Re: Using ncurses only for terminfo (no I/O)

[Thomas Dickey]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 11:22:33PM -0000, Grant Edwards wrote:
> I've recently been working with ncurses from Python, and would like to
> use ncurses only for terminfo purposes. I can call tigetstr() and then
> tparm() if needed, and write the result using Python's normal output
> stream.  Everything works as expected using urxvt, but what sort of
> failure modes I should be expecting because I'm not using tputs() or
> putp() as specified in the man page?

man ncurses:

   NCURSES_NO_PADDING
       Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo database are  written
       for  real  "hardware"  terminals.   Many  people use terminal emulators
       which run in a windowing environment and use curses-based applications.
       Terminal  emulators  can  duplicate  all  of the important aspects of a
       hardware terminal, but they do not  have  the  same  limitations.   The
       chief limitation of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your ap‐
       plication is the management of dataflow, i.e., timing.  Unless a  hard‐
       ware  terminal  is  interfaced into a terminal concentrator (which does
       flow control), it (or your application) must manage dataflow,  prevent‐
       ing  overruns.   The  cheapest  solution (no hardware cost) is for your
       program to do this by pausing after operations that the  terminal  does
       slowly, such as clearing the display.

       As  a result, many terminal descriptions (including the vt100) have de‐
       lay times embedded.  You may wish to use these  descriptions,  but  not
       want to pay the performance penalty.

       Set  the  NCURSES_NO_PADDING  environment  variable  to disable all but
       mandatory padding.  Mandatory padding is used as a part of special con‐
       trol sequences such as flash.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
https://invisible-island.net
ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net

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