Subject: Re: NOTICE: pcvt on its death bed
To: =?UNKNOWN-8BIT?Q?Jarom=EDr?= =?UNKNOWN-8BIT?Q?_Dole=E8ek?= <dolecek@ibis.cz>
From: Andrew Gillham <gillhaa@ghost.whirlpool.com>
List: current-users
Date: 06/06/2000 15:25:31
Jaromír Doleček writes:  <-- sorry, I trapped in 7 bit ASCII :-)
> 
> pcvt was superceded by wscons, which is the mainline supported
> MI console driver. Supporting and maintaining two separate console
> drivers (furthermore if one of them is i386-specific) is just
> unnecessary and costs developer resources which can be more efficiently
> spent otherwise.
> 
> Is there any feature pcvt has and wscons does not ?

Personally I tend to like wscons now that I don't have much choice. :-)
The only thing I really miss from pcvt is the 'F9-F12' shortcut keys
for CTRL-ALT-F1 thru F4. (e.g. the first four virtual consoles)
Many times I've done a "visual diff" type of thing by switching back
and forth rapidly. (anyone remember 'list' under DOS?)  Hitting CTRL-ALT-F?
forces me to move my hands much more than necessary, and I end up
with a sore left thumb/hand from hitting left CTRL, left ALT with a 
pinky/thumb combination. :(

It is unclear to me how to enable this in wscons (aka how to remap keys
arbitrarily) This is not a big deal though, as more recently I've taken
to using screen more than virtual consoles. (due to an easier hotkey along
with all the other benefits)

I used to use different numbers of lines (e.g. 28) on my consoles, but
since needing wscons for USB keyboard/mouse support etc, I've given up.

Here is a list of the PCVT features, how does WSCONS compare?  I was
under the impression that WSCONS was still slower than PCVT when scrolling
text?

The 'pcvt' VT220 emulator driver has:

        - Almost full DEC VT220 (VT100/VT102) Terminal functionality

WSCONS claims to support most commonly use functions of a vt100 with some 
vt220/vt320 extensions.  Particularly missing appears to be 132 column
support.

        - full multiple virtual screen / multiple X-server support
          for XFree86 >= 2.0 using the USL-VT/syscons model

WSCONS appears to support this on VGA. PCVT claims to support this on
MDA/CGA/EGA/VGA.  Big difference for the bargain bin shopper who wants
an ISA video card in his server.  It sounds like PCVT would even support
virtual consoles on the weasel!  And the cheap ISA video card that would
provide virtual consoles under PCVT would probably never be used with X.

        - Full Support for MDA, CGA, EGA and VGA display adaptors

WSCONS appears to support VGA and the rest via 'pcdisplay?'

        - configurable number of virtual screens on any video board

WSCONS is configurable on the boards it supports.

        - completely independent virtual terminals for any video board

WSCONS: Nope, only on VGA and VAX SMG. (according to the manpage)

        - (24), 25, 28, 40, or 50 lines for each virtual screen on VGA's

WSCONS: Nope, 80x25, 80x40, 80x50 only on VGA.

        - (24), 25, 35, or 43 lines for each virtual screen on EGA's

WSCONS: Nope, apparently EGA falls under pcdisplay which is limited to 80x25.
(it also appears to not support color?)

        - Fully remappable keyboard to support national keyboards

WSCONS: Should be ok via wsconsctl?

        - All VT220 character sets plus ISO Latin-1 and DEC Technical supported

WSCONS has ISO Latin-1 and doesn't sound like it has DEC Technical. (e.g.
it is approximated by latin-1)

        - VT220 downloadable character set supported when run on EGA/VGA

WSCONS is VGA only here AFAICT.

        - VT220 user defined keys for each virtual terminal

WSCONS: I would assume wsconsctl supports setting this?

        - Optional function key label support a 'la Hewlett-Packard

WSCONS: Nope.

        - Display function codes (0x00-0x1f/0x90-0xaf) functionality

???

        - Optional screen-saving feature

WSCONS: Via external screenblank(1).

        - 132 column operation on several VGA chipsets:
                o        Tseng Labs ET3000 and ET4000
                o        Western Digital WD90C11
                o        Trident TVGA9000, TVGA8900B, TVGA8900C, TVGA8900CL
                o        Video 7 1024i
                o        S3 80C928 (board dependent)
                o        Cirrus Logic GD542x, GD5430, GD6225 (board dependent)

WSCONS appears to have no 132 column support on any i386 display adapter.

I wouldn't mind seeing PCVT go, provided WSCONS was a superset of features.
I do think it is not good to eliminate functionality because it is old or
whatever.  If kernel changes (and SMP support!) will cause PCVT to break
and need a total rewrite to fix, then that is a fine reason to eliminate it,
but perhaps a few more features could be added and/or considered.

Unfortunately I don't have any documented cases where WSCONS just won't
work, maybe I should doublecheck a couple of my oldest video cards. :-) 

How many people actually use PCVT?  (I don't anymore, having moved to
WSCONS for USB support as mentioned above)

-Andrew
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Gillham                            | NetBSD ist Affengeil.
gillham@whirlpool.com                     | Nachts ist es kaelter
I speak for myself, not for my employer.  | als draussen.