rxvt / rxvt-unicode 256 colour

[Charles Wilson]

[Please keep messages on-list]

Dominic Evans wrote:
> Please add --enable-256-color / --enable-24-bit to the ./configure you
> are using for your rxvt / rxvt-unicode compilations for cygwin.

erm...the upstream rxvt-unicode doesn't support those configure options. 
  Instead, it is hardcoded to support at most 128 fg colors and 128 bg 
colors (not 256 of each) -- actually, it really only supports the 88/88 
colors of xterm-color (64 colors + 16 grey + black + white).  With 
respecct to --enable-24-bit, rxvt-unicode (on X) uses whatever visual is 
the default for the X server --- if it's 24bit, then you get 24bit.  You 
can use the -depth commandline argument to request a visual different 
from the default (e.g. 'urxvt-X -depth 24' is kinda sorta like old-rxvt 
compiled with --enable-24-bit)

 From rxvt-unicode CHANGES file:

3.8  Wed Aug 25 05:46:56 CEST 2004
         - removed 256 color mode, but enable 88 colours in all modes
           (88 to be compatible with 88 colour xterm which is widely
           supported, and most programs assume a non-iso colourtable
           for terminals with "odd" number of colours).

7.3  Wed Jan 25 22:47:35 CET 2006
         - added -depth switch that tries to get a different visual depth
           than the default (replaces the old PREFER_24_BIT logic).


rxvt-W (which is BROKEN, don't use it) is based on the original rxvt 
code and not rxvt-unicode.  rxvt-W IS compiled with --enable-256-color 
and --enable-24-bit.  (FYI: current ncurses does not support more than 
16 fg / 16bg colors...changing that will break ncurses ABI 
compatibility.  My point: few console programs are truly able to take 
advantage of > 16 colors, anyway.)

If I were to take over the original rxvt package (which I'm not, at 
least not yet) it would also continue to be compiled with those two options.

So, your wish is granted, at least as far as is possible.

--
Chuck