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7 <TITLE>Announcing ncurses 5.3 Pre-Release</TITLE>
8 <link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
12 <H1>Announcing ncurses 5.3</H1>
14 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
15 curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
16 supports pads and color
17 and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
18 and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P>
20 In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
21 considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
22 Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
25 The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux.
26 It has been in use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library,
27 and on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package.
28 It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
29 It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
31 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
32 terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
33 and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
34 the library and tools.<P>
36 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
37 the GNU distribution site
38 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>.
39 <br>It is also available at
40 <A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
42 <H1>Release Notes</H1>
44 This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.2;
45 very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
46 These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.2 release.
50 <li>change type for bool used in headers to <code>NCURSES_BOOL</code>,
51 which usually is the same as the compiler's definition for
54 <li>add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
55 These are only available if the library is configured using the
56 <kbd>--enable-widec</kbd> option. Missing functions are
62 <li>add environment variable <code>$NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS</code> to
63 modify the <code>assume_default_colors()</code> extension.
66 New features and improvements:
68 <li>Improved support for termcap applications:
70 <li>add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions that do
71 not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated termcaps. This makes
74 <li>modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the alternate
75 character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the copy of the termcap
76 "me" string which it will return to eliminate that part. In
77 particular, 'screen' would lose track of line-drawing characters.
79 <li>add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about missing acsc
80 string. This happens in configurations where raw termcap information
81 is processed; tic already does this and other checks.
83 <li>add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are commented out
84 when translating to termcap.
86 <li>modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to make it
87 work properly for termcap applications (patch by Andrey A Chernov).
91 <li>add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications
92 such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes
93 Debian #131263, cf: 20011215).
95 <li>correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is compiled
96 with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making it slightly
97 incompatible with itself. In either case, the background color is
102 <li>rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated _nc_scroll_window(),
103 to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is larger than the size of
104 the scrolling region, then the scrolling region will be cleared.
106 <li>modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is encountered.
107 Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently rather than mixing
110 <li>move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop with
111 callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise initialized
112 the tty modes before saving them.
114 <li>modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not corrupt
115 the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within the resized
118 <li>altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
119 cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
121 <li>correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in tput,
122 which did not exit with an error when told to put a string not in the
123 current terminfo entry.
125 <li>modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is
126 running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it
127 returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without picking
128 up extraneous trailing blanks.
130 <li>add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
133 <li>add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
135 <li>modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl() mode
136 is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual terminal
137 mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it is useful to
138 allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to avoid staircasing
139 effects after spawning a process which writes messages (for lynx
145 <li>configure script:
147 <li>modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used by
148 default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in attempt to
149 work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL notes.
151 <li>correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and move it
152 to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
154 <li>modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, or with
155 fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and toe.
157 <li>modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile. In that
158 case, do not use the build's tic to install the terminfo database.
160 <li>modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that are
161 different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's C++
162 compilers on Solaris and IRIX.
164 <li>add several configure script options to aid with cross-compiling:
165 --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, --with-build-ldflags, and
168 <li>add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to similar
169 terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
171 <li>add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in transition
172 to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
177 <li>implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the %n
178 conversion to help parse the input data.
180 <li>various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
183 <li>add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
184 platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., Solaris.
186 <li>finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
188 <li>add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in curses.h
193 <li>modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic links on
194 platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
196 <li>modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that linking
197 aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not succeed because
198 the source and destination differ only by case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0
201 <li>modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for basename of
202 argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2 which have
203 case-independent filenames and/or program suffixes, e.g., ".ext".
207 <H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
209 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
212 <LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
213 <LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
214 forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
216 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
217 a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
218 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
219 a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
220 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
221 data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
222 <LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
223 are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
224 <LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
225 entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
226 versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL>
228 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
231 <LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses
232 specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features,
233 but not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly
234 concerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many
235 function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all
236 calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
237 <LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
238 of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
239 <LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
240 <LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows.
241 <LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
242 <LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
244 <LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to
245 use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
246 achieving the effect of transparent colors.
247 <LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE>
248 and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow
249 you to better control the use of function keys,
250 e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
251 or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code.
252 <LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
253 <LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
254 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
256 <LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates
257 a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal
258 use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion
259 for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than
260 the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
261 <LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
262 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic-
263 cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and
264 after the end would step on a non-space character. It will
265 automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
266 possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
268 <LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
269 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
270 when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
271 for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode).
272 <LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
273 ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
274 AT&T extension sets.
275 <LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
276 <LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
277 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
278 if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
279 This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
280 without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
281 <LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
282 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
283 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
284 <LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
285 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
286 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
287 $HOME/.terminfo directory.
288 <LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
289 transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a
290 TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
291 and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.
292 <LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
293 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither
294 fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
296 <LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
297 see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
298 <LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
299 point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
300 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
302 <LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
303 a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
306 <H1>State of the Package</H1>
308 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
309 library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
310 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
311 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and
312 arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P>
314 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
315 including (versions starting with those noted):
318 <DD> Curses Development Kit
320 <A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html">http://invisible-island.net/cdk</A>.
322 <A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
324 <DD> directory-editor
326 <A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html">http://invisible-island.net/ded</A>.
328 <DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
329 for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
331 <A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html">http://invisible-island.net/dialog</A>.
333 <DD> the character-screen WWW browser
335 <A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
336 <DT> Midnight Commander
339 <A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
343 <A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>.
345 <DD> file-transfer utility
347 <A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com">http://www.ncftp.com</A>.
349 <DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
351 <A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>.
353 <DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
355 <A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>.
357 <DD> tape archive utility
359 <A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/">http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/</A>.
361 <DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
363 <A HREF="http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>.
365 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
368 <DD> terminal emulator
370 <A HREF="http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>.
374 <A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html">http://invisible-island.net/vile</A>.
378 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
381 <H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
383 The original developers of ncurses are <A
384 HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and
385 <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
386 Ongoing work is being done by
387 <A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
389 <A HREF="http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
390 <A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
391 acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
392 copyright on ncurses.
393 Contact the current maintainers at
394 <A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>.
397 To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
398 <CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line:
400 subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
403 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
404 testing of this package.<P>
406 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
407 <A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
409 <H2>Future Plans</H2>
411 <LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
412 <LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
414 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
415 on them, please join the ncurses list.
417 <H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
419 The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
420 terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
421 <A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P>
423 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
424 not covered in the terminfo file at
425 <A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
430 # The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
433 # case-fold-search:nil