On Apr 03, 03 18:53:11 -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> [ On Friday, April 4, 2003 at 09:05:26 (+1000), grant beattie wrote: ]
> > Subject: Re: ncurses and terminfo are broken on Solaris/SunOS (Re: pkg/20881)
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 03, 2003 at 04:43:03PM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> > > Since the ncurses package already provides a perfectly good
> > > terminfo-style "screen" terminal description there is no need for the
> > > screen package to replace them, nor for any other package to do so
> > > either.
> > 
> > since when did ncurses become a dependency of screen? this argument is
> > completely invalid.
> 
> You seem to have the logic behind this stuff backwards too Grant.

Seems you remain alone with your logic, Greg. 

The xterm example is a distorted one, as Tom Dickey is maintainer of
maintains both ncurses and xterm. If we can rely on him to do a good job in
collecting termcap/terminfo entries from the packages that authoratively
define them, the he may well make a termcap package out of that.

(When I say termcap, read it as terminfo/termcap, they make no difference
here ...)

But yes, it makes sense to install the database, even if none of the
applications that provide a terminal type and none of the applications
that make use of a terminal type is installed.

My argument still holds: If the database entry is onwed by one of the 
using or poviding party, then this owner is defintly the one who provides.
Ownership here is in the sense of "being the authoritive source, 
having the right to modify". 

> Since when is _any_ terminal description database or terminal driving
> library a dependency of any terminal emulator?  Why never of course! :-)

Not that simple.
The term 'emulator' is so misleading here! Xterm implements the xterm
capabilities and none else. It does not emulate any other standard, it is
just called a terminal emulator, because there is no physical terminal
required, a virtual one is created. Same with Screen. It implements 
screen capabilities.  

The screen termcap entry is a dependency of screen, (of course). 
And so is the xterm termcap entry a dependency of xterm.

The terminal driving library (ncurses) is neither dependant nor totally
independant of the terminal emulator software. It is the glue that 
allowes to write terminal independent applications. And the termcap 
entries teach this library how to talk to xterm or screen. (This limits is
indemendency...)
Xterm or screen are *not* in any way programmed by the termcap etnries.

        enough said, weekend's coming...

                jw.

-- 
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