Re: /dev/vcs: stuck with dimensions <255?

From: Samuel Thibault
Date: Fri Aug 06 2004 - 09:12:08 EST


Le mar 30 sep 2003 à 11:10:11 +0200, Mario Lang a tapoté sur son clavier :
> I just realized, that /dev/vcsa behaviour is broken when
> used with lines or columns more than 255. I can easily
> get this behaviour by using the built-in 4x6 font on a
> 1024xsomething resolution. That results in 256 columns. However,
> the vcs devices expose dimensions and cursor position in the first
> 4 bytes.
>
> My question is now: Are we stuck with this now? I found that
> it is at least possible to use TIOCGWINSZ on the corresponding
> /dev/tty%d device to get correct dimensions, but then again, how
> would I optain the cursor position?
>
> I am wondering why a char was choosen at all. I see no gain
> by "saving" space there...

Well, vcsa was added a long time ago, I guess such dimensions weren't
possible at that time.

Of course we aren't stuck: we just need to add /dev/vcsx* which would
hold 32-bits integers, hoping this is sufficient once for all...

Regards,
Samuel
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