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Definitions of the Terminal Capabilities

This section is divided into many subsections, each for one aspect of use of display terminals. For writing a display program, you usually need only check the subsections for the operations you want to use. For writing a terminal description, you must read each subsection and fill in the capabilities described there.

String capabilities that are display commands may require numeric parameters (see section Filling In Parameters). Most such capabilities do not use parameters. When a capability requires parameters, this is explicitly stated at the beginning of its definition. In simple cases, the first or second sentence of the definition mentions all the parameters, in the order they should be given, using a name in italics for each one. For example, the `rp' capability is a command that requires two parameters; its definition begins as follows:

String of commands to output a graphic character c, repeated n times.

In complex cases or when there are many parameters, they are described explicitly.

When a capability is described as obsolete, this means that programs should not be written to look for it, but terminal descriptions should still be written to provide it.

When a capability is described as very obsolete, this means that it should be omitted from terminal descriptions as well.


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