vc scrollback

Pete A. Zaitcev (zaitcev@lab.ipmce.su)
Tue, 10 Oct 1995 19:25:29 +0300


>From: boldt@math.ucsb.edu (Axel Boldt)
>Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 15:27:32 -0700
>Subject: vc scrollback

>I believe the whole vc system is fundamentally flawed. It is not the
>kernel's business to do console scrolling or console switching.

>From a CS professor's viewpoint this is right. But Linux is made for
usefulness and convinience. If you want a stong design instead than
use a microkernel system (Minix, for example).

I attempted to install the FreeBSD recently. The lack of in-kenel
scrollback there hurted me hard. I do not care about VCs when system
is up and running with X11 & dmesg. But you cannot live without them
sometimes.

>Adopting it [screen] would also significantly simplify the kernel.

It do not buy this. You may save some RAM but I see no significant
complexity in console.c. I see a doubtful coding practice but this
is another topic.

>At the very least, I'd like to have a kernel configure option to
>switch off the whole vc business.

A good idea. Implement it and send a patch to Linus.

Pete