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Re: 256 colors



On Wed, Sep 13, 2006 at 09:55:23PM EDT, Henry Nelson wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 13, 2006 at 01:16:06AM -0400, cga2000 wrote:

[..]

> > This is somewhat annoying when for instance you are in the mutt index
> > with the "current message" highlighted..  When you move up and down the
> > index, the "indicator" line (? .. I think that's what it's called ..
> > no time to check ..) is broken somewhere in the middle and the two
> > separate parts of the line change lengths depending on the length of
> 
> Perfect!  Thanks very much.  When I very first started using Mutt, I
> had this problem, but over time it "went away" without my ever knowing
> why.

Good .. but keep it mind that (rather more frequently) the reverse also
happens .. 

:-)

> > least Alain B's terminfo took care of this problem.
> [...]
> > I then managed to get Vim and ELinks (again a 256-color capable version)
> > to use the 256 colors that my hardware was capable or (xterm configured
> > with 256 colors) by "saying so" in their respective config files.  And
> > both apps were kind enough to oblige.
> > 
> > mutt, OTOH only cares about what is specified in the terminfo entry
> 
> Okay, so to recap: you installed Alain B's terminfo description, and
> that gave you 256 colors in Vim, ELinks *AND* Mutt.
> 
> I'd like to check on one more thing; did you remove those entries
> in the "respective config files", or did you leave the "hardware is
> capable" directions in the config files even after installing Alain's
> terminfo descriptions?

In .vimrc, I just added a test .. <if TERM = screen-bce, then set the
t_Co variable to 256> (that's how you tell vim to use 256 colors).  Of
course this test does  not make much sense, except to differentiate with
the linux console .. or a plain 8/16 version of xterm.  Basically I'm
telling vim that if I'm using screen-bce .. which is not 256-color
capable he should use 256 colors .. Talk of ugly ..

What I immediately noticed when I fired up screen with TERM =
screen-256color-bce is that without my adding a test to my .vimrc (if
TERM is screen-256color-bce .. the t_Co = 256), vim was able to figure
out that my terminal was 256-color capable.

As to ELinks, I just used the "Terminal setup" dialog to specify I
wanted 256 colors.  Here the logic seems to be a little different:
Whatever your terminal you can tell Elinks that you want monochrome ..
16 color .. or 256 color rendering.  Freedom of choice.  Naturally, if
your "terminal is not 256-color capable it makes no sense to tell
ELinks to  use 256 colors .. and ELinks will not be able to give you
what you ain't got.

So the beauty of Alain's terminfo entry is that everything becomes very
simple.  You tic it .. set TERM to the new entry .. and everything
works without any ugly hacks.

> > I'm not sure this helps at all where you are concerned but it may
> > clarify my earlier posts (?)
> [...]
> > Sorry about not really being able to explain anything useful.  The most
> 
> It helps a lot and was very useful.  I appreciate your taking the time
> to explain things and tie them together.  Thanks again..

My pleasure.

Thanks

cga