Re: Qt terminal status / linux distro packages

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

On 08/22/2012 01:20 PM, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 10:56:11 am Daniel J Sebald wrote:
>> I don't know if leaving out the X11 terminal is a good idea.  At least
>> one of the apps I know of will choose "x11" if the user doesn't set an
>> environment variable specifying an alternative gnuplot terminal.  So, if
>> the distro creators leave out x11 that will cause problems in at least
>> this case.
>>
>> To address this, the app will have to adjust accordingly but that means
>> the distro creator will also have to get the latest for that app.
>>
>> Is there some way for an external app to get back to the default
>> terminal when gnuplot is launched?  That would solve the issue so that
>> apps to have to specify a window based upon what system they run on.  Is
>> there some way for an external app to query what the available terminals
>> are?
>
> The variable GNUTERM is set to the starting terminal type on entry.
> So you can execute "set term GNUTERM" when you want to go back to it.

Oh, OK.  That's a good bit of info, thanks.


>> ... OK just tried a few things.  I see the way to get back to the
>> default terminal is with "set term pop".  That's provided a "set term
>> push" hasn't been done.  It's not exactly the same as going back to the
>> default.
>
> I agree.  IMHO "set term push/pop" is misleading because you would expect
> it to maintain a stack but it doesn't.

Right.  The stack is one deep.  That's not real flexible.


>> Why does "unset term" behave the way it does?  It basically is
>> the same as "set term", i.e., displays a list of available terminals.
>> Why would a list be displayed for an operation that wants to unset
>> something?  For example, one wouldn't write "unset term eps".
>
> For that matter, "set term" is also a strange way to get a list of options.
> "help term" or "help set term" would be more natural.

Agreed.


> Anyhow, I think in the current versions "set term GNUTERM" is the best way
> to get back to the starting state.  Perhaps "unset term" should do the same
> thing, but that would be a change from previous versions.

The description for "help unset" does begin as follows:

Options set using the `set` command may be returned to their default 
state by the corresponding `unset` command.

At least there currently is a method to get back to the default.

Dan