OT: Aljex - Andriod

[Fairlight]

On Fri, Feb 01, 2013 at 01:04:23AM -0500, Brian White thus spoke:
> 
> There are terminal emulators already for Android. They all have problems 
> but Better Terminal Emulator Pro comes the closest.
> 
> It still has problems though. For instance it is hard coded to set 
> TERM=vt100 and it's not configurable. But the terminal doesn't actually 
> behave as a vt100, it actually behaves as xterm from x11r6 or later.

There's also the fact that BTEP is -extremely- sensitive to which kernel
and Android version you're using.  I've had it work flawlessly on
Gingerbread 2.3, not work on one version of HoneyComb 3.1 but work fine
in another device running (ostensibly) the same version of HoneyComb 3.1
but with a different kernel (had to have Samsung flash that kernel at the
factory, as that kernel would not also not let me flash my Galaxy Tab), and
at present, it doesn't like to work on a Galaxy Tab with ICS 4.0.4.  

On ICS 4.0.4, it'll act like it's working, but you can't authenticate; it
does something funky in terms of not passing the password as you typed it,
and then crashing on the second try.  On the one version of HoneyComb, it
acted peculiar and crashed outright in a different part of authentication.

> But, the next best option, ConnectBot, has other problems like keyboard 
> and bluetooth keyboard support. At least in BTEP, after setting 
> TERM=xterm, all the F-keys work and the enter key behaves normally and 
> all the same is also true on a bluetooth keyboard.

ConnectBot doesn't honour the special keys of a bluetooth keyboard...I can
confirm that.

To be fair, BTEP doesn't honour Control on my Logitech Bluetooth keyboard,
but I managed to set it to the left Alt key instead, and that does work.

> I'm still in the process of poking around to find a good answer. Like 
> maybe using the regular android terminal app or one of the other 
> local-only terminal apps, and a regular dropbear or openssh binary. I 
> saw someone claim that the sshdroid app includes an ssh client binary 
> even though the app description only mentions that it's an ssh server. I 
> haven't tried it yet.

When you find one, let me know.  I'm happiest with the way BTEP handles
bluetooth keyboards and screen management, but its stability against
various flavours frankly -sucks-.  And the onscreen control key methodology
for ConnectBot drives me insane.

Assuming a working BTEP on a platform with which it agrees, it's fine to
work with if you remap Control.  But it's also nothing I'd want to use as
a constant production environment for coding.  I use it instead of a laptop
at hotels sometimes.  It's fine in small doses.  More than that would have
me climbing the walls.

mark->
-- 
Audio panton, cogito singularis.