xref: /dragonfly/usr.bin/window/README (revision 984263bc)
1/*-
2 * Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
3 *	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
4 *
5 * This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
6 *  Edward Wang at The University of California, Berkeley.
7 *
8 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
9 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10 * are met:
11 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
14 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
15 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
16 * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
17 *    must display the following acknowledgement:
18 *	This product includes software developed by the University of
19 *	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
20 * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
21 *    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
22 *    without specific prior written permission.
23 *
24 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
25 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
26 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
27 * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
28 * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
29 * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
30 * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
31 * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
32 * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
33 * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
34 * SUCH DAMAGE.
35 *
36 *	@(#)README	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
37 */
38
39Compilation notes:
40
41     Compiler options:
42
43	BYTE_ORDER (used only in ww.h)
44		It should already be defined in machine/endian.h.
45		The code knows about BIG_ENDIAN, LITTLE_ENDIAN, and PDP_ENDIAN.
46		It only cares about byte order in words, so PDP_ENDIAN
47		is the same as LITTLE_ENDIAN.
48	OLD_TTY
49		If you don't have Posix termios, then define this.
50	VMIN_BUG
51		Even if you have Posix termios, define this if the MIN and TIME
52		feature in noncanonical mode doesn't work correctly.
53
54     Ok, there's another one, STR_DEBUG.  It turns on consistency checks
55     in the string allocator.  It's been left on since performace doesn't
56     seem to suffer.  There's an abort() somewhere when an inconsistency
57     is found.  It hasn't happened in years.
58
59     The file local.h contains locally tunable constants.
60
61     The makefile used to be updated with mkmf; it has been changed
62at various times to use cpp -M and, currently, mkdep.  The only library
63it needs is termcap.
64
65     Window, as is, only runs on 4.3 (or later) machines.
66
67     On 4.2 machines, at least these modifications must be done:
68
69	delete uses of window size ioctls: TIOCGWINSZ, TIOCSWINSZ,
70		struct winsize
71	add to ww.h
72		typedef int fd_set;
73		#define FD_ZERO(s) (*(s) = 0)
74		#define FD_SET(b, s) (*(s) |= 1 << (b))
75		#define FD_ISSET(b, s) (*(s) & 1 << (b))
76	add to ww.h
77		#define sigmask(s) (1 << (s) - 1)
78
79
80A few notes about the internals:
81
82     The window package.  Windows are opened by calling wwopen().
83Wwwrite() is the primitive for writing to windows.  Wwputc(), wwputs(),
84and wwprintf() are also supported.  Some of the outputs to windows are
85delayed.  Wwupdate() updates the terminal to match the internal screen
86buffer.  Wwspawn() spawns a child process on the other end of a window,
87with its environment tailored to the window.  Visible windows are
88doubly linked in the order of their overlap.  Wwadd() inserts a window
89into the list at a given place.  Wwdelete() deletes it.  Windows not in
90the list are not visible, though wwwrite() still works.  Window was
91written before the days of X and Sunview, so some of the terminology
92is not standard.
93
94     Most functions return -1 on error.  Wwopen() returns the null
95pointer.  An error number is saved in wwerrno.  Wwerror() returns an
96error string based on wwerrno suitable for printing.
97
98     The terminal drivers perform all output to the physical terminal,
99including special functions like character and line insertion and
100deletion.  The window package keeps a list of known terminals.  At
101initialization time, the terminal type is matched against the list to
102find the right terminal driver to use.  The last driver, the generic
103driver, matches all terminals and uses the termcap database.  The
104interface between the window package the terminal driver is the `tt'
105structure.  It contains pointers to functions to perform special
106functions and terminal output, as well as flags about the
107characteristics of the terminal.  Most of these ideas are borrowed
108from the Maryland window package, which in turn is based on Goslin's
109Emacs.
110
111     The IO system is semi-synchronous.  Terminal input is signal
112driven, and everything else is done synchronously with a single
113select().  It is roughly event-driven, though not in a clean way.
114
115     Normally, in both conversation mode and command mode, window
116sleeps in a select() in wwiomux() waiting for data from the
117pseudo-terminals.  At the same time, terminal input causes SIGIO which
118is caught by wwrint().  The select() returns when at least one of the
119pseudo-terminals becomes ready for reading.
120
121     Wwrint() is the interrupt handler for tty input.  It reads input
122into a linear buffer accessed through four pointers:
123
124	+-------+--------------+----------------+
125	| empty |    data      |   empty	|
126	+-------+--------------+----------------+
127	^	^		^		 ^
128	|	|		|		 |
129       wwib    wwibp	       wwibq		wwibe
130
131Wwrint() appends characters at the end and increments wwibq (*wwibq++
132= c), and characters are taken off the buffer at wwibp using the
133wwgetc() and wwpeekc() macros.  As is the convention in C, wwibq
134and wwibe point to one position beyond the end.  In addition,
135wwrint() will do a longjmp(wwjmpbuf) if wwsetjmp is true.  This is
136used by wwiomux() to interrupt the select() which would otherwise
137resume after the interrupt.  (Actually, I hear this is not true,
138but the longjmp feature is used to avoid a race condition as well.
139Anyway, it means I didn't have to depend on a feature in a
140daily-changing kernel, but that's another story.) The macro
141wwinterrupt() returns true if the input buffer is non-empty.
142Wwupdate(), wwwrite(), and wwiomux() check this condition and will
143return at the first convenient opportunity when it becomes true.
144In the case of wwwrite(), the flag ww_nointr in the window structure
145overrides this.  This feature allows the user to interrupt lengthy
146outputs safely.  The structure of the input buffer is designed to
147avoid race conditions without blocking interrupts.
148
149     Actually, wwsetjmp and wwinterrupt() are part of a software
150interrupt scheme used by the two interrupt catchers wwrint() and
151wwchild().  Asserting the interrupt lets the synchronous parts of
152the program know that there's an interesting asynchronous condition
153(i.e., got a keyboard character, or a child process died) that they
154might want to process before anything else.  The synchronous routines
155can check for this condition with wwinterrupt() or by arranging
156that a longjmp() be done.
157
158     Wwiomux() copies pseudo-terminal output into their corresponding
159windows.  Without anything to do, it blocks in a select(), waiting for
160read ready on pseudo-terminals.  Reads are done into per-window buffers
161in the window structures.  When there is at least one buffer non-empty,
162wwiomux() finds the top most of these windows and writes it using
163wwwrite().  Then the process is repeated.  A non-blocking select() is
164done after a wwwrite() to pick up any output that may have come in
165during the write, which may take a long time.  Specifically, we use
166this to stop output or flush buffer when a pseudo-terminal tells us to
167(we use pty packet mode).  The select() blocks only when all of the
168windows' buffers are empty.  A wwupdate() is done prior to this, which
169is the only time the screen is guaranteed to be completely up to date.
170Wwiomux() loops until wwinterrupt() becomes true.
171
172     The top level routine for all this is mloop().  In conversation
173mode, it simply calls wwiomux(), which only returns when input is
174available.  The input buffer is then written to the pseudo-terminal of
175the current window.  If the escape character is found in the input,
176command mode is entered.  Otherwise, the process is repeated.  In
177command mode, control is transferred to docmd() which returns only when
178conversation mode is reentered.  Docmd() and other command processing
179routines typically wait for input in a loop:
180
181	while (wwpeekc() < 0)
182		wwiomux();
183
184When the loop terminates, wwgetc() is used to read the input buffer.
185
186     Output to the physical terminal is handled by the lowest level
187routines of the window package, in the files ttoutput.c and tt.h.  The
188standard IO package is not used, to get better control over buffering
189and to use non-blocking reads in wwrint().  The buffer size is set to
190approximately one second of output time, based on the baudrate.
191
192     The result of all this complexity is faster response time,
193especially in output stopping and flushing.  Wwwrite() checks
194wwinterrupt() after every line.  It also calls wwupdate() for each line
195it writes.  The output buffer is limited to one second of output time.
196Thus, there is usually only a delay of one to two lines plus one second
197after a ^C or ^S.  Also, commands that produce lengthy output can be
198aborted without actually showing all of it on the terminal.  (Try the
199'?' command followed by escape immediately.)
200