what is TERM?

what is TERM?

[Dan Nicolaescu]

Does anyone know what the #ifdef TERM code in src/s/gnu-linux.h is
supposed to do?

process.c has this:
/* TERM is a poor-man's SLIP, used on GNU/Linux.  */
#ifdef TERM
#include <client.h>
#endif

Nothing defines TERM, so can all the code that depends on it go?

Re: what is TERM?

[David Kastrup]

Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:

> Does anyone know what the #ifdef TERM code in src/s/gnu-linux.h is
> supposed to do?
>
> process.c has this:
> /* TERM is a poor-man's SLIP, used on GNU/Linux.  */
> #ifdef TERM
> #include <client.h>
> #endif
>
> Nothing defines TERM, so can all the code that depends on it go?

You can compile with -DTERM, I suppose.  term is a serial line
communications program not requiring administrator priviledges used for
tunneling TCP ports to a normal dialup modem login.  Since no admin
rights are required for tunneling, the local programs need to be
recompiled with a special library so that they try looking up the ports
on the other side first.

In that manner, one can, for example, use Emacs on the local machine for
reading Usenet and sending Mail to the remote machine where one just has
a normal terminal account.

It is probably not used all too much anymore: pure terminal dialups have
become rather rare.  One reference I found on the web is
<URL:http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/info/usage/term_howto.html>.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: what is TERM?

[Dan Nicolaescu]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

  > Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:
  > 
  > > Does anyone know what the #ifdef TERM code in src/s/gnu-linux.h is
  > > supposed to do?
  > >
  > > process.c has this:
  > > /* TERM is a poor-man's SLIP, used on GNU/Linux.  */
  > > #ifdef TERM
  > > #include <client.h>
  > > #endif
  > >
  > > Nothing defines TERM, so can all the code that depends on it go?
  > 
  > You can compile with -DTERM, I suppose.  term is a serial line
  > communications program not requiring administrator priviledges used for
  > tunneling TCP ports to a normal dialup modem login.  Since no admin
  > rights are required for tunneling, the local programs need to be
  > recompiled with a special library so that they try looking up the ports
  > on the other side first.
  > 
  > In that manner, one can, for example, use Emacs on the local machine for
  > reading Usenet and sending Mail to the remote machine where one just has
  > a normal terminal account.
  > 
  > It is probably not used all too much anymore: pure terminal dialups have
  > become rather rare.  One reference I found on the web is
  > <URL:http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/info/usage/term_howto.html>.

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

So is it worth keeping this code?  
To use this code one would have to hack the build system to use an
undocumented flag (-DTERM), and to want to use network connections in
emacs in a not very common setup.

Re: what is TERM?

[David Kastrup]

Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>   > In that manner, one can, for example, use Emacs on the local
>   > machine for reading Usenet and sending Mail to the remote machine
>   > where one just has a normal terminal account.
>   > 
>   > It is probably not used all too much anymore: pure terminal
>   > dialups have become rather rare.  One reference I found on the web
>   > is
>   > <URL:http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/info/usage/term_howto.html>.
>
> Thanks for the detailed explanation!
>
> So is it worth keeping this code?  
> To use this code one would have to hack the build system to use an
> undocumented flag (-DTERM), and to want to use network connections in
> emacs in a not very common setup.

Well, I certainly had no reasonable alternatives 15 years ago.
Nowadays, it is probably easier to get a PPP connection than an
unprivileged shell login account, I guess.  So at least I don't have a
use for it anymore.  I don't see much evidence for others still using
it.  We can probably remove it and wait to see whether anybody
complains.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: what is TERM?

[Daniel Colascione]

On Sunday 13 July 2008, David Kastrup wrote:
> Well, I certainly had no reasonable alternatives 15 years ago.
> Nowadays, it is probably easier to get a PPP connection than an
> unprivileged shell login account, I guess.  So at least I don't have a
> use for it anymore.  I don't see much evidence for others still using
> it.  We can probably remove it and wait to see whether anybody
> complains.

I actually used Slirp the PPP/SLIP-on-terminal emulator) for some, ah, 
creative routing having to do with my university's firewall. You might as 
well suggest using slirp in the changelog entry removing TERM support.