[lug] [OT!] Help with rsx/DEC

[D. Stimits]

rm at fabula.de wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> mostly OT (but Linux is involved on the client side):
> A friend of mine needs to write some code that interacts with
> a PDP11 runninf RSX via telnet. At some point someone seems to have 
> adapted the application in such a way that it will react to keyboard
> input from a (remote) PC keyboard as if it where a VT100 keyboard
> (so PGUp et al. will do "the right thing"). This only happens when

It sounds like it is a curses/ncurses app, though I've never heard of 
the app. FYI, any shell (xterm, konsole, regular console, etc) should 
have an environment variable $TERM, which children would inherit unless 
the child specifically alters it. What does "echo $TERM" show from a 
terminal that fails? Perhaps one of the app or client was hard coded to 
a single term type.

> accessed via telnet so it most likely is a "feature" of the telnet
> application. Unfortunately no one has any clue about the exact mapping
> of keys. So the big question is: where are such key mappings defined 
> in RSX? (is there something like termcap/terminfo). My first guess
> was that the server sends the usual ^e (terminal enquire) but this
> doesn't happen. 

If you could run ldd on the client side on linux you might get some 
clues via the libs it is linked to...e.g., libncurses, or libtermcap. 
FYI, you can also run ldd on the libraries themselves and see what libs 
the libs are linked to in the long chain.

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net