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3 $Id: announce.html,v 1.14 1997/05/05 22:50:55 tom Exp $
7 <TITLE>Announcing ncurses 4.1</TITLE>
8 <link rev=made href="mailto:dickey@clark.net">
12 <H1>Announcing ncurses 4.1</H1>
14 The ncurses (new curses) library is a freeware emulation of System V
15 Release 4.0 curses. It uses terminfo format, supports pads and color
16 and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
17 and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses. <P>
19 In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
20 considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
21 Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
24 The ncurses code was developed under Linux. It should port easily to
25 any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp! <P>
27 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
28 terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
29 and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
30 the library and tools. <P>
32 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at:
33 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
35 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses">ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses</A>.
36 It is also carried on the GNU distribution site at <A HREF="ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu">ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu</A>.
38 <H1>Features of ncurses</H1>
40 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 curses: <P>
43 <LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). <P>
45 <LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
46 forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
47 and function keys. <P>
49 <LI>An emulation of the System V Release 4 panels library, supporting
50 a stack of windows with backing store, is included. <P>
52 <LI>An emulation of the System V Release 4 menus library, supporting
53 a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included. <P>
55 <LI>An emulation of the System V Release 4 form library, supporting
56 data collection through on-screen forms, is included. <P>
58 <LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
59 are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses. <P>
61 <LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
62 entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
63 versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports. </UL>
65 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: <P>
68 <LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses
69 specification, XSI Curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features,
70 but not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly
71 concerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many
72 function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all
73 calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only). <P>
75 <LI>Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
76 of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. <P>
78 <LI>(PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM characters
79 0-32 through the highlight A_ALTCHARSET. <P>
81 <LI>Support for mouse event reporting under xterm.<P>
83 <LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
86 <LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
87 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
90 <LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates
91 a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal
92 use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion
93 for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than
94 the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine. <P>
96 <LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
97 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic-
98 cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and
99 after the end would step on a non-space character. It will
100 automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
101 possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
104 <LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
105 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
106 when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
107 for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode). <P>
109 <LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
110 ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
111 AT&T extension sets. <P>
113 <LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. <P>
115 <LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
116 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
117 if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
118 This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
119 without giving up access to the system terminfo directory. <P>
121 <LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
122 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
123 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.) <P>
125 <LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
126 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
127 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
128 $HOME/.terminfo directory. <P>
130 <LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
131 transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a
132 TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
133 and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo. <P>
135 <LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
136 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither
137 fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
140 <LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
141 see exactly what terminal types are available on the system. <P>
143 <LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
144 point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
145 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
146 <CODE>#undef</CODE>. <P>
148 <LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
149 a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
152 <H1>State of the Package</H1>
154 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
155 library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
156 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
157 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and
158 arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester. <P>
160 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
164 <DD> directory-editor
165 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded</A>.
167 <DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
168 for similar applications on Linux.
170 <DD> the character-screen WWW browser
172 <DD> file-transfer utility
174 <DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
176 <DD> tape archive utility
178 <DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
180 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
183 <DD> terminal emulator
185 <DD> tin (unofficial) newsreader, supporting color, MIME
186 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff">ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff</A>.
189 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile</A>.
193 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
196 <H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
198 The original maintainer of ncurses is <A
199 HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A>. Unfortunately,
200 he can only work on the package part time. As a result, since 1.8.1,
201 much of the enhancement work and documentation has been done
202 by <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
203 The current primary maintainers are
204 <A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A>
206 <A HREF="mailto:Juergen.Pfeifer@T-Online.de">Juergen Pfeifer</A>.
209 There is an ncurses mailing list. It is a majordomo list; to join, write
210 to <CODE>ncurses-request@mailgate.bsdi.com</CODE> with a message containing the line:
212 subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
215 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
216 testing of this package. <P>
218 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
219 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
221 <H2>Future Plans</H2>
223 <LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
224 <LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. <P>
225 <LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
227 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
228 on them, please join the ncurses list.
230 <H2>The terminfo/termcap Database</H2>
232 The distribution includes and uses a copy of the terminfo-format
233 terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
235 You can download either the
236 <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/terminfo/termtypes.tc.gz">termcap</A>
238 <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/terminfo/termtypes.ti.gz">terminfo</A>
239 versions of the terminal-type
240 database from Eric's ncurses page,
241 <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html">http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html</A>. <P>
243 <H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
245 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
246 not covered in the terminfo file at
247 <A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
252 # The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
255 # case-fold-search:nil