Subject: Re: A solution for termcap lossage?
To: None <tech-misc@netbsd.org, tech-userlevel@netbsd.org>
From: Simon Burge <simonb@netbsd.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 04/27/1999 09:55:01
Greg A. Woods wrote:

> > Let's play with this for a while.  OK so we want to use the terminfo
> > as per the Sun implementation so we can run some statically linked
> > binary.  Fine and dandy.  Now, what is the format of the file that tic
> > writes on the Sun?  Is the file architecture dependant?  Is the format
> > consistent across vendors?  Are you really sure? How do we choose if
> > it is not?
> 
> The ncurses-4.2 term(5) manual page says the following:
> 
>        The format has been chosen so that it will be the same  on
>        all  hardware.   An  8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no
>        assumptions about byte  ordering  or  sign  extension  are
>        made.

FWIW, I've tested ncurses terminfo databases on big- and little-endian
32 bit machines and Alphas and the database is exactly the same in all
cases.

Simon.