Re: [edk2-discuss] Google Summer of Code Interested Student

["Leif Lindholm" <leif@nuviainc.com>]

+Roy (now at Marvell)

/
    Leif (now at Qualcomm)

On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 16:23:45 +0100, Laszlo Ersek wrote:
> Hi Nate,
> 
> (adding Leif and Ard)
> 
> On 03/13/21 03:52, Desimone, Nathaniel L wrote:
> > I've created a new wiki page for this task with all the information I
> > have gathered thus far. I've done some more experimentation and found
> > that there are several newer terminal emulators that don't support
> > DEC Special Graphics so I've reduced the number of modes where DEC
> > Special Graphics should be preferred. Laszlo, if you could take a
> > look at the terminal type matrix I created that would be very
> > helpful.
> >
> > https://github.com/tianocore/tianocore.github.io/wiki/Tasks-Terminal-driver-improvements
> 
> (
> 
> My background:
> 
> I settled on plain (non-UTF-8) xterm around 1998, and have been using it
> ever since. Whenever something was off, I always tried to hammer the
> application into conformance with my particular xterm setup, rather than
> the other way around. I also have some quirky terminal settings -- for
> me, "backspace" generates ^H / keycode 22 (stty sets erase to ^H),
> "delete" generates keycode 119, and there's no "rubout". I still don't
> use UTF-8 (I use latin2).
> 
> )
> 
> * Regarding ArmVirtPkg, I stick with the default TTY_TERMINAL=FALSE
>   setting (which means VT-100). Using that setting, I see the following
>   kind of "ASCII approximation" for box drawing:
> 
>   /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
>   |                                Boot Manager                                  |
>   \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
> 
>   I'm really happy with this, as I don't care much for nice-looking
>   boxes; instead I prefer portability.
> 
>   (NB: this seems to disagree with your "Current Behavior (Which is
>   wrong)" line for VT100, as it suggests CP437. That's not what I'm
>   seeing with VT100.)
> 
>   TTY_TERMINAL=TRUE would mainly affect backspace / delete I think -- as
>   far as I recall, that's why I asked Roy not to make TTY_TERMINAL=TRUE
>   the default, in 2015:
> 
>   http://mid.mail-archive.com/555458DB.3090602@redhat.com
>   http://mid.mail-archive.com/CAFECyb_E+bGZt5xv7QhRqyD0jX=AzoEMw7VW_tjZr+E=sQf8ww@mail.gmail.com
> 
>   (I'd like to CC Roy, but I can't tell if he's now working for Linaro,
>   Cavium, HPE, Marvell, or another company.)
> 
> * Regarding OvmfPkg, currently PC_ANSI is hard-coded, and for me it
>   looks like this:
> 
>   ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄż
>   ł                                Boot Manager                                  ł
>   ŔÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄŮ
> 
>   Obviously I'd much prefer if I got the simple ASCII approximation here
>   as well.
> 
> * Whether VT100 and/or PC_ANSI and/or TTY_TERM are *officially* supposed
>   to use DEC Special Graphics, I can't tell.
> 
>   I know what my preferences are:
> 
>   - the current BackSpace and Delete mappings (which work fine for me
>     with both VT100 and PC_ANSI, but *not* with TTY_TERM),
> 
>   - and the most primitive ASCII mapping (no special graphics, no UTF-8
>     sequences, etc). I really like a super dumb terminal, where taking
>     simple "ASCII screenshots" (and pasting them into plaintext emails!)
>     is *trivial*.
> 
>   ... Looking at your "Expected Behavior" table, there is only one line
>   left with "poor man's ASCII" -- namely, TTY_TERM. Unfortunately,
>   TTY_TERM breaks my BackSpace / Delete settings :(
> 
> * In summary, I'd prefer if (a) VT100 stayed as-is (using "poor man's
>   ASCII", as seen in ArmVirtPkg), and (b) if OVMF used *that* VT100,
>   rather than PC_ANSI, by default.
> 
> Thanks!
> Laszlo
>