job control

[std-unix at ut-sally.UUCP]

From: bobr at zeus.UUCP (Robert Reed)
Organization: CAE Systems Division, Tektronix Inc., Beaverton OR

In article <6004 at ut-sally.UUCP> Larry Campbell
<campbell%maynard.UUCP at harvisr.harvard.edu> writes:
> Of course programs should (and most do) query termcap/terminfo.  However,
> they can safely assume that the window size isn't going to change while
> they're running, and this assumption reduces complexity.

Programs cannot safely assume that window size is not going to change,
because on most overlapped window management systems it will.  It is just
too easy to set inappropriate window sizes and then need to adjust them.
Consider creating a new which is almost the right size (say 75 characters
wide) and then invoking an editor on a file of 80 character data.  The
editor will either wrap or truncate the data, and changing the window size
to compensate will do nothing but frustate the user.  What is needed is
something like 4.3 BSD's WINCH signal, to advise those applications which
care about such changes.
-- 
Robert Reed, Tektronix CAE Systems Division, bobr at zeus.TEK

Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 65