Re: [dev] Scrollback utility for use with st

From: Anselm Garbe <garbeam_AT_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2020 10:08:04 -0700

Hi there,

On Sun, 5 Apr 2020 at 04:00, Laslo Hunhold <dev_AT_frign.de> wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Apr 2020 12:11:09 +0200
> Georg Lehner <jorge_AT_at.anteris.net> wrote:
> > A question: why is the scrollback-patch not included in `st` already
>
> exactly my point. I see no reason why there can't at least be a
> scrollback, which defaults to 0 in config.h.
> Wouldn't this make all sides happy?

Great scrollback support on a tty that is abused to also display
curses applications is very tricky to achieve without doing
compromises.

The original idea for a simple terminal wasn't actually to come up
with yet another vt100 implementation that it eventually became, but
to rather address the issue that the curses application world has
created.

UIs should be done graphically, but with proper keyboard support. And
conventional program output like a stream (no gotoXY curses) was
supposed the only use case for a simple terminal, which also allows
for a very elegant scrollback buffer solution. But doing curses
applications was kind of the enemy of the original ideas.

Unfortunately the gap between UIs and curses applications still exists
and there is still no curses-like graphical interface approach yet.
But that used to be the original intention actually of st.

Best regards,
Anselm
Received on Mon Apr 06 2020 - 19:08:04 CEST