Re: Italic text with screen inside urxvt and some termcap questions

[Seb]

On 2008-09-22, Micah Cowan wrote:
> If we make screen use \033[3m for italics (instead of its current use
> for standout), and \033[7m for standout (ANSI's "negative image"), then
> all pre-existing termcap/terminfo definitions for screen will be wrong,
> and users will have to be especially careful not to use newer versions
> of screen with older termcap/terminfo definitions for screen.
>
> Nevertheless, it seems like it might not be a terrible idea to start
> migration, or at least support a configuration option for it. I don't
> know when such a change might be effected, though.

Hi Micah,

I too would be very interested in such a change; unfortunately, my
big-picture understanding of termcap/terminfo is fairly limited, and
as a result my attempts at getting screen to output italic text have
all been fruitless.

Here's what I tried so far:

  - "termcapinfo rxvt* so=\E[7m:se=\E[27m:ZH=\E[3m:ZR=\E[23m" in my
    ~/.screenrc
  - adding the following patch to the 4.0.3 code:
====== Poor attempt at adding ANSI-like terminal capabilities ========
diff --git a/src/termcap.c b/src/termcap.c
index fb9f56c..a49e983 100644
--- a/src/termcap.c
+++ b/src/termcap.c
@@ -1014,8 +1014,10 @@ int aflag;
        }
       if (D_SO)
        {
-         AddCap("so=\\E[3m:");
-         AddCap("se=\\E[23m:");
+         AddCap("ZH=\\E[3m:");
+         AddCap("ZR=\\E[23m:");
+         AddCap("so=\\E[7m:");
+         AddCap("se=\\E[27m:");
        }
       if (D_MB)
        AddCap("mb=\\E[5m:");
======================================================================

I'm on debian, which uses terminfo rather than termcap from what I
understand, so I've also tried to add the following to
terminfo/screen.terminfo:

  - "sitm=\E[3m, ritm=\E[23m, rmso=\E[27m, smso=\E[7m" but I'm not
    sure how that'd be any different than adding "terminfo rxvt*
    smso=\E[7m:rmso=\E[27m:sitm=\E[3m:ritm=\E[23m" to my ~/.screenrc
    which I've also tried)

I've also tried any and all combinations of those 3 things, to be
thorough. I test on Debian sid, in rxvt-unicode (where, outside of
screen, print '\e[3mfoo\e[m' outputs italic just fine).

So, to put it briefly, I'm now running out of ideas. Could you shed
some light on what I'm missing altogether ? I understand why such a
change may not be suitable for inclusion in the mainline, but I'd be
more than happy to deal with the fallout once I get it to work. From
there, making it a configuration option is something I'd be glad to
contribute.

Cheers,

--Seb