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HP OpenVMS Systemsask the wizard |
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The Question is: After upgrading to VMS V6.2 the announce.txt screen wraps around incorrectly on top of the login prompt. This only occurs when logging on remotely with a set host/lat command. The announce.txt screen is normal when logging in via telnet or from the system terminal. The Answer is :
Curiously enough, one of the Wizard's systems has just recently suffered
this exact symptom.
No doubt, your SYS$ANNOUNCE file contains escape sequences for bolding
or underlining. These are causing the terminal driver to miscount the
number of characters and therefore wrap at incorrect places.
At login time, the terminal characteristics for non-permanent terminals
(ie: anything other than hardwired TT or TX devices) are determined from
the SYSGEN parameter TTY_DEFCHAR. The default value as of OpenVMS/VAX V6.2
and any version of OpenVMS/Alpha does not assume that the terminal is
capable of handling escape sequences, therefore they are treated as normal
text, and included in the character count used to determine wrapping.
For long lines containing escape sequences, this can cause unexpected
and unwanted wrapping.
Typically the SYLOGIN procedure will determine the actual terminal
type, so the symptom is not seen if you type SYS$ANNOUNCE once logged
in.
You can prevent unwanted wrapping by enabling the ESCAPE characteristic
(bit 3 = %X8) or disabling the WRAP characteristic (bit 9 =%X200) in
TTY_DEFCHARS. Here is the line from the Wizard's MODPARAMS.DAT which
implements this change (and other preferences, like HOSTSYNC).
TTY_DEFCHAR =%x180012B8 ! 24 lines + SCOPE+WRAP+LOWER+TTSYNC+HOSTSYNC+ESCAPE
Note that the value is expressed in HEX so the bits can be seen. In this
case the Wizard has chosen to leave WRAP on and enable ESCAPE. This may
not be appropriate for all circumstances. However, in your case, the
presence of escape sequences in the SYS$ANNOUNCE file suggests that you
are expecting all terminals to be able to handle them, so the setting
must be appropriate!
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