Re: terminals and mutt

[Kyle Wheeler <kyle-mutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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On Wednesday, August 13 at 01:56 AM, quoth mimosinnet@xxxxxxxxx:
> I am not sure if this make sense: there are terminal options more 
> suitable for mutt and other for general purpose. I am wondering which 
> terminal options are more suitable to work with mutt.

Honestly, I'd never considered them to be separate.

> For example, in my case I am moving to urxvt. I would say that, for 
> exemple, I do not need:
> * simulated reverse video 
> * scrolling 
> * transparent window background 
> * many perl extensions except tabbed terminals

With the exception of scrolling, I don't consider any of those 
necessary for "general purpose" either (and I spend 90% of my day 
working with my terminal).

> I am wondering if anybody is using different settings.

I use uxterm (or, on OSX 10.5.x, Apple's Terminal.app), and I put all 
my settings into my .Xdefaults file:

     xterm*scrollTtyOut: false
     xterm*scrollTtyOutput: false
     xterm*scrollKey: true
     xterm*foreground: lightgrey
     xterm*background: black
     xterm*colorBD: white
     xterm*saveLines: 5000
     xterm*visualBell: true
     xterm*color0: #000000
     xterm*color4: #1e90ff
     xterm*color8: #7f7f7f
     xterm*color11: #ffff00
     xterm*loginShell: false
     xterm*jumpScroll: true
     xterm*scrollBar: true
     xterm*rightScrollBar: true
     xterm*termName: xterm-16color
     xterm*dynamicColors: on
     xterm*colorMode: on
     xterm*backarrowKey: false
     xterm*ttyModes: erase ^?

> Also, I start urxvt from a script with the above options, but it 
> would be more elegant to start mutt directly from the working 
> terminal instead of opening a new one, specially if I want to use 
> different instances of mutt in each tab window.

I don't think it's more elegant; I think it's a pain. I like the fact 
that I can put mutt in the background (^Z) to quickly check something 
and then come back (fg) without moving to another terminal. Plus, for 
me, mutt dies whenever my internet connection dies (some weird 
interaction with the ssl library, I think), and getting a new terminal 
every time would be annoying.

> Finally, I am wondering how to deal with keyboard conflicts between 
> terminals and mutt. For example, I have found that C-s (a macro for 
> spam in my mutt) conflicts with some keybindings in urxvt (not in 
> konsole). Therefore, some mutt configuration working in a terminal 
> may not work in another terminal. Is there any way of disabling 
> terminal key bindings when starting mutt?

C-s (or ^S) is the typical "STOP" character in most X11 terminals; you 
can (if you must) call `stty stop somethingelse` to change it to 
something else (I haven't tested whether that works; it may not). But 
generally, there are a few standard key combinations that are used by 
the terminal that have a special meaning---for example, ctrl-Z, 
ctrl-C, ctrl-\, and so forth. There are very good reasons for wanting 
these things to work INDEPENDENT of mutt. You can rebind them 
elsewhere (using stty), but... getting rid of them is probably a bad 
idea. And stty may not work quite the same on terminals like Konsole, 
so using stty is not perfect. You're probably kinda stuck there.

~Kyle
- -- 
Well, I've wrestled with reality for over thirty five years, doctor, 
and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
                                          -- Jimmy Stewart, in "Harvey"
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