Re: [LINUX5250] HOWTO keymap seperate users

[James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 7 Nov 2001, Scott Klement wrote:

> It seems to me that when you change it in .Xdefaults (or for that matter,
> in /usr/local/share/tn5250/XTerm which is the .Xdefaults script that
> xt5250 loads)  that you're actually changing the definition of what
> "red" looks like, and what "yellow" looks like, etc.   when the code in
> cursesterm.c says "yellow" you're printing green, etc.
>
> It seems to me that encoding this in .tn5250rc would be a better option.

How would putting it in .tn5250rc be different?  Wouldn't both be changing
the definition of "red" etc.?

> (Unfortunately, there is no documentation, besides the mailing list, on
> how to create a .tn5250rc -- this REALLY needs to be taken care of!)

Okay - this is going into the HOWTO as well.  Really the HOWTO is more of
a tn5250 HOWTO and not just a keymapping HOWTO.

> The other problem with using xresources for this is that you'll need a
> different config option when using console-mode tn5250, and yet another
> option when using gnome-5250 or gtk-5250 (if they ever get finished)
> and yet another (??) when using the SLang terminal object...
>
> Really... putting it in .tn5250rc seems like a better idea :)

Except that we already have keymaps in .Xresources.  And the reason they
are there is because (I think) the keymapping is xterm related (I don't
know about console mode).  .Xresources really influences xterm - not
tn5250.  Colors could be done the same way (that's why *pointerColor and
*cursorColor work right now), by influencing xterm.  I'm just thinking
these would be easy, simple changes that could be complete in an afternoon.
Does xterm have a 'highlight' attribute or other attributes that could be
used to define what colors certain characters should be?  I know there is
a bold attribute (man pages are bold), so if tn5250 were to tell xterm
"use the bold attribute here" and *boldColor (or whatever) was defined in
.Xresources to be white, then we have a simple solution that works today.
It may not be completely portable across console, gnome, Slang, etc. but
it would work without much change.

I don't know about gnome/KDE, but don't they use Xlib?  If so then they
should be able to use .Xresources.

> Should this be my next project?

If you've got the time, we've got the crime... (apologies to the
Bloodhound Gang)

James Rich
james@eaerich.com