replace beep with a flash

replace beep with a flash

[Jens Linge]

Dear all,

is it possible to replace the BEEP with a visual signal (like a flashing
background of the shell)?
I once saw somebody working with a z-shell having this kind of option,
but I didn't find anything in the manual or in the mail archive.
There must be an option which I don't know. Any ideas?

Thank you in advance.

Jens

Re: replace beep with a flash

[Peter Stephenson]

Jens Linge wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> is it possible to replace the BEEP with a visual signal (like a flashing
> background of the shell)?
> I once saw somebody working with a z-shell having this kind of option,
> but I didn't find anything in the manual or in the mail archive.
> There must be an option which I don't know. Any ideas?

You can do this from 3.1.6 (i.e., from next week, if you're waiting for the
released version).  You have to set the ZBEEP parameter.  By the way, the
strings in the documentation below were deduced from the fact that I use
xterm with inverse video turned on --- if I've got it wrong for the other
sort, please let me know.

          ZBEEP
          If set, this gives a string of characters, which can use all
          the same codes as the bindkey command as described in the
          zle module entry in zshmodules(1), that will be output to
          the terminal instead of beeping.  This may have a visible
          instead of an audible effect; for example, the string
          `\e[?5h\e[?5l' on a vt100 or xterm will have the effect of
          flashing reverse video on and off (if you usually use
          reverse video, you should use the string `\e[?5l\e[?5h'
          instead).  This takes precedence over the NOBEEP option.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@ibmth.df.unipi.it>       Tel: +39 050 844536
WWW:  http://www.ifh.de/~pws/
Dipartimento di Fisica, Via Buonarroti 2, 56127 Pisa, Italy

Re: replace beep with a flash

[Andrew Gallagher]

Jens Linge wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> is it possible to replace the BEEP with a visual signal (like a flashing
> background of the shell)?
> I once saw somebody working with a z-shell having this kind of option,
> but I didn't find anything in the manual or in the mail archive.
> There must be an option which I don't know. Any ideas?
>

This is more usually done in an X terminal emulator rather than the
shell... try starting your terminal with the "-vb" option or set X-resource
"visualBell: true" (this works for both xterm and rxvt)...


--
Andrew Gallagher
Dept. of Applied Maths
Queen's University of Belfast
http://members.tripod.com/~AndrewGallagher/id.html