[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
console update
From: |
Marcus Brinkmann |
Subject: |
console update |
Date: |
Mon, 9 Sep 2002 05:00:44 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.4i |
Hi,
a new console tar file has arrived at alpha.gnu.org. This snapshot
features:
* External plugin support. Currently still with the rpath to
/lib/hurd/0.3/console/, but I will change this according to Roland's
suggestion on hurd-devel later. This means you must do make install
before running the client. vga, keyboard and speaker driver are currently
loaded automatically, configuration is not possible (yet).
* Support for 512 glyphs and 8 colors instead 256 glyphs and 16 colors.
On by default (for now edit display-vga.c, vga_display_init() to get the
other mode).
* Support for dynamic allocation of line graphic characters. This means
that there will be no gaps between horizontal line graphic glyphs in your
unicode font. In 256 glyph mode, up to 32 different horizontal line graphic
characters are displayed, in 512 glyph mode up to 64.
This means of course that those font slots are not available for normal
glyphs. This is currently the default, but an 8-pixel width font mode
will be supported which disables this feature.
* Robustness. I fixed a bug in the virtual console switching in libcons, and
now it should be quite robust in that regard. ALT+Fx and ALT+CrsrRight
and ALT+CrsrLeft are supported for virtual console switching. Some bugs
in the dynamic glyph allocation have been fixed, so that it does not fail if
you try to display more than available.
* Support for different font heights than 16. The vertical gap between the
font characters in each row is closed now by setting the font width on the
graphic card. The problem is that this makes the screen smaller. In
other words, if you use the included 8x13 unicode font, the screen mode
will be somewhat around 80x30, but only the first 25 lines will be used.
This makes the lower part of the screen not to be used at all, which looks
confusing and wrong. But it makes for much nicer box drawings :) because
the vertical lines are continuous.
I am not sure what is the best way out of this. I think that maybe the
console should automatically choose the right number of lines and resize the
console accordingly. Or we do it externally, and calculate the desired
font size according to the video mode, like svgatextmode does. Or we just
make a good 8x16 unicode font, which is a lot of work. This needs more
thought.
Next version should support screen flashing on VGA, have the ncursesw
backend integrated, support some argument line parsing and options, and
might at some time even restore your video card properly at termination ;)
You need the latest Hurd CVS for this version. If you feel brave, give it a
try and set up your ttys according to earlier instructions which I gave for
the ncurses client, and then just run "console-console /dev/vts" or
whereever you have your console server running.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU http://www.gnu.org marcus@gnu.org
Marcus Brinkmann The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/