Re: We have OSC 8 terminal hyperlink support now

[G. Branden Robinson]

At 2022-10-31T17:35:10+0100, Jakub Wilk wrote:
> * G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>, 2021-10-02 14:02:
> > less(1) only developed OSC 8 support in version 566, released about
> > one year ago. Versions prior to that misinterpreted the OSC 8 escape
> > sequence and would write parts of it to the terminal window, an
> > unsightly mess that would be sure to displease users. I haven't
> > checked, but I fear that the behavior of other pagers (more, most,
> > pg--are there others?) is similarly poor,
> 
> more looks OK. I guess it passes through all escape sequences?

I don't know about "all", but they do survive the pager, and
gnome-terminal happily renders links with underdots and, upon
right-clicking and selecting a context menu item, renders the linked
page in its ad hoc but tolerable way.  Unfortunately, I can't agree that
more's own output looks okay.  It seems to think that each byte in an
escape sequence occupies a character cell, so it forces lines to break
earlier then they should when SGR or OSC escape sequences occur.  (I'm
using "more from util-linux 2.36.1".)

> most and pg look bad.

Yes.  Last year when I looked into this, I got the impression that pg
was dropped from util-linux.  I had to compile util-linux 2.33 from
source to test it; util-linux 2.36.1 on my Debian system doesn't offer
it.

Regarding most(1), I've never experienced what I consider high quality
from any software John E. Davis has put his name on.  most and slrn both
turned me off quickly (way back in the days when I had, and enjoyed,
access to USENET), and I found the S-Lang library itself grossly
inadequately documented.  But he has (or had, at one point) many vocal
fans--his work clearly appeals to some.

> In Debian there are two other providers of the "pager" command:
> - lv (looks bad, even with the -c option);

With that name, I would have bet money that it came from the "suckless"
people, who seem to be on a mission to occupy every cell in the
two-letter Unix command name space that Ken Thompson left vacant, but
apparently not.

> - w3m (also looks bad).

It'll be funny if we can get Sixel support added to grotty[1] before
they fix their SGR/OSC handling.  At least that would solve the neqn(1)
problem...

Thanks for looking into this.  It seems likely that Debian will keep the
OSC 8 feature disabled by default for a while longer.

Regards,
Branden

[1] Don't have a heart attack.  :)  Making grotty use terminfo is a
    prerequisite and will solve other problems besides.

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