Hi Andrew,

I tested VT_UTF8 on the macOs Terminal software and I can confirm that VT_UTF8 renders nicely. See the attached screenshot.

Thanks,
Nate

On 3/17/21, 9:02 AM, "Andrew Fish" <afish@apple.com> wrote:

    If we are mentioning terminal types the default terminal type on a Mac is xterm-256color. So that is going to be the default when people run OVMF on a Mac. So it would be nice if we can add that. I can help out with anything xterm-256color related. 

    Thanks,

    Andrew Fish

    > On Mar 16, 2021, at 8:23 AM, Laszlo Ersek <lersek@redhat.com> 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
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    >