Reason for reordering /usr/share/misc/termcap.src for /usr/share/misc/termcap ?

[Thomas Dickey]

----- Original Message -----
| From: "Erik Trulsson" <Erik.Trulsson.1013 at student.uu.se>
| To: "Thomas Dickey" <dickey at his.com>
| Cc: "Kirk McKusick" <mckusick at mckusick.com>, "FreeBSD Hackers" <freebsd-hackers at freebsd.org>, jkh at freebsd.org,
| "Garrett Cooper" <yaneurabeya at gmail.com>
| Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2014 3:39:21 AM
| Subject: Re: Reason for reordering /usr/share/misc/termcap.src for /usr/share/misc/termcap ?
| 
| Quoting Thomas Dickey <dickey at his.com>:
| 
| > ----- Original Message -----
| > | From: "Kirk McKusick" <mckusick at mckusick.com>
| > | To: "Garrett Cooper" <yaneurabeya at gmail.com>
| > | Cc: "Erik Trulsson" <Erik.Trulsson.1013 at student.uu.se>, "FreeBSD
| > Hackers" <freebsd-hackers at freebsd.org>,
| > | jkh at freebsd.org, dickey at his.com
| > | Sent: Monday, December 8, 2014 11:51:37 AM
| > | Subject: Re: Reason for reordering /usr/share/misc/termcap.src
| > | for
| > /usr/share/misc/termcap ?
| > ...
| > |
| > | I believe Erik Trulsson's answer is correct. Termcap had grown
| > | very
| > | large and on sub-1-MIP computers took a noticable delay to read
| > | on
| > | every startup of programs using it. So, it was reordered to
| > | reduce
| > | the startup time on common terminals. As Erik points out this
| > | optimization
| > | is no longer necessary as termcap is now placed in a database.
| > | Not to
| > | mention that there are far fewer entries in it today than there
| > | were
| > | at the peak of its existence.
| >
| > Actually, the current file in the repository is 10% longer (4667
| > lines vs 4007) than the first check-in.
| > Where might I find a larger example (of BSD termcap) such as you
| > are
| > referring to?
| 
| If you want to see an absolutely enormous version of termcap.src you
| can look at the one found inside
| https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/termcap/termcap-1.3.1.tar.gz
| 

That's generated from ncurses (using the option to avoid multiple "tc=" clauses.
It's also rather old, unmaintained and as such a nuisance on occasion.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey at invisible-island.net>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net