r1w1s1 on Nostr: Reading an old UNIX Review article from September 1984 about termcap. Fascinating how ...

Reading an old UNIX Review article from September 1984 about
termcap. Fascinating how much modern terminal software still
inherits ideas from this era.

vi depended heavily on terminal capability databases to remain
portable across different hardware terminals. Bill Joy originally
wired vi only for Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminals, and termcap was
born from the flood of requests for support on other hardware.

"Termcap Unveiled" by Douglas R. Merritt, pages 42-48.
https://archive.org/details/Unix_Review_1984_Sep.pdf/page/n43/mode/2up

Also updated my nvi notes with a small historical section about
termcap/curses and terminal portability.
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/NVI_Editor_Guide.txt

#vi #unix #termcap #nvi #linux