AccuTerm Linux Console needs an update.

I found some Linux text utilities that have a lot better interface than the normal Linux command line.  For a file manager I installed Midnight Commander (mc). It installs and runs great even on Centos 7. 

I found another program for managing processes called bpytop (btop wasn't available for Centos 7):

There's also a python Library, textualize that lets you develop text applications that look and work very similar to GUIs.

The problem with all three of these is that they don't work with AccuTerm at all. I know that when the emulation was written not very many people were using Linux. Especially in the mvdb market. Now, it's the main OS for mvdb databases and so the Linux terminal is now the main standard. It's like the Wyse 50 back in the day. It seem crazy that AccuTerm doesn't work the same as all the other standard programs. Even the Microsoft  Windows Terminal and PowerShell commands work.

I end up using cmd or the Linux terminal instead of AccuTerm but switching between applications isn't something I can ask of the other developers much less the admins and users. It would be nice to be able to write text applications that look great and work on any Linux distro. It seems like not having an emulation in AccuTerm that works for the main terminal in the current market is holding things back.

Are there any plans to add an updated emulation that will work like the real Linux console or even like the Windows cmd program? 

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Joe Goldthwaite
Consultant
Phoenix AZ US
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Hi Joe, I am using Accuterm version 8.0.1123 and there is a "Linux Console" terminal emulation available. Have you tried to see if that works properly with your utilities?

Hi Brent,

I don't have AccuTerm 8. Have there been updates to the Linux Console emulation between version 7 and 8?  I haven't seen anything about it.

I couldn't find anything documented about Accuterm version 8 Linux console emulation compared to version 7. But I find this documented for Accuterm version 7 Lite "Linux Console: emulates the Linux console, including function keys and colors."  Not sure that helps you.

Hi Joe - 

One thing to check is the character encoding you have selected in AccuTerm matches the encoding used by Linux. Most modern Linux expect to use UTF-8, and AccuTerm defaults to native character set of the emulation selected. mc looks pretty good using vt220 with UTF-8 and linux console with TERM=xterm and UTF-8. 

Thanks, Pete

Hi Pete,

Good to hear from you.  I hope all is going well.

Those instructions helped and it makes some things more usable but it still leaves a lot to be desired.  Here's what midnight commander looks like from AccuTerm after changing the settings:

And this is what cmder (a windows terminal emulator) looks like also without changes:

It gets a lot worse if you try to use something like btop or bpytop. Here's what it's supposed to look like:

When I exit bpytop from here, my colors are messed up and everything is invisible. I have to reset the terminal to get it working again.

With all the other emulations I've run, I don't have to do anything but fire it up and connect. Everything works as you'd expect. Maybe the graphics characters are a little different but the colors work and the application is usable. It's not usable with AccuTerm.

I found you discussing some of this here. Maybe it's just the color mode that needs some work. If so, I'd add my vote to making it a higher priority. I think lots of people run into these issues now but don't say anything.

That's my two cents for what it's worth.