- The terminal names section comes next. It contains the first line of
- the terminfo description, listing the various names for the terminal,
- separated by the "|" character. The section is terminated with an
- ASCII NUL character.
+ Numbers in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the <EM>num-</EM>
+ <EM>bers</EM> or <EM>strings</EM> table, are positive integers. Boolean flags are
+ treated as positive one-byte integers. In each case, those positive
+ integers represent a terminal capability. The terminal compiler tic
+ uses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not
+ available:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in
+ the corresponding table.
+
+ The integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.
+ Absent boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a
+ -2 in the corresponding table.
+
+ The integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.
+ The boolean value -2 is represented by the byte 0376.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other negative values are illegal.
+
+ The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section comes after the <EM>header</EM>. It contains the
+ first line of the terminfo description, listing the various names for
+ the terminal, separated by the "|" character. The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> sec-
+ tion is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.