Hey Alan!

 AI> OK, I guess that's the best we can do.

Nope.  It doesn't even come close to the worst terminal /usr/share/terminfo/ has to offer which means by default ANYTHING native to that will be better.  Also I'd add that /usr/share/terminfo/l/linux *IS* the best no matter what.  Thus what I am currently using to reply to you *IS* the best we can do.

 AI> When I first started BBSing that was "online".

Understood.  My first login to a BBS was from a VAX/VMS dumb terminal rlogin to a geology library running a BBS as a frontend to the library's database.  That was sometime around 1989-ish if I am not mistaken.  Later it was farmed out to the horticultural department and they turned it into the first fidonet BBS I ever saw.  It worked great.  I don't recall the vt deployed by the dumb terminal but I bet it is more retro than anything the DOS-think sysops are even aware of.

Speaking of which;

 :r !find /usr/share/terminfo -type f | wc -l | sed 's/^/ /'
 2869

 AI> I just realized the other day that vlc has an ncurses interface
 AI> but I have never tried it.

I did but haven't for about 20 years now.  I plan to add it into the mix soon.

 AI> I'm going to have to get mplayer installed and try it out on the
 AI> console.

I'd like to see that on your nvidia setup.  It should work excellent on there using the fbdev2 video output.  I've personally tested it with i915drmfb and amdgpu.

Too much fun.

Life is good,
Maurice

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 ^^  ^^    ^^   ^^   ^^   ^^  ^^   ^^    ^^  ^^    ^^  ^^    ^^  ^^   ^^   ^^
... Fidonet 4K - Sweet Sixteen Penguins of the Apocalypse.
--- GNU bash, version 5.2.15(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)