Talk:Comparison of terminal emulators

Creation

I created this page because the List of terminal emulators article was kind of lacking, hoping people with more time will fill in the blanks and add to it.

Mouse Tracking is the xterm extension that quite a few terminals and applications support, same for 256 color.

The OSC palette is an xterm extension (I think) that allows customizing the default 16 colors using ESC ] P nrrggbb: with parameter given in 7 hexadecimal digits after the final P with n being the color (0-15), and rrggbb indicates the red/green/blue values (0-255), with ESC ] R for resetting the palette. OSC stands for Operating System Command and is documented in the console_codes manual shipped with Linux. --Scandum (talk) 18:37, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

No - the "OSC palette" is a Linux console feature. It's misformed, since it lacks a final character. xterm has a feature, named brokenLinuxOSC to work around applications which assume that every terminal is Linux console (and don't bother to send a suitable final character). Since it doesn't have a final character, it's not really an OSC command, but rather a Linux-specific control string. TEDickey (talk) 00:23, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

"TERM" column

What is that column supposed to represent? (PuTTY's capabilities differ from xterm - and the $TERM which it sets is configurable, as is xterm's) TEDickey (talk) 00:32, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

It shows that PuTTY aims to behave like xterm, and it's useful for server developers to know how terminals identify themselves. --Scandum (talk) 03:20, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

PuTTY is unsuccessful however (its line-wrapping is inconsistent with xterm, as are its function-key definitions). Ambition is a nice thing, but it should not be confused with success. TEDickey (talk) 08:15, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

If you google on "putty xterm infocmp" and "putty xterm vttest", you'll find plenty of comments on PuTTY. Likewise, other terminal emulators may set TERM to "xterm" (rxvt used to...), but they're not xterm. Some of that's in the xterm faq. PuTTY is not in the xterm faq because it came late, and was never a good fit. TEDickey (talk) 08:37, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

The utility is difficult to determine at this point, but if this article matures into a fairly accurate terminal capability overview I'm sure someone will find the $TERM information interesting. Feel free to add more features to the table, especially where support varies and matters. --Scandum (talk) 03:07, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Isn't it the same situation as with user agents? Compatibility works as a disincentive against revealing one's true identity, so everyone takes camouflage as "xterm" (which serves the role of "Mozilla/5.0"). Even using the information (aka. "browser sniffing") is frowned upon, because it's such a bad way to check for features — every untested user agent giving a false negative.84.208.177.88 (talk) 09:22, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Mouse tracking

There's no definition given, nor are criteria given for inclusion. vttest demonstrates 6; rxvt implements 3, for instance. TEDickey (talk) 08:07, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

I checked basic mouse tracking support with Midnight Commander. I guess a notes section could be added, though details about mouse tracking could be integrated in the xterm article. --Scandum (talk) 12:30, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

Win32 console support of UTF-8

Win32 console doesn't support UTF-8 as Windows doesn't. It supports UTF through UTF-16. Also it supports locale encodings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.116.102.231 (talk) 15:10, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

vt52 support

Win32 console would only support vt52 and other terminal emulators if an appropriate driver were loaded. By itself, it doesn't do full-screen terminal emulation. PuTTY happens to pass the vttest screens for vt52 (but likewise, since its wrapping behavior differs, it is not an emulator of xterm). Konsole is reported to not support any part of vt52. TEDickey (talk) 09:25, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Windows (sic)

If there were a Cygwin column, that might make the first column/first table improved. Then again, since the edit was haphazard, someone still has to do the actual work. TEDickey (talk) 19:39, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Bitmap support

rxvt(and descendents) support bitmap fonts, likewise PuTTY (as "pterm"), and xterm. Konsole and VTE-based - unlikely, lacking a specific, knowledgeable source. Those use the fontconfig mechanism, which may supply a bitmap font, but by pretending that it is scalable (what is referred to as vector fonts). TEDickey (talk) 20:57, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

CTL (sic)

An editor appears to have confused BIDI with CTL. BIDI (to the extent that it overlaps with CTL) is a small subset. It is unclear whether the intent of the edit was to promote a mostly-dead project (see source repository), but that is how it reads. TEDickey (talk) 23:41, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Greetings, I'm the "An editor", and I do not think I confuse BIDI with CTL. i do not even know what make you mention the mostly-dead project source repository as I included a link to a page that seems to report the status of support of bidi AND shaping/ctl of a couple of terminal emulators. :) Can you please elaborate on why you think its dubious? or why my intention was not to promote konsole for example? --Uwe a (talk) 09:18, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

If your source is focused on BIDI, that doesn't help much with CTL. Konsole doesn't do CTL based on the Wikipedia topic for it. Without original research per se, you are unlikely to find suitable material for discussing CTL with terminal emulators in any case. TEDickey (talk) 23:02, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

What is “derivative scrolling”?

An internet search turns up nothing else than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If it's that hard to find, we need a link or footnote, or we should delete the column.—84.209.101.182 (talk) 09:15, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

What is “application keypad”?

I don't understand that either.—84.209.101.182 (talk) 09:26, 4 February 2018 (UTC)