It is tiresome to hear endlessly about communications problems. You always wish those with them would be quiet. Communication problems will haunt the Unix shell unless it knows what type of terminal you are using. This important datum is contained in the TERM variable. Normally xterm sets its own TERM variable, or termcap, to xterm. However, if you log onto another machine, it may not recognize the xterm termcap and instead assume you are one of the standard choices: vt102, vt100, and ansi. All of these termcaps have a common root and may provide all the information needed to communicate.
Figure: The xterm menu.
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When the size of your xterm window is changed, your friendly Unix system must be made aware of the change in order for scrolling and editing to work properly. This is handled automatically in most cases, and the old standby program resize may not be needed. Be aware that if you log onto a remote machine, particularly a non-Unix machine, it may not be able to handle changing window sizes or even a window size which is not the standard 25 X 80 In this case the remote machine may use the the top 25 lines of the display and ignore the rest.