Xe might be referring to the oft-made error of thinking that DEC VT 1xx terminals supported multiple colours. * https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.fa

Xe might be referring to the oft-made error of thinking that DEC VT 1xx terminals supported multiple colours. * https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#vt100_color https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#vt100_... There is irony in your "off by default" statement when it comes to GNU toolsets. ECMA48 colour and italics support is on by default in GNU troff, which should not come as a surprise as GNU troff was begun over a decade after ECMA48 was first published and the idea of multiple colours was fairly normalized and widespread at that point. Linux distributors and FreeBSD people later went to significant lengths to turn it off, with extra flags and macros. * http://jdebp.info./Softwares/nosh/italics-in-manuals.html http://jdebp.info./Softwares/nosh/italics-in-manuals.html