Re: TERM=vt100 for telnet
Patrick:
Telnet is (or contains) a "terminal emulator". The terminal that your
telnet is emulating (apparently) is the DEC VT-100. A terminal is a
physical piece of hardware that consists of a monitor, a keyboard,
and a serial port, and not much else. Since your computer also has
a monitor, a keyboard, and a serial port, and is furthermore able to
be re-programmed, you can make it pretend like it is one of these
terminals. (Telnet has taken it a step further, using a network port
instead of a serial port.)
vi does not require that you use a VT-100 terminal emulator, but it
(and all programs that use full-screen terminal capabilities) require
that your TERM variable reflect the type of terminal you are actually
using.
AFAIK, the benefits of choosing one type of terminal over another
are minimal. Usually, performance is more a matter of how well the
software emulates the terminal it is supposed to be.
Setting TERM in .bashrc is fine, as long as you always (or most
often) use a telnet with VT-100 emulation. You can always re-set
TERM from the command line in the rare case where you use a
different emulator. Also, the telnet protocol supports the automatic
negotiation of terminal type. You might want to find a telnet program
that performs this negotiation.
Marc
----------
Marc Mongeon <mongeon@bankoe.com>
Unix Specialist
Ban-Koe Systems
9100 W Bloomington Fwy
Bloomington, MN 55431-2200
(612)888-0123, x417 | FAX: (612)888-3344
----------
"It's such a fine line between clever and stupid."
-- David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel of "Spinal Tap"
>>> "Patrick Kirk" <patrick@kirks.net> 07/11 4:03 PM >>>
Hi all,
Why does vi simply not work unless I have entered the command TERM=vt100
when I use telnet? What is vt100? Is there anything better?
Would putting TERM=vt100 or whatever is better in my .bashrc be of benefit?
Patrick
--
Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe debian-user-request@lists.debian.org < /dev/null
Reply to: