Post #2280876
2026-05-08 20:01 UTC
Reading an old UNIX Review article from September 1984 about
termcap. Fascinating how much modern terminal software still
inherits ideas from this era.
vi depended heavily on terminal capability databases to remain
portable across different hardware terminals. Bill Joy originally
wired vi only for Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminals, and termcap was
born from the flood of requests for support on other hardware.
"Termcap Unveiled" by Douglas R. Merritt, pages 42-48.
https://archive.org/details/Unix_Review_1984_Sep.pdf/page/n43/mode/2up
Also updated my nvi notes with a small historical section about
termcap/curses and terminal portability.
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/NVI_Editor_Guide.txt
#vi #unix #termcap #nvi #linux
Replies (2)
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@carson@social.chittom.family 2026-05-08 21:45
@r1w1s1 It _is_ just a little bit ludicrous that we type commands into a window that is pretending to be a machine last sold forty years ago.
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@resuna@ohai.social 2026-05-09 01:20
@r1w1s1 I was trying to get my Termcap implementation for CP/M and DOS into Byte right about when they were switching from being a small systems magazine to being a big advertising magazine. And I get one letter from an editor saying you need to turn this into an article and another letter saying this is way too much code to fit into BIOS.