X-Git-Url: http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=ANNOUNCE;h=0684b3dc41d7e5df96990f73f9201f4b40b7d747;hb=3f57ad09dfcb62c8ad444e13fa4d450c05e878ba;hp=269bd2bca2a8726faa8fbdb8603d6c3de1da8507;hpb=f86cbeb5f9bd96ab041d34039c35749a14965039;p=ncurses.git diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE index 269bd2bc..0684b3dc 100644 --- a/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,441 +1,502 @@ - Announcing ncurses 5.8 + Announcing ncurses 6.3 + +Overview The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of - curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, - supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters - and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses - enhancements over BSD curses. + curses in System V Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo + format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms + characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses + enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of X/Open + Curses. In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he - considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of Unix + considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses. - The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for - some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD - and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any - ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp! + Since 1995, ncurses has been ported to many systems: + * It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel (aside + from some embedded applications). + * It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and + MacOS. + * It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The first of + these was EMX on OS/2 Warp. + * It is used (though usually not as the system curses) on all of the + vendor unix systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO, Solaris, + Tru64. + * It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming unix. The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including - a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), - tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full - manual pages are provided for the library and tools. - - The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU - distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ . - It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . - - Release Notes - - This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 - through 5.7; very few applications will require recompilation, - depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the - change-log since ncurses 5.7 release. - -Interface changes - - * turn on _XOPEN_CURSES definition in curses.h. - * change _nc_has_mouse to has_mouse, reflect its use in C++ and - Ada95. - * add is_pad and is_subwin functions for opaque access to the WINDOW - structure. - * add tiparm, based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7. - -New features and improvements - - Library Improvements - - * add a terminal driver for Windows console, which supports a MinGW - port to Windows. - * add extended functions which specify the SCREEN pointer for - several curses functions which use the global SP. - * improve the NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS feature by adding a check for an - extended terminfo capability U8. - * improve performance of tigetstr, etc., by using hashing code from - tic. - * add WACS_xxx definitions to wide-character configuration for - thick- and double-lines. - * modify init_pair to allow caller to create extra color pairs - beyond the color_pairs limit, which use default colors. - - Improvements to Programs - - * add tabs program. - * modify tic's -I/-C dump to reformat acsc strings into canonical - form (sorted, unique mapping). - * add checks in tic for inconsistent cursor-movement controls, and - for inconsistent printer-controls. - * add special case to _nc_infotocap (used by tic and infocmp) to - recognize the setaf/setab strings from xterm+256color and - xterm+88color, and provide a reduced version which works with - termcap. - - Terminal Database - - * added entries: - + bterm terminfo entry, based on bogl 0.1.18 - + cons25-debian entry - + eterm-color entry - + linux-16color - + mlterm+256color entry, for mlterm 3.0.0 - + several screen-bce.xxx entries - + screen.Eterm terminfo entry - + vwmterm entry - + xterm-utf8 entry as a demo of the U8 feature - * updated/improved entries: - + use extended capabilities: - o add U8 feature to denote entries for terminal emulators - which do not support VT100 SI/SO when processing UTF-8 - encoding - o add XT capability to entries for terminals that support - both xterm-style mouse- and title-controls, for screen - which special-cases TERM beginning with xterm or rxvt - + improvements based on new checks in tic: - + - o fill in no-parameter forms of cursor-movement where a - parameterized form is available - o fill in missing cursor controls where the form of the - controls is ANSI - o add parameterized cursor-controls to linux-basic - o modify nsterm, xnuppc and tek4115 to make sgr/sgr0 - consistent - o change several terminfo entries to make consistent use - of ANSI clear-all-tabs - + extend ansi.sys pfkey capability from kf1-kf10 to kf1-kf48, - moving function key definitions from emx-base for - consistency. - + correct missing final 'p' in pfkey capability of - ansi.sys-old. - + rename atari and st52 terminfo entries to atari-old, - st52-old, use newer entries from FreeMiNT. - + repurpose gnome terminfo entries as vte, retaining gnome - variants for compatibility, but generally deprecating those - since the VTE library is what actually defines the behavior - of "gnome", etc., since 2003. - + improve interix smso terminfo capability by using reverse - rather than bold. - + correct initc capability of linux-c-nc end-of-range, make - similar change for dg+ccc and dgunix+ccc. - + update minix terminfo entry. - + updated nsterm* entries. - + remove unnecessary kcan assignment to ^C from putty. - + suppress ncv in screen and konsole-base entries, allowing - underline. - + change ncv and op capabilities in sun-color terminfo entry to - match Sun's entry for this. - + fix typo in rmso for tek4106 entry. - + improve acsc string for vt52, show arrow keys. - + add hard-reset for rs2 to wsvt25 to help ensure that reset - ends the alternate character set. - + add ccc and initc capabilities to xterm-16color. - -Major bug fixes - - * ncurses library - + wide character support - o modify length returned by getcchar to count the trailing - null which is documented in X/Open. - o fix an infinite recursion when adding a legacy-coding - 8-bit value using insch. - o improve a workaround in adding wide-characters, when a - control character is found. The library uses unctrl to - obtain a printable version of the control character, but - was not passing color or video attributes. - o modify waddch_literal, updating line-pointer after a - multicolumn character is found to not fit on the current - row, and wrapping is done. Since the line-pointer was - not updated, the wrapped multicolumn character was - written to the beginning of the current row. - o fixes in wins_nwstr and related functions to ensure that - special characters, i.e., control characters are handled - properly with the wide-character configuration. - o correct internal _nc_insert_ch to use _nc_insert_wch - when inserting wide characters, since the wins_wch - function that it used did not update the cursor - position. - + mouse - o add check if Gpm_Open returns a -2, e.g., for "xterm". - This is normally suppressed but can be overridden using - $NCURSES_GPM_TERMS. Ensure that Gpm_Close is called in - this case. - o add check in mouse-driver to disable connection if GPM - returns a zero, indicating that the connection is - closed. - o modify getmouse to act as its documentation implied, - returning on each call the preceding event until none - are left. When no more events remain, it will return - ERR. - + miscellaneous - o improve handling of color-pairs embedded in attributes - for the extended-colors configuration. - o add check for failure to open hashed-database needed for - db4.6. - o modify use of $CC environment variable which is defined - by X/Open as a curses feature, to ignore it if it is not - a single character. - o modify declaration of cur_term when broken-linker is - used, but enable-reentrant is not, to match pre-5.7. - o correct limit-checks in derwin. - o remove old check in mvderwin which prevented moving a - derived window whose origin happened to coincide with - its parent's origin. - o correct limit-checks in newwin, to ensure that windows - have nonzero size. - o modify set_curterm to make broken-linker configuration - work with changes from 20090228. - o modify wgetch to ensure it checks SIGWINCH when it gets - an error in non-blocking mode. - o correct limit-check in wredrawln, accounting for - begy/begx values. - o fix a null-pointer check in _nc_format_slks in - lib_slk.c, from 20070704 changes. - o correct translation of "^" in _nc_infotocap, used to - transform terminfo to termcap strings. - o modify _nc_wgetch to check for a -1 in the fifo, e.g., - after a SIGWINCH, and discard that value, to avoid - confusing application. - * other libraries - + correct transfer of multicolumn characters in multirow - field_buffer, which stopped at the end of the first row due - to filling of unused entries in a cchar_t array with nulls. - + correct buffer-size after internal resizing of wide-character - set_field_buffer, broken in 20081018 changes. - + correct layout of working window used to extract data in - wide-character configured by set_field_buffer - -Portability - - * configure script: - + new options: - - --disable-libtool-version - use the "-version-number" feature which was added - in libtool 1.5. The default value for the option - uses the newer feature, which makes libraries - generated using libtool compatible with the - standard builds of ncurses. - - --disable-rpath-hack - disable a feature which adds rpath options for - libraries in unusual places. - - --enable-interop - integrate changes for generic/interop support to - form-library. - - --enable-pc-files - generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and - install them in pkg-config's library directory. - - --enable-pthreads-eintr - control whether to allow EINTR to interrupt a read - operation in wgetch. This applies only to the - pthread configuration - - --enable-sp-funcs - compile-in support for extended functions which - accept a SCREEN pointer, reducing the need for - juggling the global SP value with set_term and - delscreen. - - --enable-term-driver - compile with terminal-driver. That is used in the - MinGW port, and (being somewhat more complicated) - is an experimental alternative to the conventional - termlib internals. Currently, it requires the - sp-funcs feature to be enabled. - - --with-ncurses-wrap-prefix - allows setting the prefix for functions used to - wrap global variables to something other than - "_nc_". - - --with-pkg-config=[DIR] - check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its - path. - - --without-manpages - tells the configure script to suppress the install - of ncurses' manpages. - - --without-tests - suppress building test programs. - - + improved options: - o correct logic for --with-database, which was coded as an - enable-type switch. - o omit the opaque-functions from lib_gen.o when - --disable-ext-funcs is used. - * packaging: - + *-config scripts: - o modify adacurses-config to look for ".ali" files in the - adalib directory. - o correct install for the Ada95 tree, which omitted - libAdaCurses.a used in adacurses-config. - o change install for adacurses-config to provide - additional flavors such as adacursesw-config, for - ncursesw. - o modify scripts to generate ncurses*-config and pc-files - to add dependency for tinfo library. - o use ncurses*-config scripts if available for - test/configure. - o correct name for termlib in ncurses*-config, e.g., if it - is renamed to provide a single file for ncurses/ncursesw - libraries. - o generate manpages for the *-config scripts, adapted from - help2man. - o modify install-rule for manpages so that *-config - manpages will install when building with --srcdir. - o build-fixes for OpenSolaris aka Solaris 11, for - wide-character configuration as well as for rpath - feature in *-config scripts. - o use $includedir symbol in misc/ncurses-config.in, add - --includedir option. - o improve install-rules for pc-files. - o create the pkg-config library directory if needed. - o fix typo "==" where "=" is needed in ncurses-config.in - and gen-pkgconfig.in files. - o modify gen-pkgconfig.in to eliminate a dependency on - rpath when deciding whether to add $LIBS to --libs - output; that should be shown for the ncurses and tinfo - libraries without taking rpath into account. - o modify handling of $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR to use only the - first item in a possibly colon-separated list. - + other packaging issues - o add make-tar.sh scripts to Ada95 and test subdirectories - to help with making those separately distributable. - o add Ada95/configure script, to use in tar-file created - by Ada95/make-tar.sh. - o remove tar-copy.sh and related configure/Makefile - chunks, since the Ada95 binding is now installed using - rules in Ada95/src. - * cross-compiling: - + improve configure checks for location of tic and infocmp - programs used for installing database and for generating - fallback data, e.g., for cross-compiling. - + modify #define's for build-compiler to suppress cchar_t - symbol from compile of make_hash and make_keys, improving - cross-compilation of ncursesw. - + simplify include-dependencies of make_hash and make_keys, to - reduce the need for setting BUILD_CPPFLAGS in cross-compiling - when the build- and target-machines differ. - + correct cross-compiling configure check for CF_MKSTEMP macro, - by adding a check cache variable set by AC_CHECK_FUNC. - * library dependencies: - + revise wadd_wch and wecho_wchar to eliminate dependency on - unctrl. - + adjust configure script so that "t" is not added to library - suffix when weak-symbols are used, allowing the pthread - configuration to more closely match the non-thread naming. - * building the Ada95 tree: - + changes to use gnatmake project files in the Ada95 tree. - + add/use configure check to turn on project rules for - Ada95/src. - + old gnatmake (3.15) does not produce libraries using - project-file; work around by adding script to generate - alternate makefile. - + add configure --with-ada-sharedlib option, for the test_make - rule. - + move Ada95-related logic into aclocal.m4, since additional - checks will be needed to distinguish old/new implementations - of gnat. - + add test_make / test_clean / test_install rules in Ada95/src - + change install-path for adainclude directory to - /usr/share/ada (was /usr/lib/ada). - * other configure/build issues: - + make CCHARW_MAX value configurable, noting that changing this - would change the size of cchar_t, and would be - ABI-incompatible. - + improve comparison of program-names when checking for linked - flavors such as "reset" by ignoring the executable suffix. - + drop mkdirs.sh, use "mkdir -p". - + drop misc/ncu-indent and misc/jpf-indent; they are provided - by an external package [3]cindent. - + change makefiles to use $ARFLAGS rather than $AR_OPTS, - provide a configure check to detect whether a "-" is needed - before "ar" options. - + modify CF_DISABLE_LEAKS configure macro so that the - --enable-leaks option is not the same as --disable-leaks. - + improve configure script macros CF_HEADER_PATH and - CF_LIBRARY_PATH by adding CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS, LIBS - values to the search-lists. - + improve configure macros CF_GCC_VERSION and CF_GCC_WARNINGS - to work with gcc 4.x's c89 alias, which gives warning - messages for cases where older versions would produce an - error. - + modify CF_WITH_LIBTOOL configure check to allow unreleased - libtool version numbers (e.g. which include alphabetic chars, - as well as digits, after the final '.'). - + improve use of symbolic links in makefiles by using "-f" - option if it is supported, to eliminate temporary removal of - the target - + add a configure-time check to pick a suitable value for - CC_SHARED_OPTS for Solaris. - + add -shared option to MK_SHARED_LIB when -Bsharable is used, - for *BSD's, without which "main" might be one of the shared - library's dependencies. - + modify configure script to allow building shared libraries - with gcc on AIX 5 or 6. - + suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker flags for - gcc on Solaris 10, since gcc is confused by absence of static - libc, and does not switch back to dynamic mode before - finishing the libraries. - + suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker flags for - gcc on Darwin. - + modify misc/run_tic.in to create parent directory, in case - this is a new install of hashed database. - + modify configure check for tic program, used for fallbacks, - to a warning if not found. This makes it simpler to use - additonal scripts to bootstrap the fallbacks code using tic - from the build tree. - * test programs: - + add test/demo_terminfo, for comparison with demo_termcap. - + improve test/ncurses.c 'F' test, show combining characters in - color. - + fix logic for 'V' in test/ncurses.c tests f/F. - + improve test/ncurses.c 'a test to put mouse droppings in the - proper window. - + modify ncurses 'F' test to demo wborder_set with colored - lines. - + modify ncurses 'f' test to demo wborder with colored lines. - + improve test/ncurses.c 'a' test, using unctrl more - consistently to display meta-characters. - + correct use of key_name in test/ncurses.c 'A' test, which - only displays wide-characters, not key-codes since 20070612. - + add test/clip_printw.c to illustrate how to use printw - without wrapping. - + modify test-programs, e.g,. test/view.c, to address subtle - differences between Tru64/Solaris and HPUX/AIX getcchar - return values. - + add some test programs (and make these use the same special - keys by sharing linedata.h functions): test/test_addstr.c - test/test_addwstr.c test/test_addchstr.c - test/test_add_wchstr.c - + add test/xterm-256color.dat - + modify test programs to allow them to be built with NetBSD + * captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool + * clear, utility for clearing the screen + * infocmp, the terminfo decompiler + * tabs, set tabs on a terminal + * tic, the terminfo compiler + * toe, list (table of) terminfo entries + * tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell + scripts + * tset, to initialize the terminal + + Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools. + + The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage: + + ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/ or + https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ . + + It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution site + + ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ . + +Release Notes + + These notes are for ncurses 6.3, released October 21, 2021. + + This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0 + through 6.2; providing extensions to the application binary interface + (ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the + ncurses 5 ABI, the reason for the release is to reflect improvements + to the ncurses 6 ABI and the supporting utility programs. + + There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this + announcement. + + The most important bug-fixes/improvements dealt with portability + issues. The release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are + focused on new features and improvements to existing features since + ncurses 6.2 release. + + Library improvements + + New features + + There are a few new features: + * A new (experimental) driver, for the Windows Terminal + configuration is provided. + * A script is provided which enables OpenBSD users to upgrade their + system to use ncurses 6.3 (OpenBSD developers are also invited to + do this). + + Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and extensions) + are provided in this release: + * modify lib_mouse.c to check for out-of-range button numbers, + convert those to position reports. + * add sp-funcs for erasewchar, killwchar. + + Other improvements + + These are revised features: + * modify wgetnstr, wgetn_wstr to improve compatibility with SVr4 + curses in its treatment of interrupt and quit characters + + These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features: + * mark wgetch-events feature as deprecated. + + prevent KEY_EVENT from appearing in curses.h unless the + configure option --enable-wgetch-events is used. + + modify MKkey_defs.sh to hide ncurses' definition of + KEY_EVENTS to reduce Visual Studio C++ redefinition warnings. + * reduce build-warnings by excluding ncurses-internals from + deprecation warnings. + + These are improvements to existing features: + * drop symbols GCC_PRINTF and GCC_SCANF from , to simplify + use. + * apply gcc format attribute to prototypes which use a va_list + parameter rather than a "..." variable-length parameter list. + * modify so that it is not necessary to include + before . + * provide for wide-characters as background character in wbkgrnd + * improve parameter-checking for tparm, adding function _nc_tiparm() + to handle the most-used case, which accepts only numeric + parameters. + * use return-value from vsnprintf to reallocate as needed to allow + for buffers larger than the screen size. + * add another fflush(stdout) in _nc_flush to handle time-delays in + the middle of strings such as flash when the application uses + low-level calls rather than curses. + + These are corrections to existing features: + * add a check to guard against repeat_char emitting digits which + could be interpreted as BSD-style padding when --enable-bsdpad is + configured. + * check for screen size-change in scr_init and scr_restore, in case + a screen dump does not match the current screen dimensions + + Program improvements + + Several improvements were made to the utility programs: + + tabs + + + implement "+m" option + + tic + + + add check for duplicate "use=" clauses. + + add check to report instances where tparm would detect an + error in an expression. + + add user-defined capabilities from mintty to Caps-ncurses, + for checking consistency. + + improve warning when oc/op do not mention SGR 39/49 for xterm + compatible XT flag. + + improve checks for number of parameters of smglp, smgrp, + smgtp, and smgbp. + + improve "-c" option to validate the number and type of + parameters and compare against expected number/type before + deciding which set of parameter-lists to use in tparm calls. + + improve check for errors detected in tparm. + + improve format of output, to ensure that the messages contain + only printable text. + + modify to eliminate unnecessary "\" to escape ":" in terminfo + format. + + remove check that assumes that none or both parameterized and + non-parameterized margin-setting capabilities are present. + + toe + + + modify output of "toe -as" to show first description found + rather than the last. + + add a check to ensure that a "termcap file" is text rather + than binary. + + tput + + + modify to allow multiple commands per line. + + improve parameter-checking by analyzing all extended string + capabilities, e.g., as used in the Cs and Ms capabilities of + the tmux description. + + make warning messages consistently using alias names when + those are used, rather than the underlying program's name. + + improve usage message for aliases such as clear, by + eliminating tput-specific portions. + + modify initialization to avoid opening /dev/tty for cases + other than reset/init, e.g., for clear. + + Examples + + Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the + ncurses-examples. Most of this activity aimed at improving the + test-packages. A few changes are more generally useful, e.g., for the + main ncurses test-program, and for analyzing traces using the + tracemunch script: + * add "-r" option to the dots test-programs, to help with scripting + a performance comparison. + * build-fix for test_opaque, for configurations without opaque + curses structs, e.g., ncurses 5.7. + * improve tracemunch logic for "RUN" compaction. + * improve tracemunch's coverage of form/menu/panel libraries. + * improve tracemunch's checking/reporting the type for the first + parameter, e.g., "WINDOW*" rather than "#1". + * modify tracemunch and the panel library to show readable traces + for panel- and user-pointers. + + There are other new demo/test programs and reusable examples: + + back_ground + to exercise the wide-character background functions. + + move_field + to demonstrate move_field, and a stub for a corresponding demo + of dup_field. + + test_tparm + for checking tparm changes. + + Terminal database + + There are several new terminal descriptions: + + absolute, att610+cvis, foot, foot-direct, hp98550-color, + hpterm-color2, hterm, hterm-256color, linux-s, putty+keypad, + putty+screen, putty-screen, screen.linux-s, scrt/securecrt, + tmux-direct, vt220+cvis, vt220+cvis8, vt220+pcedit, vt220+vtedit, + vt220-base, vt52+keypad, xterm+256color2, xterm+88color2, + xterm-direct16, xterm-direct256, xterm+nofkeys, and + xterm+nopcfkeys. + + There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were + updates to several descriptions: + * correct use-ordering in some xterm-direct flavors + * fix some sgr inconsistencies in d230c, ibm6153, ibm6154, + ncrvt100an + * improve vt50h and vt52 based on DECScope manual + * use hp+arrows in a few places + * use hp+pfk-cr in a few places + * use vt220+cvis in st, terminology, termite since they ignore + blinking-cursor detail in att610+cvis + + while others affected specific descriptions. These were retested, to + take into account changes by their developers: + + kitty+common, mlterm3, ms-terminal + + while these are specific fixes based on reviewing documentation, user + reports, or warnings from tic: + + aaa+dec, aaa+rv + correct rmacs/smacs + + aaa+rv + correct sgr + + icl6404 + correct csr + + kitty + use att610+cvis, xterm+tmux and ansi+enq + + konsole-base + re-enable "bel" + + linux2.6 + fix pound-sign mapping in acsc + + linux3.0 + modify to reflect default mapping of shift-tab by kbd 1.14 + + pccons + fill in some missing pieces, to make it comparable to the vt220 + entry + + putty + use vt100+fnkeys, add rep + + screen + use vt100+enq + + terminator + corrected tsl capability + + ti916 + correct cup + + tmux + change kbs to ^? + + vt220 + use vt220+cvis + + vt420+lrmm + add smglp and smgrp + + vt420 + use vt420+lrmm + + xterm-new + add nel + + xterm-vt52 + use vt52+keypad + + A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities): + * add shifted Linux console keys in linux+sfkeys entry for + screen.linux + * add Smulx to alacritty + * add kbeg to xterm+keypad to accommodate termcap applications + * add extensions in xterm+tmux and ecma+strikeout to ms-terminal, + but cancel the non-working Cr and Ms capabilities + + Documentation + + As usual, this release + * improves documentation by describing new features, + * attempts to improve the description of features which users have + found confusing + * fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described + in the NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages. + + In addition to providing background information to explain these + features and show how they evolved, there are corrections, + clarifications, etc.: + * Corrections: + + make opts extension for getcchar work as documented for + ncurses 6.1, adding "-g" flag to demo_new_pair to illustrate. + + modify tset "-q" option to refrain from modifying terminal + modes, to match the documentation. + * New/improved history and portability sections: + + improve documentation for tparm and static/dynamic variables. + + add history note to curs_scanw.3x for and + + + add history note to curs_printw.3x for and + + + add portability note to ncurses.3x regarding + + add historical notes to tput, curses-terminfo and + curses-color manpages based on source-code for SVr2, SVr3 and + SVr4. + + improve history section for tset manpage based on the 1BSD + tarball, which preceded BSD's SCCS checkins by more than + three years. + * Other improvements: + + explain in ncurses.3x that functions in the tinfo library do + not rely upon wide-characters. + + improve manual page for panel library, extending the + portability section as well as documenting error-returns. + + add section on margins to terminfo.5, adapted from X/Open + Curses. + + improve man/term.5 section on legacy storage format. + + add a note in terminfo.5 explaining that no-parameter strings + such as sgr0 or cnorm should not be used with tparm. + + improve description of BSD-style padding in curs_termcap.3x + + improve discussion of padding versus tparm and tputs in + man/curs_terminfo.3x + + add a note in manual page to explain ungetch vs unget_wch. + + improve description of error-returns in waddch and waddnstr + manual pages. + + There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to + existing pages). + + Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way the + information is presented. For instance, hyphenation is suppressed in + the HTML files generated from manual pages because an upgrade to groff + gave noticeably poorer results, interfering with the process of + creating links between the resulting webpages. + + Interesting bug-fixes + + While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses 6.3, + only a few (the reason for this release) were both important and + interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues which did not + affect compatibility across releases. Since those are detailed in the + NEWS file no elaboration is needed here. + + The interesting bugs were: + * modify wbkgd and wbkgrnd to avoid storing a null in the background + character, because it may be used in cases where the corresponding + 0x80 is not treated as a null. + This was a regression introduced in ncurses 6.2 (reported on the + mailing list), for which the workaround was to specify a blank for + the background character. + * remove output-related checks for nl/nonl (also reported on the + mailing list). + * improve tparm implementation of %P and %g, more closely matching + SVr4 terminfo. Those denote static and dynamic variables in + terminfo expressions. + Exactly what those terms meant was never documented before in any + implementation of curses, aside from source code. Unlike the other + two fixes, the problem was discovered while studying OpenBSD's + version of tset. + + Configuration changes + + Major changes + + There are no major changes. Several new options were added to ease + integration of packages with systems using different versions of GNAT + and ncurses. Also, improvements were made to configure checks. + + Configuration options + + There are a few new/modified configure options: + + --enable-fvisibility + new configure option and check for gcc -fvisibility=hidden + feature + + --enable-leaks + corrected to allow turning leak-checking off later in a set of + options. + + --enable-stdnoreturn + new configure option makes the _Noreturn keyword optional to + ease transition. + + --disable-pkg-ldflags + revised option also controls whether $LDFLAGS from the build is + provided in "-config" and ".pc" files. + + --disable-root-access + add configure option which tells ncurses to disallow most + file-opens by setuid processes. + + --disable-wattr-macros + changed default to help packagers who reuse wide ncursesw + header file with non-wide ncurses library. + + --with-pkg-config-libdir + revised option uses the actual search path from pkg-config or + pkgconf using the output from --debug. + + --with-ada-libname + --with-form-libname + --with-menu-libname + --with-panel-libname + new several --with-xxx-libname options, to help with pkgsrc + + Portability + + Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure + script: + * add a special case in the configure script to work around one of + the build-time breakages reported for OpenBSD 6 here: + + https://www.mail-archive.com/bugs@openbsd.org/msg13200.html + * modify configure check for libtool to prevent accidental use of an + OpenBSD program which uses the same name. + * modify configuration checks for build-time tic/infocmp to use + AC_CHECK_TOOL. That can still be overridden by --with-tic-path and + --with-infocmp-path when fallbacks are used, but even if not using + fallbacks, the improved check may help with cross-compiling. + * relax modification-time comparison in CF_LINK_FUNCS to allow it to + accept link() function with NFS filesystems which change the mtime + on the link target, e.g., several BSD systems. + * modify configure check for c89/c99 aliases of clang to use its + -std option instead, because some platforms, in particular macOS, + do not provide workable c89/c99 aliases. + * modify CF_NCURSES_CONFIG to work around Xcode's c99 "-W" option, + which conflicts with conventional use for passing linker options. + * modify configure scripts to filter out redefinitions of + _XOPEN_SOURCE, e.g., for NetBSD which generally supports 500, but + 600 is needed for ncursesw. + + Here are some of the other portability fixes: + * change configure-check and source-code for gcc's noreturn + attribute to assume it is a prefix rather than suffix, matching + c11's _Noreturn convention. + * modify mk-1st.awk to account for extra-suffix configure option. + * build-fix for termsort module when configured with termcap. + * modify configure script and makefiles to support ".PHONY" make + program feature. + * amend libtool configuration to add dependency for install.tic, + etc., in ncurses/Makefile on the lower-level libraries. + * modify Ada95 source-generation utility to write to a file given as + parameter rather than to the standard output, allowing builds with + MinGW. + * amend tic/infocmp check to allow for the respective tool's + absence. + * build-fixes for gnat 10.1.1, whose gnatmake drops integration with + gprbuild. + * correct configure version-check/warning for g++ to allow for 10.x + _________________________________________________________________ + +Features of ncurses + + The ncurses package is fully upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V + Release 4) curses: + * All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). + * ncurses supports all of the for SVr4 curses features including + keyboard mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and + automatic recognition of keypad and function keys. + * ncurses provides these SVr4 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open + Curses): + + the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with + backing store. + + the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible + interface for menu programming. + + the form library, supporting data collection through + on-screen forms. + * ncurses's terminal database is fully compatible with that used by + SVr4 curses. + + ncurses supports user-defined capabilities which it can see, + but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the + same terminal database. + + It can be optionally configured to match the format used in + related systems such as AIX and Tru64. + + Alternatively, ncurses can be configured to use hashed + databases rather than the directory of files used by SVr4 curses. - + fixes for test programs to build/work on HPUX and AIX, etc. - - Features of Ncurses - - The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) - curses: - * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are - documented). - * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, - color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic - recognition of keypad and function keys. - * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of - windows with backing store, is included. - * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but - flexible interface for menu programming, is included. - * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection - through on-screen forms, is included. - * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) - implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format - SVr4 curses uses. - * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries - for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the - HP/UX and AIX ports. + * The ncurses utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo + entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as + the HP-UX and AIX ports. The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN @@ -459,8 +520,8 @@ Portability use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code. - * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when - configured using the --enable-ext-colors option. + * Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern xterm. + * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm. * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm. * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's @@ -482,10 +543,10 @@ Portability types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode). - * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability - to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension + * The tic/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability to + translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension sets. - * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. + * A BSD-like tset utility is provided. * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the @@ -500,150 +561,215 @@ Portability other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory. - * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition - from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP - environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and - converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under - $HOME/.terminfo. - * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in - when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is - neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have - to, but it's there. * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see exactly what terminal types are available on the system. * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point - have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be + has a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with #undef. - * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document - provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming - interface. + * Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading + section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation). + +Applications using ncurses + + The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs + (including a few games). These are available separately as + ncurses-examples - State of the Package + The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of + applications including: - Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library - is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many - `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe - according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks - and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester. + aptitude + FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager - The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications - including (versions starting with those noted): + https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude cdk Curses Development Kit - [4]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ - [5]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ + + https://invisible-island.net/cdk/ ded directory-editor - [6]http://invisible-island.net/ded/ + + https://invisible-island.net/ded/ dialog the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the - basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux. - [7]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ + basis for similar install/configure applications on many + systems. + + https://invisible-island.net/dialog/ lynx - the character-screen WWW browser - [8]http://lynx.isc.org/release/ + the text WWW browser - Midnight Commander - file manager - [9]http://www.midnight-commander.org/ + https://lynx.invisible-island.net/ mutt mail utility - [10]http://www.mutt.org/ + + http://www.mutt.org/ ncftp file-transfer utility - [11]http://www.ncftp.com/ + + https://www.ncftp.com/ nvi - New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and - later. - [12]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi + New vi uses ncurses. + + https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi + + ranger + A console file manager with VI key bindings in Python. - pinfo - Lynx-like info browser. - [13]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ + https://ranger.github.io/ tin - newsreader, supporting color, MIME [14]http://www.tin.org/ + newsreader, supporting color, MIME + + http://www.tin.org/ + + vifm + File manager with vi like keybindings + + https://vifm.info/ as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: minicom - terminal emulator - [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ + terminal emulator for serial modem connections + + https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ + + mosh + a replacement for ssh. + + https://mosh.org/ + + tack + terminfo action checker + + https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html + + tmux + terminal multiplexor + + https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki vile - vi-like-emacs - [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile/ + vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap or + curses interfaces. - The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs - (including a few games). + https://invisible-island.net/vile/ + + and finally, those which use only the termcap interface: + + emacs + text editor + + https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ + + less + The most commonly used pager (a program that displays text + files). + + http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/ + + screen + terminal multiplexor + + https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/ + + vim + text editor + + https://www.vim.org/ -Who's Who and What's What +Development activities - Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by - Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen Pfeifer - wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done - by [17]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the - Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses. - Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. + Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses, + written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. + Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries. - To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to - bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line: - subscribe @ + Ongoing development work is done by Thomas E. Dickey. Thomas E. Dickey + has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which + held a copyright on ncurses for releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following + the release of ncurses 6.1, effective as of release 6.2, copyright for + ncurses reverted to Thomas E. Dickey (see the ncurses FAQ for + additional information). + + Contact the current maintainers at + + bug-ncurses@gnu.org + + To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to + + bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org + + containing the line: + + subscribe @ This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and testing of this package. - Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made - available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . + Beta versions of ncurses are made available at + + ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/ and + https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ . + + Patches to the current release are made available at + + ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.2/ and + https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.2/ . + + There is an archive of the mailing list here: -Future Plans + http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also https) - * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization - support. - * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. +Related resources - We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in - working on them, please join the ncurses list. + The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may + be interesting by themselves: + * ncurses licensing + * Symbol versioning in ncurses + * Comments on ncurses versus slang (S-Lang) + * Comments on OpenBSD + * tack - terminfo action checker + * tctest - termcap library checker + * Terminal Database -Other Related Resources +Other resources The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format - terminal description file once maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike - the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the - same file, and provides several user-definable extensions beyond the + terminal description file once maintained by Eric Raymond . Unlike the + older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same + file, which also provides several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open specification. You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not - covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive . - -References - - 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ - 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ - 3. http://invisible-island.net/cindent/cindent.html - 4. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ - 5. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ - 6. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ - 7. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ - 8. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ - 9. http://www.midnight-commander.org/ - 10. http://www.mutt.org/ - 11. http://www.ncftp.com/ - 12. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi - 13. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ - 14. http://www.tin.org/ - 15. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ - 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/ - 17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net - 18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org - 19. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ - 20. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/ - 21. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal + covered in the terminfo file at Richard Shuford's archive . The + collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been useful. + + * Overview + * Release Notes + + Library improvements + o New features + o Other improvements + + Program improvements + o Utilities + o Examples + + Terminal database + + Documentation + + Interesting bug-fixes + + Configuration changes + o Major changes + o Configuration options + + Portability + * Features of ncurses + * Applications using ncurses + * Development activities + * Related resources + * Other resources