X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com
X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.2 required=5.0 	tests=AWL,BAYES_00
X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org
Message-ID: <4AD8BC97.4070809@etr-usa.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:33:59 -0600
From: Warren Young <warren AT etr-usa DOT com>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Windows/20090812)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Cygwin-L <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: mintty-0.5.1-1
References: <announce DOT 416096c60910121133u54b2cea7m2955e55d6c0d6564 AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> 	 <loom DOT 20091016T193038-322 AT post DOT gmane DOT org> <416096c60910161104t1d5c1174oab298aeea800cdbf AT mail DOT gmail DOT com>
In-Reply-To: <416096c60910161104t1d5c1174oab298aeea800cdbf@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-IsSubscribed: yes
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

Andy Koppe wrote:
> 2009/10/16 Eric Backus:
>> Unfortunately, cygwin's terminfo/termcap entries for XTERM say that the
>> backspace key returns ^H.  
> 
> xterm does still send ^H, but I agree both xterm and its termcap entry
> ought to be changed to match the new Cygwin 1.7 default and the Linux
> world. I should have a look at how to do that.

Well, on Linux consoles, the term type is "linux".  Presumably this is 
one of the reasons they felt they needed a separate term type.

Maybe MinTTY should be emulating something other than xterm, which 
doesn't have this backspace problem?  I don't mean something vastly 
different, just something else in the ANSI/VT100 zoo.

> Have you come across an application that stumbles over this? 

Obviously you're responding to some user reported bug, so here's a 
better question: how does Emacs handle C-h on Linux under xterm?  If it 
works fine, you should try to find out how xterm manages that.

> All the
> one's I've tried seemed to go by the stty setting rather than the
> termcap entry anyway.

This is a problem I still see on Linux today.  Programs that accept user 
input via standard C mechanisms (rather than something intelligent like 
ncurses) often don't deal with regular backspaces.  So, test with things 
like ftp or ex.  Or, write a simple test program that uses gets() or 
similar.  If that handles backspace correctly, that's a high endorsement 
for doing it the way you are already.

--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple