OT: Ascii colour and friends. :-)

[Brendan inglese]

Hi!
I have a few questions in relation to ncurses, I find that when i use 
the in built colour commands it doesnt
work on every term i try ( ie , xterm , aterm , eterm ) on one , it will 
say it has colour and
on another it says it dont, :-( , even through thier all $TERM == 'xterm' .

How can i encorperate the ascii coulur escapes into my ncurses program, 
or better yet, what's a good place to find out about this?

Thanks :-)