Subject: Terminal emulation in 3.95

From: Michael Schuyler <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 09:36:14 -0700 (PDT)

We just converted our 14,000 users from 3.91 to 3.95, primarily to take
advantage of the new upload/download features in our menued environment. A
small percentage of our users have suddenly developed screen-related
problems that appear to be terminal emulation. The symptoms are:
Disappearing screens that appear line by line as the cursor passes over
them, yet all commands work as advertised. Menus not appearing at all.
Resultant confusion and calls to our support line. 

We have long insisted upon VT-100 terminal emulation, both because of Pine
and because of other programs on our system that require it. Vt-102 and
VT-220 often work as well. We use a SUN SPARC20 on OS 4.1.4. We also cast
a jaundiced eye on "Lite" versions of software (COMit Lite, for example)
that don't REALLY have VT-100 terminal emulation, even though they claim
it. We often tell people to go get a real program and call us back. But
this problem is NOT happening with that class of user. This is happening
with people who have used Pine for a couple of years with great success
who are now asking what in heavens we did to mess them up. 

The odd thing is, it is not consistent. I use Procomm Plus for Windows.
Set to VT-100 and going through our modems, everything works fine. It
worked fine in Pine 3.89. It works fine now in 3.95. It always has. Yet
someone else using the same program set to the same settings has this
problem. I suppose it could be the users' modems themselves, but that
seems to me to be a stretch. 

If y'all have a clue, tell me. I sure don't!

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Michael Schuyler:     Voice:(360) 405-9139 [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Aaron M. Scarisbrick)
Date: 27 Jul 1996 01:41:35 GMT

Michael Schuyler ([email-masked]) wrote:
: We just converted our 14,000 users from 3.91 to 3.95, primarily to take
: advantage of the new upload/download features in our menued environment. A
: small percentage of our users have suddenly developed screen-related
: problems that appear to be terminal emulation. The symptoms are:

Try adding this to your options line in your /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed

preserve-start-stop-characters

I noticed pine had  quite a few problems with our terminals, and it all was
related to XON/XOFF handshaking which pine venomously ignores. This fixed
the problem nicely.

FWIW,

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Aaron M. Scarisbrick                    "Yes, this is correct." -Larry Wall
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[email-masked]                           http://www.xmission.com/~aaron
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