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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.53 2008/11/28 16:39:12 tom Exp $
29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
35 + libtool does not work with GNAT.
37 + The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
38 develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
41 + Magic cookie support (for nonzero xmc values) does not work, since the logic
42 does not take into account refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not
43 adjust the current location when a cookie is emitted.
45 + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
46 screen between calls to refresh().
48 + SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
49 For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
50 activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
53 + The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
54 specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
55 terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
56 point. This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
58 + The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation. Some
59 C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
61 + vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not.
62 There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
64 + the configure --disable-ext-funcs option does not work for Ada95 tree.
66 + the --with-pthread configuration builds for Cygwin, but does not work
67 properly (test/worm.c shows all of the worms in the same location).
69 + the Ada95 tree requires a small fix to build on Cygwin, since the GNAT port
70 to that platform provides an incomplete Interrupts.Names package. For
71 instance (your gcc version may be different):
72 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/adainclude/a-intnam.ads
75 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
76 --- a-intnam.ads.orig 2003-10-21 13:41:51.000000000 +0000
77 +++ a-intnam.ads 2007-05-05 22:40:02.609375000 +0000
80 DUMMY_INTERRUPT_1 : constant Interrupt_ID := 1;
81 DUMMY_INTERRUPT_2 : constant Interrupt_ID := 2;
82 + SIGINT : constant Interrupt_ID := 2;
84 end Ada.Interrupts.Names;
85 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
87 + the --enable-rpath configure option builds for the corresponding platforms;
88 however combining it with --with-ticlib and --with-termlib does not always
89 produce libraries that can be run without setting environment variables.
90 Building those with libtool does not work either. (This is a problem with
93 Portability (or lack thereof):
95 + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
96 trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
97 termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
98 problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
99 are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
100 BSDI. For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
101 ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
103 + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
104 interface for handling variadic argument lists (and are deprecated by X/Open
105 for that reason). Linux doesn't have varargs.h, it has the newer
106 X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these functions use stdargs
107 instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless you're building ncurses on
108 a System V old enough to only have varargs.h. (Solaris 2.5.1 used the
109 stdarg.h binding as well).
111 + If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
112 a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work. You lose. (It
113 should work on any System V, however). If you want to fix this, add an
114 implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
116 + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers.
118 + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
119 utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
124 + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
126 + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
127 for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
128 label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
129 lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
131 LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
133 1. Extended COSE conformance
135 There is an XPG4 standard released in 1996 which describes a superset
136 of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
137 We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
138 supporting internationalization.
142 Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
143 It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
144 a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
145 port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
146 result of this would be a DOS port.
150 It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
151 maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
152 automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
155 4. Unused capabilities
157 The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
159 A. Status-line capabilities:
161 Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
162 Numerics: width_status_line.
163 Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
165 System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
166 any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
167 shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
168 decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
171 B. Printer capabilities:
173 Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
174 row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
176 Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
177 max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
178 micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
179 output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
180 wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
181 String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
182 set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
183 ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
185 Curses doesn't use these.
187 C. Printer-control capabilities:
189 Boolean: prtr_silent.
190 Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
192 Curses doesn't use these.
196 Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
197 fixed_pause, wait_tone.
199 Curses doesn't use these.
201 E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
203 Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
204 Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
206 These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
207 window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
208 something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
210 F. Unused VDT capabilities:
212 Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
213 move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
214 needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
215 Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
216 Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
217 enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
218 display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
219 enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
220 scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
222 These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
224 i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
227 ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
228 Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.