Vermont Views provides only limited support for Hewlett Packard block mode terminals. The vvtermcap file contains an entry for an HP 2392 terminal.
The HP 2392, like most HP terminals, is a block mode terminal. Block mode terminals are designed to work on systems with heavily-loaded mainframes, where resources on the host computer are at a premium. They receive a block of data from the host computer, work with that block of data, and then transmit the processed block of data back to the host computer. To minimize the use of resources on the host computer, they do not echo all keys back to the host. Many keys, such as cursor movement keys, are handled locally by the terminal, and never transmitted to the host. On the HP 2392, for example, the arrow keys (left, right, up and down) move the cursor on the terminal, but do not send an escape sequence to the host.
Vermont Views is not designed to work well with block mode terminals. Vermont Views needs to know where the cursor is at all times, in order to know what field the user is in and whether a particular keystroke is valid for the current position in the current field.
In order to handle this problem, the termcap entry provided for the HP 2392 does not use the arrow keys. Alternate keys are provided to move the cursor up, down, left, and right. You can change the default key assignments by modifying the vvtermcap file. However, you cannot use the arrow keys, or any other key that does not send an escape sequence to the host. See your terminal documentation for more information about which keys do not send escape sequences to the host.
Attributes on Block Mode Terminals
Adding Support for Other Hewlett Packard Terminals
