TermSize - Release Notes

Copyright 2021-2022 by The Software Samurai.
On the web: http://www.SoftwareSam.us/
Software released under GNU GPL3, and documentation released under FDL1.3
This document describes version 0.0.01 of TermSize.

Description

The ‘TermSize’ application is a GNU/Linux utility built on the NcDialog API (see above) which helps to compensate for the serious design flaw in the GNOME terminal under Wayland which no longer reports the terminal-window size as it is being resized.

In addition, there is a serious bug in the GNOME terminal program which calculates the initial size of the window using a hard-coded 12-point font as the reference. If your terminal is set for a font other than
12-point, you may need to play some tricks to get the dimensions you want.

In addition, the gnome-terminal invocation accepts only a limited range for row/column dimensions juxtaposed with the dimensions of the desktop area. Again, this seems to be a calculation based on a hard-coded 12-point font.
(Wayland may someday be a reliable platform, but today is not that day.)

(Konsole, on the other hand, continues to report resize events correctly.)

To invoke the 'termsize' utility whenever a new terminal window is opened, create a custom “.desktop file” and place it where local desktop files are located on your system. This is usually in the directory:
   /homr/$USER/.local/share/applications
Consult your system documentation to verify the location for desktop files.

An example desktop file is shown, which can be adapted for your system layout.

Building From Source

• Download and unpack the distribution archive at the same level in the directory tree as the NcDialog API source directory (available as a separate download). After unpacking the archive, the directories will look something like this:
  
  /home/sam/SoftwareDesign/NcDialog/Dialog1 <== NcDialog source lives here /Dialog2 <== test and demonstration code /Dialog3 " " " " /Dialog4 " " " " /Dialogw " " " " /Dialogx " " " " /Texinfo <== NcDialog documentation lives here /home/sam/SoftwareDesign/TermSize <== TermSize base source directory created here /TermSize.cpp // Application source code /GlobalDef.hpp // Specifies '#include' files and general definitions /Makefile // Build the 'termsize' application /README // Package description, release notes
  
  
  • Navigate to the base directory where package will be installed (example):
       cd ~/SoftwareDesign
  • Move the archive file to the target directory:
       mv ~/Dowloads/termsize-0.0.01.tar.bz2   .
  • Unpack the tar archive:
       tar -xjvf termsize-0.0.01.tar.bz2
  • Navigate to the target directory:
       cd TermSize
• Build the application:
     gmake all
  
  ‘rsync’ is used to copy the needed support files from the NcDialog API directories:
  NCurses.hpp // Definitions for the NCurses class NCursesKeyDef.hpp // NcDialog API keycode definitions gString.hpp // Definitions for gString text formatting utility NcDialog.a // NcDialog API link library
  
  Then G++ is invoked to build and link the binary executable file.
  The application should build without errors and without warnings.
• Test the build:
     ./termsize --version
  The application version and a copyright message should be displayed.
  TermSize (termsize) v:0.0.01 - 2021-2022 ===================================================================== License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 This is free software: you are free to modify and/or redistribute it under the terms set out in the license. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
• For invocation options, type:
     ./termsize --help
  See the next section for a description of command-line options.
• Make the application visible on the system $PATH:
  This can be done in either of two ways:
    1) copy the executable to a directory on the path:
        cp --preserve=all ./termsize   ~/bin/.
    2) create a symbolic link to the executable in the source directory.
        cp --symbolic-link ./termsize   ~/bin/.
  

User Interface and command-line options.

Note for novice users: To resize the terminal window, use the mouse to left-click and hold any point along the border of the window, drag the window to the desired size and release. Double-click on the window title bar to switch between full-screen mode and window mode.

Invocation:   termsize [OPTIONS]       (all options are optional)

• –c     Center the report in the terminal window.
          (default is to place report in upper left corner of window)



• ––color=FOREGROUND[,BACKGROUND]
  
  Select foreground and background text color attributes for the display.
  Foreground and background (if specified) may each be one of the following:
      “black”, “red”, “green”, “brown”, “blue”, “magenta”, “cyan”, “grey”
      or “reverse” to indicate reversed foreground/background.
  For foreground only, “term” specifies use of default terminal colors.
  
  Default Color Scheme: green foreground on black background.
  
  Examples:
  
  --color=brown (brown text on terminal background) --color=cyan,magenta (cyan text on magenta) --color=blue,reverse (terminal background on blue) --color=term (terminal foreground/background colors) --color=reverse (terminal colors with fg/bg reversed) --color=term,reverse (terminal colors with fg/bg reversed) Note: The first four(4) characters of the color attribute are required.
• 
  
• ––help  or  –h      Display application help, then exit.
• 
  
  
• ––version  or  –v      Display application version and copyright information.

Notes on the current release of “TermSize”