[Urwid] Patches to the library: more attributes and colors

[Ian Ward]

Derek Peschel wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 04, 2006 at 11:38:04PM -0400, Ian Ward wrote:
>> In general, users have a TERM setting that exists in the terminfo
>> database, but the capabilities in the database do not give a complete
>> picture of the actual features of a user's terminal.  As an example, you
> 
> Using the traditional capabilities and modern features, the database
> _can't_ give a complete picture.  The traditional capabilities match
> vendor-specific features of the 1970s and '80s, and I don't think they've
> been kept up to date with modern features.  Key codes (for one thing) don't
> match the modern PC keyboard, or the modern idea of allowing any modifier
> combination with any base key.  Entire concepts like mouse support have
> not truly been added to terminfo/termcap.  I suppose someone could define
> new capabilities and modify ncurses, but everyone would have to adopt the
> new ncurses and the new capabilities.

What's really missing is an escape sequence that would report how a
terminal will display a given set of characters.  I'd love to be able to
ask the terminal:
1. "do you have glyphs for the following characters? (and how many
characters do you think I sent you)"
2. "do you think you understand this escape sequence?"

The latter would be good for probing capabilities, and the former for
determining if replacement characters should be used for a given terminal.

I would love it if something like these were added to the real xterm.

> In spite of all this, I still think the existing database design _can_ give
> a good enough picture of the color capabilities of the terminal.  Are you
> sure you want to design a whole new database standard just for urwid?

I don't want to duplicate the work of others, but if the information
termcap gives me is incomplete, and I can't probe for the information I
need, I'm not sure what else to do.

Ian