Terminal program for PB622/623

[rkomar]

As I mentioned in the gdb thread, gdb actually works properly when run within pbterm. That is so helpful to me. I wonder if other ncurses-based programs also work within pbterm? I'll have to try and see.

[jtt]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I wonder if other ncurses-based programs also work within pbterm? I'll have to try and see.

Unfortunately, I'm rather sure that they won't work since this isn't a real terminal emulator. The program basically just prints out what it gets from the program run and doesn't have any special treatment for terminal escape sequences, sorry:-( Would be an interesting excercise to extend it to emulate e.g. a VT100...

I'm actually astonished that gdb works well enough, given that it seems to be linked against the ncurses library (at least my desktop version). Perhaps you just didn't use anything in it that would have send escape sequences?

Best regards, Jens

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by jtt

Unfortunately, I'm rather sure that they won't work since this isn't a real terminal emulator. The program basically just prints out what it gets from the program run and doesn't have any special treatment for terminal escape sequences, sorry:-( Would be an interesting excercise to extend it to emulate e.g. a VT100...

I'm actually astonished that gdb works well enough, given that it seems to be linked against the ncurses library (at least my desktop version). Perhaps you just didn't use anything in it that would have send escape sequences?

Best regards, Jens

I think you're right about it not using any special escape sequences. gdb is very much like an ordinary shell, in that it doesn't need any editing capabilities. You enter a command and new stuff gets printed out.

For fun, I tried running vi within pbterm. It was a mess, of course, as expected.

[jtt]

Originally Posted by rkomar

\For fun, I tried running vi within pbterm. It was a mess, of course, as expected.

I deinitely would have been very astonished if it had worked. But you know where to find a hopefully usable vi version for the 623 if you need it;-)
Best regards, Jens

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by jtt

I deinitely would have been very astonished if it had worked. But you know where to find a hopefully usable vi version for the 623 if you need it;-)
Best regards, Jens

Yes, I had installed it a few weeks ago. It works nicely, considering that you have to use the software keyboard. I prefer using vi or vim from a remote connection since it's easier to type that way, but it's good to have a local version if necessary.

[Dimitko]

I just want to say one big THANK YOU!
I confirm that it works like a charm on Touch Lux 2 (626)!

[jtt]

Hi Dimitko,

Originally Posted by Dimitko

I confirm that it works like a charm on Touch Lux 2 (626)!

Thank you, it's nice to know that it also works properly on the 626. So I guess I can add that to the documentation;-)

Best regards, Jens

[brucelee]

Works fine with PocketBook Basic Touch 624. Thanks.

[Markismus]

It works on the Pocketbook Inkpad 3 Pro aka pb740-2. Thank you!

Can the screenlength be tuned? The last lines disappear beneath the bezel.

[rkomar]

I think you would need to modify the source code and build your own version to tune the margins. There are variables for the x and y margins in the code, but it looks like they are left at the default values (which I assume are '0'). It's been a long time since I coded in C++, but I vaguely remember that you could set a default value for the margins in the definition of the Lines() constructor in Lines.hpp. It's probably very easy if you know C++.

[jtt]

Hi Markismus,

just uploaded a new version (1.9) where the x- and y-margin can be adjusted via the pbterm.cfg file by entries like

x_margin : 100
y_margin : 25

Allowed range is 0 to 1000 pixel (default is 10). The configuration file needs to be copied to system/config/. Hope that solves the problem.

Best regards, Jens

[Markismus]

Great! I'll try it.

[Clort]

Woot! Root!

Thanks for going the extra mile with the keyboard layout, for shell work.

[neil_swann80]

Made a few tweaks to the source to scale pbterm to the screen a little better on newer devices. The top area of the screen was unused and once the text reached the bottom of the screen you'd lose a line or two, with some text wrapping around to the top of the screen.

I also set the HOME key to toggle between portrait and landscape.

From reading through the code I spotted a couple of features I was unaware of that others may also appreciate:

Long press of PREV and NEXT buttons decrease and increase the text size.

Tapping the top-left corner of the screen quickly exits the app.

[nhedgehog]

Thanks @neil_swann80, most appreciated. Text size increase/decrease was something I wasn't aware too (and missing it).