Linux - perfect replacement for desktops

Brian K. White brian at aljex.com
Sat Jul 28 02:34:31 PDT 2007


Lucky you, this is a piece of cake. :)

Gnome-terminal will work fine, as can kde's terminal as can rxvt as can the 
stock xterm.
They all require slightly different handling vis-a-vis their own config and 
the fp termcap file, but there is no problem.
I use them all all the time. I use putty all the time too, in 3 different 
modes no less, xterm, linux, and scoansi, but on windows.
I do not know how the linux port of putty behaves or what tweaks are 
necessary to have it work nicely, but I'd be real surprised if it's not 
perfectly capable of working fully correctly with filepro.

Here is (one way) how to make gnome-terminal work.
This is just one of many ways and not necessarily the best way.
rxvt and urxvt notes in there too.

And note, If you are doing anything like hard coding TERM in startup or 
login scripts, "stop that".
TERM is hardly mentioned in there, and not at all for gnome-terminal, 
because gnome-terminal will, by default, set TERM to "xterm", and that is 
correct. I don't know where you got the idea to use vt102, but probably 
simply removing that and allowing it to set xterm would make it work well 
enough for you even without the rest of this stuff.

------  gnome-terminal-filepro.txt ------


This is two working sets of settings for filepro on linux.
One for gnome-terminal, one for rxvt.
It's all done on suse 10.x with utf/unicode disabled by default system-wide
for some other dist (fedora) may require who-knows-what adjustments
But I've been doing the same thing on freebsd and other linux's for years so 
it's no problem.


=== gnome-terminal ===

open up a gnome-terminal, then go into these various menus...

Terminal menu, set character encoding    (may not need to touch actually)
   ISO-8859-1

Edit menu, Keyboard shortcuts
   check "disable all ..." which automatically checks disable F10 also

Edit menu, Profiles..., New, filePro

General tab
   uncheck use system font
   "Andale Mono - regular - 16" or "Misc Fixed 18"
   uncheck show menubar

Title and Command tab
   check run custom command
   custom command "p whatever"  (actually in my case it's a start-script 
that ends up running "p whatever")
   when command exits: exit the terminal

Colors tab
   uncheck use colors from system
   select white on black
   built-in schemes should already say Linux Console

Scrolling tab
   scrollbar is disabled

save the profile and exit gnome-terminal

right-click on the desktop, create a new Launcher, or copy the existing 
gnome-terminal one

launcher properties:
Command: gnome-terminal --geometry 80x25 --tab-with-profile=filePro

Pick an icon and set a name as you please.
I'd set the name to the name of your app since this will launch immediately 
into it's main menu.



==== rxvt ====

Launcher properties:
Command: rxvt -tn rxvt -fg grey85 -bg black +sb -geometry 80x25 -fn 10x20 -e 
p whatever
or
Command: urxvt -fg grey85 -bg black +sb -geometry 80x25 -fn "xft:Andale 
Mono-16" -e p whatever

urxvt is a newer unicode-compatible version that may be all thats available 
prepackaged on a new system.
suse 10.1 had rxvt, suse 10.2 now only has urxvt
It's annoying having the name change and the behaviour too, but the new 
version can use truetype fonts which means it can use Andale Mono. urxvt 
also natively sets TERM to something unique instead of "xterm" so you don't 
need to put "-tn rxvt"



=== stuff common to both above ===

fp termcap:
linux|Linux Console:\
 :al=\E[L:am:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[2J\E[H:cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:co#80:\
 :dc=\E[P:dl=\E[M:dn=\E[B:ei=:ho=\E[H:ic=\E[@:im=:li#25:\
 :nd=\E[C:ms:pt:so=\E[7m:se=\E[m:us=\E[4m:ue=\E[m:up=\E[A:\
 :kh=\E[1~:kb=\177:ku=\E[A:kd=\E[B:kl=\E[D:kr=\E[C:eo:PV:\
 :GS=\E[12m:GE=\E[10m:\
 :GV=\263:GH=\304:\
 :G1=\277:G2=\332:G3=\300:G4=\331:GZ=\376:\
 :GU=\301:GD=\302:GC=\305:GR=\303:GL=\264:RT=^J:\
 :L0=F1:L1=F2:L2=F3:L3=F4:L4=ESC ESC:L5=F5:\
 :L6=Pg Up:L7=Pg Dn:L8=ESC TAB:L9=TAB:LA=Ctrl-O:\
 :LB=F6:LC=Ctrl-L:LD=F7:\
 :LE=F8:LG=Ctrl-X:LH=F9:LY=Ctrl-C:LZ=Enter:\
 :P0=\E[[A:P1=\E[[B:P2=\E[[C:P3=\E[[D:\
 :P4=\E\E:P5=\E[[E:P6=\E[5~:P7=\E[6~:P8=\E^I:P9=^I:\
 :PA=^O:PB=\E[17~:PC=^L:PD=\E[18~:PE=\E[19~:PG=^X:PH=\E[20~:\
 :PJ=\E[21~:LJ=F10:\
 :PN=\E[5i:PS=\E[4i:

xterm|xterm-color|XFree86 3.3.x xterm:\
 :kh=\E[H:\
 :GS=\E(0:GE=\E(B:\
 :GV=x:GH=q:G1=k:G2=l:G3=m:G4=j:GZ=`:\
 :GU=v:GD=w:GC=n:GR=t:GL=u:\
 :P0=\EOP:P1=\EOQ:P2=\EOR:P3=\EOS:P5=\E[15~:\
 :tc=linux:

rxvt|rxvt-unicode|rxvt 2.x:\
 :kh=\E[7~:\
 :GS=\E(0:GE=\E(B:\
 :GV=x:GH=q:G1=k:G2=l:G3=m:G4=j:GZ=`:\
 :GU=v:GD=w:GC=n:GR=t:GL=u:\
 :P0=\E[11~:P1=\E[12~:P2=\E[13~:P3=\E[14~:P5=\E[15~\
 :tc=linux:


=== next parts only if your rxvt seems buggy, ===
=== esp wrt backspace in some input prompts,  ===
=== not just in fp either                     ===

/etc/termcap:  replace any existing rxvt entry with this.
no need to remove all the other variants like rxvt-256 etc...
just if theres one that has "rxvt", remove that entry or at least remove the 
name "rxvt" from it's first line. or change it to rxvt-orig etc..

# rxvt 2.7 color, ansi print,
rxvt:\
 :am:bs:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
 :co#80:it#8:li#25:\
 :AL=\E[%dL:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:\
 :K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:RI=\E[%dC:UP=\E[%dA:\
 :ae=^O:al=\E[L:as=^N:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
 :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dl=\E[M:\
 :do=^J:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:\
 :im=\E[4h:is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
 :k0=\E[21~:k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
 :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
 :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=^H:kd=\E[B:ke=\E>:kh=\E[7~:\
 :kl=\E[D:kr=\E[C:ks=\E=:ku=\E[A:le=^H:mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:\
 :me=\E[0m:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:\
 :so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:te=\E[2J\E[?47l\E8:\
 :ti=\E7\E[?47h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:us=\E[4m:\
 :vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:vs=\E[?25h:\
 :5i:pf=\E[4i:po=\E[5i:ps=\E[0i:PN=\E[5i:PS=\E[4i:

replace the existing rxvt terminfo with this one:
   use your package manager to find and install ncurses-devel, in order to 
get the "tic" utility in case it's in some other package on redhat.
   wget wget http://install.aljex.com/aljex/rxvt.ti
   tic rxvt.ti

Even if your rxvt is not buggy it may be nice to copy the entire bottom line 
of this termcap and add it to yours. rxvt actually does capture passthru 
print and pipe it to lp ! Real handy sometimes. Similarly, to update instead 
of replace terminfo for rxvt or rxvt-unicode, to tell apps that it can do 
printing, while logged in in that window do:
infocmp >file.ti
echo ' mc5=\E[5i, mc4=\E[4i,' >>file.ti
tic file.ti


rxvt is faster than gnome-terminal, and has the passthru print, and is less 
fuss to set up, (basically you just specify some commandline args, which are 
easy to write in a file and copy from machine to machine or cut/paste from 
notes viewed in a web page, unlike all the interactive steps to create the 
profile in gnome-terminal...) but one nice thing about gnome-terminal is it 
lets you click on urls. We make heavy use of the run-program feature in 
Anzio, FacetWin, our own customized putty, mostly to launch web browsers 
pointing to temporary print-to-files instead of really printing. And mostly 
various other urls.
We use a script that determines what kind of terminal you have and tries to 
send the command with the appropriate escape sequence for your terminal, and 
failing any, it just displays it and wait for an enter key, so you can 
cut&paste it. Well in gnome-terminal at least you can just right-click on 
the url and select open, you don't have to actually cut/copy, go find or 
open a web browser, paste the link in, botch the paste or clearing out the 
old url first...



I like the Andale Mono font best for filepro several reasons. It comes from 
the "ms core fonts" package which is usually just a meta package the runs a 
script that downloads and extracts a few windows installer files that ms 
made public but did not grant the right to redistribute in quite the way a 
normal distribution packaged rpm would.
In suse it just shows up in yast during install and/or on-line updates.
Redhats package manager may list it as a package already, or just follow the 
steps on this page. This ends up creating a nice binary rpm that you can 
copy to new boxes and install from then on instead of doing the same steps 
each time.
http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/

----- gnome-terminal-filepro.txt -----

Brian K. White    brian at aljex.com    http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR
+++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
filePro  BBx    Linux  SCO  FreeBSD    #callahans  Satriani  Filk!



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Aldridge" <toma at aldridgeinc.com>
To: <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 6:47 PM
Subject: Re: Linux - perfect replacement for desktops


> On Thu, Jul 26, 2007 at 09:12:05PM -0500, Tom Aldridge wrote:
> > > I guess it's somewhat off the original subject, but I am wondering
> > > Walter, if your users will also be running filePro sessions via
> > > gnome-terminal, xterm, Putty (for Linux) or other, from their desktop
> > > back to a server running linux filePro?
> > >
> > > I've been doing that very thing at numerous locations for several
> years
> > > but have never been completely happy with the emulation. Therefore,
> I am
> > > interested in what others are doing for filepro users in terms of
> > > terminal emulation for users running Linux desktops.
>
> Then Jay R. Ashworth asked:
> Very specifically what don't you like?
>
> Jay, Mark and others:
>
> OK I'm probably giving more information than is necessary for you guys.
> But I'm a restaurant owner not an expert in this stuff so bear with me.
> Mark wrote some nice filePro apps for me many years ago. After that I
> learned filePro (to a point) via John Esac at classes he held and STN at
> their classes, Nancy Palmquist from time-to-time, trial and error, and
> via this list. I wrote (cobbled together) many filePro applications that
> work for my business, including payroll at our headquarters and all
> kinds of other office productivity apps. There we use winxp for desktops
> to a Fedora Core 1 server (behind a firewall) running filePro. Okay
> don't yell to loud at me for that.
>
> At the restaurants I run Fedora Core1 boxes. The manager clicks on their
> little Gnome desktop icon and gets their Manager Menu containing a bunch
> of filePro apps like Scheduling, Cash Reconciliation and others. I'm
> using Gnome-terminal 2.4.0.1 and Vt102 termcap. If I remember correctly,
> I messed with the VT102 termcap years ago when I set this up to get all
> the Fkeys working nicely, as well as delete key, etc. The icon runs
> "gnome-terminal --command "ssh login at server.com", auto logs in and
> presents them with an input popup to log into their manager menu. Works
> great. Printing of reports to the restaurant managers is via cups back
> to their local printer from our headquarters.
>
> Finally the issue. Wherever the cursor sits in the field, if they arrow
> right to leave the field or press enter to leave the field -- no
> problem, but if they arrow up or arrow down to leave the field, wherever
> the cursor sits, it blanks out the character at that spot. So if in
> field x they enter 100.00 and press enter fine, but if for whatever
> reason they return to that field and then arrow up or down while sitting
> on one of the digits in that field, it blanks out (cosmetically only)
> the character or digit in that field.
>
> That's the problem. It's an annoyance. If they had reason to move around
> a given field several times, leave it and return to it, more and more
> characters go blank (cosmetically).
>
> I have tried a new version of Gnone terminal on a fedora core 6 box and
> on an Ubuntu box with the same results. I've tried Putty for linux but
> can't seem to get the termcap issues correct in terms of Fkeys, and
> other display issues. I like the old SCOansi keyboard for delete key,
> etc. If I remember I can get that with Putty but can't get all the Fkeys
> and the line at line 21 to show correctly "ln = repeat(chr("196"),"80");
> show("21","1") ln"
>
> I've tried Xterm too with incomplete results.
>
> So that's it. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks so much for listening.
>
> Tom Aldridge
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Filepro-list mailing list
> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> http://mailman.celestial.com/mailman/listinfo/filepro-list
> 



More information about the Filepro-list mailing list