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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-02T12:33:20+00:00

Is there a reference document that lists all the capability codes actually used by

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Is there a reference document that lists all the capability codes actually used by 4GL (and, ideally, all those appearing in the termcap supplied with 4GL RDS)?

for example:

gs – start graphics mode (box-drawing characters)
GS – start graphics mode?

ho – cursor to home position
HM – cursor to home position? (from a usenet I4GL termcap)

I’d also like to know why there are duplications and whether the uppercase ones are for some obsolete product and can be discarded from termcap entries.

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  1. Editorial Team

    It is in Appendix F of the version 7.32 of the I4GL Reference Manual (which is actually the current version, for all I4GL is currently at version 7.50).

    I downloaded the (7.32) reference manual from IBM (actually, by starting at http://www.informix.com/ — the ‘www’ is crucial! — and then choosing ‘Library’ from the menu on the left, and then going to ‘Documentation for other Informix products’ in the box on the right of the next screen). Then expand the ‘Tools’ section, and choose I4GL. You can find manuals for archaic versions of I4GL as well as the current ones.

    Depending on where you got the termcap from, you may have a pile of unused description codes. Briefly, circa 1992, for one release only, there were some extra I4GL products: I4GL Forms and I4GL Menus and I4GL QuickReports or thereabouts. These had a vastly extended repertoire of non-standard cursor descriptions. They were never used by I4GL itself, for all that the termcap file contained (and possibly still contains) those extra but irrelevant entries. The GS and HM codes are likely in that category. The ho is a completely standard entry; gs might be an Informix extension.

    You can find the X/Open terminfo specification online. They used to have one that included termcap too, but that was officially superceded by a new version a while ago (perhaps 5 years ago, now). That is good documentation on what’s supposed to be usable. Note that I4GL doesn’t use all possible standard attributes (probably no program does).

    Also be aware that the I4GL ‘curses’ library is a subset of an ancient curses library, extended (in times also long past) with some extra capacity.

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