Re: more xterm.ad sequences

[GoTaR <gotar poczta onet pl>]

On Sat, Sep 06, 2003 at 21:56:36 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:

> > These are for directories history, find file and filtered view.
> 
> Have you tested it?

I use much more extended version, but all the lines are included.

> When I tried to follow the instructions in
> README.xterm and ran "xrdb xterm.ad", xterm forgot the settings from
> ~/.Xresources, such as font size and background color.  Just in case, I'm
> using Debian unstable and xterm-179.
> 
> The only way I found to install xterm.ad without affecting the existing
> settings was to use the "-merge" switch to xrdb.

Yes, that information should go into the file. BTW there are two typos:

2nd line: "IS you are using enclosed" should be "if"
12th line: "modifier in FRON of some" shoud be "front"

> Strange thing is, xterm.ad has been unchanged since 1998 and I don't
> remember seeing any complaints about it.  Either nobody used it or those
> who tried gave up and took some other approach.

Or used it as a simple example/template. For example it was probably
used as a template in PLD Linux Distribution.

> Also, I'm not sure that redefining Alt-Shift-1 is correct.  This makes an
> assumption about keyboard layout, namely that Shift-1 is "!".  This may be
> wrong for some keyboards.  After I loaded the original xterm.ad I noticed
> that Alt-Shift-1 would insert the exclamation sigh upside down, which is
> used in Spanish.

Indeed. But as you noticed - nobody uses this file alone and this is
good example.

> I'm afraid not everybody will be happy with the "improved" xterm.ad.  I'm
> more inclined to remove xterm.ad, xterm.ti and xterm.tcap from the
> sources.  They don't belong here.

xterm.ti and xterm.tcap are redundant, but xterm.ad should be moved to
examples or docs. Without it many would never know how to change xterm
resources. E.g. I'm using:

Meta<Key>Right: string(0x1b) string(0x09)

to have 'tab' completion on alt-right_arrow.

> GNU Midnight Commander started as a shell for hackers who would gladly
> reconfigure everything they are told to work around deficiencies of their
> terminals.

Well, maybe you would like to include this to key.c:

    { KEY_M_CTRL | KEY_UP,    ESC_STR "[1;5A", MCKEY_NOACTION },
    { KEY_M_CTRL | KEY_DOWN,  ESC_STR "[1;5B", MCKEY_NOACTION },
    { KEY_M_CTRL | KEY_RIGHT, ESC_STR "[1;5C", MCKEY_NOACTION },
    { KEY_M_CTRL | KEY_LEFT,  ESC_STR "[1;5D", MCKEY_NOACTION },

ctrl-left/right moves by words, ctrl-up/down scrolls screen w/o moving
cursor. And this one too:

    { KEY_M_SHIFT | KEY_IC,    ESC_STR "[2;2~", MCKEY_NOACTION },

if someone wants to override paste from X clipboard to paste from mc
clipboard (ctrl-ins and shift-del: to clipboard, shift-ins: from
clipboard).

> The times have changed since then.  Terminals are more capable
> and users don't want to tweak everything.  There are other means to make
> keys work, such as the "Learn Keys" dialog.
> 
> I don't want users to be confused by something they most likely don't
> need.  I haven't seen bug reports about xterm.ad, but I have seen and even
> heard complaints from people who could not find "Learn Keys" because our
> documentation is still oriented to the hackers of the past times.

Hey, lusers don't use mc at all, they use konqueror. mc is tool for
hackers and power users and that's the way it should remain.

Oh, by the way: have you heard about Midnight Commander MP:
http://mc.linuxinside.com/cgi-bin/dir.cgi

it has many nice features, like clock, different colors for differet
file types, panel resplitter (Ctrl+LEFT|RIGHT|END as F9-o-l-[<>e]-o),
checkbox for recursive search in find file (one must use grep if wants
to search non-recursively with current mc implementation), and very
useful thing - bookmarks in editor (Alt-Ctrl-Ins: set bookmark,
Alt-Ctrl-UP|DOWN: move through them). And many others - please read
README.40, but the ones I mentioned, are the most usefull. I'll be happy
to see them in mc.

-- 
Tom Pala <gotar pld-linux org>           http://vfmg.sourceforge.net/
                              http://www.pld-linux.org/Members/gotar/