Comments on FilePro installation and Linux xterm (mis)handling.

[Alan Mazuti]

And you think Obama is going to get the health care bill passed.

-----Original Message-----
From: filepro-list-bounces+amazu=trusteeservicesinc.com at lists.celestial.com
[mailto:filepro-list-bounces+amazu=trusteeservicesinc.com at lists.celestial.co
m] On Behalf Of Bill Campbell
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:37 PM
To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
Subject: Comments on FilePro installation and Linux xterm (mis)handling.

I have been preparing to help move several FilePro systems from SCO
OpenServer to Linux, so installed FP 5.6.0 on one of our CentOS 5 machines
here to get myself back up to speed on this after several years of being
away from direct FilePro usage.

I have to say that I am singularly unimpressed with the installation
procedure which seems hardly changed from the days when John Esak was the
Small Computer Company in D.C. over 20 years ago.  The terminal handling for
the standard Linux xterm, which used to work, doesn't display the borders
properly, sending incorrect codes to the screen, not what is in the
pf/termcap.

Here are my first impressions during the install (first as it's been long
enough since I last did this that I had to figure it out again when starting
from a tarball).

There is no README or INSTALL file in the base directory with instructions
on how to install the software.  I had to poke around in the top level
directory to figure out what to do.

The name of the installation script, finish, is dumb.  This should be
install.sh or something obvious.  True enough the the FilePro install has,
to the best of my recollection, used this same name forever, but at least
have a README to say so.

The installation script appears to look for the less pager, but should honor
the PAGER environment variable instead of using ``pg'' or whatever.

The installation script ignores the user's PATH environment variable,
complaining the the specified location for the ``pf''
startup script isn't in the PATH although it definately is.

There should be some obvious way to specify the license file at the time of
the installation.

The installation and pf scripts should return the display to the original
settings, not leave it in black background with white foreground.  I think
this has been covered ad nauseum on this list, and I would think by this
time it should be fixed.

The TERMCAP handling is horrible with garbage line drawing graphics.  This
is fundamentally broken, sending ESC[46m, a bunch of non-ascii character,
then ESC[10m instead of the proper codes for graphics,
ESC[0mlqqqqqqqqq...qqkESC(B for the top border (these taken from the output
of the ``script'' command running ``pf'' and a python curses application
with a similar border).  I can't figure out where the ESC[46m comes from as
it's not in either the pf/termcap or /etc/termcap files.

I checked the runmenu program with ldd to be sure that the problems are not
related to shared library differences.

I am attaching a comparison of the pf/termcap, /etc/termcap, and our local
termcap file which we normally put in the TERMCAP environment variable.  I
have ignored the terminal initialization string, ``is'' to keep the column
width down, but they are the same on pf/termcap and ours.  The left column
is the termcap code, the second the pf/termcap, the third is /etc/termcap
from the CentOS 5 system, and the fourth the one we have been using for over
a decade.

Finally, the FilePro program ignores the COLUMNS and LINES environment
variables so don't adjust the display size to resized xterm windows.

In summary, there are several things that could/should be done to the
installation script to (a) make them easier to understand for the average
person, and (b) recognize user defined environment variables, (particularly
PAGER and PATH).  The termcap handling appears to be getting its information
for the line-drawing characters someplace other than the termcap file.

The TERMCAP environment variable set in the pf startup script should refer
to the installer's prefered termcap, with perhaps a second environment
variable to point to the pf/termcap file.  Any termcap customization should
be done, not by editing the /etc/termcap file, but in a separate file that
won't be changed by the vendor's update procedures with the TERMCAP
environment variable referring to the customized file.  FilePro used to do
this, first using /etc/termcap or the TERMCAP file, then adding the
definitions from the pf/termcap file (mostly HELP labels for FilePro's
special function keys).

I think a major reason for this two-step processing was the 1024 character
limit on termcap entries.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
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A perpetual and unlimited debt represents deficit spending as a social
principle. It means a progressive redistribution of wealth by will of
government until there is no more fat to divide; after that comes a level
rationing of the national income. It means in the end the cheapening of
money and then inflation, whereby the middle class is economically murdered
in its sleep. In the arsenal of revolution the perfect weapon is inflation.
-- Garet Garrett, The Revolution Was