ansi/vt100 cursor issue

ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Barnaby Falls]

I run emacs 21.2 on Linux and want to get the color syntax highlighting and 
all that. When I run with TERM=vt100 I get a gray and bold highlighting and 
the cursor appears where it should. However, if I run with TERM=ansi, I get 
the cool color syntax highlighting but the cursor is all the way in the top 
right corner of the window and some text is wrapped and starts at the end of 
the previous line. This all just regular text emacs, no X. Any ideas on how 
to correct this so I can get emacs working with TERM=ansi? Thanks all.
Barnaby. . .

Re: ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Barnaby Falls" <barnabyf@hotmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 13:25:32 -0700
> 
> I run emacs 21.2 on Linux and want to get the color syntax highlighting and 
> all that. When I run with TERM=vt100 I get a gray and bold highlighting and 
> the cursor appears where it should.

That's because vt100 doesn't support colors.

> However, if I run with TERM=ansi, I get 
> the cool color syntax highlighting but the cursor is all the way in the top 
> right corner of the window and some text is wrapped and starts at the end of 
> the previous line.

Sounds like "ansi" does not accurately describe your terminal: the
cursor motion commands are incorrect.

> This all just regular text emacs, no X. Any ideas on how 
> to correct this so I can get emacs working with TERM=ansi?

What terminal do you _actually_ use?  You need to point TERM to the
name of that terminal, not some more-or-less arbitrary name like
"ansi".

AFAIK, GNU/Linux systems have TERM set to the right string
automatically, so you shouldn't need to change that yourself.  What is
the value of TERM when you log in with an empty .login and shell
startup files?

RE: ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Barnaby Falls]

>Date: 19 May 2004 08:49:41 +0200
>From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
>Subject: Re: ansi/vt100 cursor issue
>To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>Message-ID: <uk6z829oa.fsf@gnu.org>
>
> > From: "Barnaby Falls" <barnabyf@hotmail.com>
> > Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 13:25:32 -0700
> >
> > I run emacs 21.2 on Linux and want to get the color syntax highlighting 
>and
> > all that. When I run with TERM=vt100 I get a gray and bold highlighting 
>and
> > the cursor appears where it should.
>
>That's because vt100 doesn't support colors.
>
> > However, if I run with TERM=ansi, I get
> > the cool color syntax highlighting but the cursor is all the way in the 
>top
> > right corner of the window and some text is wrapped and starts at the 
>end of
> > the previous line.
>
>Sounds like "ansi" does not accurately describe your terminal: the
>cursor motion commands are incorrect.
>
> > This all just regular text emacs, no X. Any ideas on how
> > to correct this so I can get emacs working with TERM=ansi?
>
>What terminal do you _actually_ use?  You need to point TERM to the
>name of that terminal, not some more-or-less arbitrary name like
>"ansi".

I use the SSH Secure Shell Client (ssh.com). It allows you to set the 
terminal answerback type, I have it set to `ansi'. But I just removed that 
setting and logged on again and got the following:
$ echo $TERM
vt100

So I guess I'm trying to get colors in a terminal application (SSH) that 
cannot handle it. Seeing this, I now tried this from a regular XP command 
prompt and ran ssh to connect to the computer and got the following:
$ echo $TERM
cygwin

The colors show up nicely and I think I see what you mean by using some 
arbitrary name for the TERM setting. So it looks like the SSH shell client I 
am using doesn't support ansi. Thanks alot for clearing that up.

Barnaby. . .

>AFAIK, GNU/Linux systems have TERM set to the right string
>automatically, so you shouldn't need to change that yourself.  What is
>the value of TERM when you log in with an empty .login and shell
>startup files?

Re: ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Miles Bader]

"Barnaby Falls" <barnabyf@hotmail.com> writes:
> The colors show up nicely and I think I see what you mean by using some
> arbitrary name for the TERM setting. So it looks like the SSH shell
> client I am using doesn't support ansi. Thanks alot for clearing that
> up.

However, since you _did_ get colors when you tried it, it clearly
supports more than just vanilla vt100 attributes.  So perhaps there are
other TERM types that might actually do what you want; you might try,
for instance, "xterm", or "linux", both of which are vaguely like a
vt100 but support color.

[Of course maybe the docs for you program actually say what the true
terminal type should be!]

-miles
-- 
Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it
has to be us.  -- Jerry Garcia

Re: ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Barnaby Falls" <barnabyf@hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 00:51:25 -0700
> 
> I use the SSH Secure Shell Client (ssh.com). It allows you to set the 
> terminal answerback type, I have it set to `ansi'. But I just removed that 
> setting and logged on again and got the following:
> $ echo $TERM
> vt100
> 
> So I guess I'm trying to get colors in a terminal application (SSH) that 
> cannot handle it. Seeing this, I now tried this from a regular XP command 
> prompt and ran ssh to connect to the computer and got the following:
> $ echo $TERM
> cygwin

If this is a Cygwin port of SSH, then perhaps someone on the Cygwin
mailing list could help you figure out what value of TERM should you
use.  That is, if the docs of that SSH port doesn't have this info.

Re: ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Stefan Monnier]

> I use the SSH Secure Shell Client (ssh.com). It allows you to set the

I recommend `putty', BTW.
I haven't used either of them that much, but putty "just worked" whereas
ssh.com's thing was more trouble and even after some "extensive"
customization it never worked nearly as well:
PuTTY supports colors, mouse (via xterm-mouse-mode), and many more
modifier+key combinations.
And best of all, it's Free Software.


        Stefan

Re: ansi/vt100 cursor issue

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
> Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 15:59:11 GMT
> 
> > I use the SSH Secure Shell Client (ssh.com). It allows you to set the
> 
> I recommend `putty', BTW.

Seconded.

> I haven't used either of them that much, but putty "just worked" whereas
> ssh.com's thing was more trouble and even after some "extensive"
> customization it never worked nearly as well:
> PuTTY supports colors, mouse (via xterm-mouse-mode), and many more
> modifier+key combinations.

I do use PuTTY extensively, and it has yet to fail me.

On top of all the advantages mentioned by Stefan, it's a native
Windows application, so there are no ``usual'' Cygwin-related issues,
like the cygdrive thingy and the need to depend on large DLLs.