldn't really make any sense.
As for soft terminals (terminal emulators): just pick a terminal (the old hardware kind I mean) that's in the termcap database and implement only what it does. ANSI is a good default.
(none of this makes the author's problem any easier; just expanding on one part)
It's impossible to even find them all; there were no standards (until the ANSI controls were standardized quite late in the process) and every terminal mfr (most of whom are long dead) made their own. Eventually many started by copying the VT100 set, because DEC was a big company, but even then they'd implement a subset and/or add more. And of course there would be namespace collisions. So yes, no terminal ever supported all of them, and that wouldn't really make any sense.
As for soft terminals (terminal emulators): just pick a terminal (the old hardware kind I mean) that's in the termcap database and implement only what it does. ANSI is a good default.
(none of this makes the author's problem any easier; just expanding on one part)