8. The Dark Side of the Problem The bad news is that not every application uses termcap or terminfo. Most small programs feature 'backslash-a' (alarm) characters in the C source code. The "alarm" code becomes a literal ASCII BEL in the strings as stored in the executable binary. Real application don't usually fall in this category, but be careful of C newcomers who give you their own programs. Students of computer science are the worst of all, granted. The only way to make these programs silent applications is spekearectomy, or using the escape sequences by Martin Mares.