Using emacs in a terminal window

[Andy Koppe]

> Here are some differences between the terminfo capabilities
> 'rxvt-cygwin-native' and 'Eterm-256color':
>
> 1. max_colors:
> rxvt    - max_colors: 8
> Eterm - max_colors: 256

I'd say it's a bug that the rxvt max_colors entry is 8, since rxvt
does support 256 colours in its default setting. (And I notice it's
the same with xterm.) Don't know whether there are compatibility
concerns that require that.

However, the correct way to address this is to set TERM to
rxvt-256color (or xterm-256color, as appropriate) rather than
Eterm-256color.


> We do not want to limit Emacs to 8 colors, and having
> Eterm-256color set the value to 256 does not cause
> any problem for rxvt.

Presumably the emacs authors have learned from bitter experience that
the various terminal capability mechanisms can't be relied upon and
simply hardcoded the keycodes for the most popular terminals. Also,
many terminal emulators (and their version) can be identified through
the so-called "secondary device attribute" control sequence.


> 4. key_a1, key_a3, key_c1, key_c3:
>   These are the Home/PgUp/PgDn/End keys
>
> rxvt     - \E0w, \E0y, \E0q, \E0s
> Eterm  - \E[7~, \E[5~, \E[8~, \E[6~
>
> Does this difference in key definitions matter in
> Cygwin's terminal-mode Emacs running in rxvt?
>
> No.

It may not matter for emacs, but it probably would e.g. for ncurses
programs which rely on terminfo information much more.

Andy

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