busybox vi doesn't use ncurses?
Paul Fox
pgf at brightstareng.com
Tue Jun 13 23:03:26 UTC 2006
> On Sunday 11 June 2006 11:01 am, Paul Fox wrote:
> > > I compiled a simple hexeditor (bvi) but I have to add
> > > libncurses on my target for it to work. Why, instead, vi is
> > > working also without libncurses?
> >
> > busybox vi doesn't use ncurses. it doesn't need it, because it
> > only runs on one style of terminal device, and because it has
> > limited functionality.
>
> If you'd ever seen any of the ANSI art of the BBS days, you wouldn't call it
> "limited functionality". :)
sure, sure. :-) i was thinking of the forms and menus stuff, and the
more esoteric terminfo capabilities, mouse support, etc.
>
> We use ANSI escape sequences, a standard which is over 20 years old and is
> loosely based on the old VT100 escape sequences from the "glass tty" style
> terminals DEC sold for use with its PDP computers, which is the original
> platform that Unix emerged from 35 years ago. DOS 3.x could handle these
> just fine, and any modern OS that can't is too brain-damaged to care about.
> (Feel free to come up with an example; I'll stand by my statement.)
hmm. i guess the ADM-3A terminal in my cellar won't qualify as a
"modern OS", eh? ;-) because it sure ain't ANSI.
>
> In addition, we use the basic TTY IOCTL in Unix that lets us ask "how wide's
> the screen, how tall's the screen". So that's one system call and a
> half-dozen 20 year old console escape sequences, which is much smaller and
> simpler than linking to curses.
no question that things have gotten a lot easier than they used to be.
(having done my own vi rewrite, i'm well aware of the issues you're
talking about.)
paul
=---------------------
paul fox, pgf at brightstareng.com
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