[BRLTTY] Variable status cell displays and BrlAPI

[Nicolas Pitre]

On Thu, 26 Oct 2006, Mario Lang wrote:

> Nicolas Pitre <nico at cam.org> writes:
> 
> > On Thu, 26 Oct 2006, Mario Lang wrote:
> >
> >> Hi.
> >> 
> >> As far as I can see (please correct me if I am wrong), there is no
> >> way to write the status cell content via BrlAPI.  The new
> >> HandyTech Modular Evolution series has no spacing between status cells
> >> and main display, so it could potentially be used as a full 88 (or 64) char
> >> display.  I think we should make sure this can be utilized from
> >> API clients, since these are more likely to not rely on even display
> >> width.  What can we do to make this possible?
> >> Ideally, the brlapi_write call should allow a regionSize of 88.
> >> However, this also means that displaySize should be able to report 88.
> >
> > This is a driver issue not a brlapi issue.  The driver should detect 
> > such display models and advertise the display as being a 88 cells to the 
> > core (possibly with a driver parameter if this is not desirable in all 
> > cases).
> 
> Well, but I dont want to use 88 cells in a text console, only
> for API clients.  If the driver were to report 88 to the core, the
> core would use these 88 chars for normal text display, which means
> on my 80 column terminal that the remaining 8 cells are wasted.
> However, I'd rather have these 8 cells be used for status display
> as long as I am in a terminal.

The 80 vs 88 width  could be toggeled with BRL_CMD_RESTARTBRL really 
easily.


Nicolas