- Announcing ncurses 5.0
-
+ Announcing ncurses 5.1
+
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.
-
+
In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging 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 should port easily
to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2
Warp!
-
+
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/pub/gnu/ncurses. It is also
- available at [2]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
-
+ distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
+ It is also available at [2]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
+
Release Notes
-
- We decided to release ncurses as a new whole number release (5.0)
- because it incorporates several interface changes, including some that
- would invalidate existing shared libraries. These are the highlights
- from the change-log since ncurses 4.2 release.
-
+
+ This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0;
+ very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the
+ platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses
+ 5.0 release.
+
Interface changes:
- * The principal source of changes to the interface comes from the
- release of X/Open Curses in 1997. Earlier versions of ncurses (4.0
- and before) were based on a draft version of the specification.
- The release version adds parameters to some functions to support
- the evolving internationalization of curses. These summarize the
- impact:
- + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version
- of X/Open Curses (affects ABI since developers have used
- attr_get).
- + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather
- than attr_t.
- + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
- parameter according to XSI.
- + correct macros for wattr_set, wattr_get, separate wattrset
- macro from these to preserve behavior that allows attributes
- to be combined with color pair numbers.
- + reviewed/updated curses.h, term.h against X/Open Curses Issue
- 4 Version 2. This includes making some parameters
- NCURSES_CONST rather than const, e.g., in termcap.h.
- + reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document.
- + add set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch to terminfo
- structure, as per XSI and Solaris 2.5.
- * The newest version of the X/Open Curses is implemented on Solaris
- and other vendor's systems. It adds new features to the terminfo
- descriptions:
- + implement tparm %l format.
- + implement tparm printf-style width and precision for %s, %d,
- %x, %o as per XSI.
- * We made additional changes to reduce impact by future interface
- changes:
- + rename key_names[] array to _nc_key_names since it is not
- part of the curses interface.
- + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct
- ldat
- * modify configure script to embed ABI in shared libraries for HP-UX
- 10.x (detailed request by Tim Mooney).
- * modify configuration of shared libraries on Digital Unix so that
- versioning is embedded in the library, rather than implied by
- links (patch by Tim Mooney).
-
+ * made the extended terminal capabilities
+ (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature (though the
+ configure script can disable it, it is built by default).
+ * removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
+ production library. This is the only interface change that may
+ cause problems with existing applications linked to shared
+ libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number.
+ * explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were
+ implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly
+ initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems
+ linking on some platforms.
+ * modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
+ with C++ STL.
+
New features:
- * enable sigwinch handler by default.
- * turn on hashmap scrolling code by default
- * improved support for termcap applications
- + modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to
- terminfo names.
- + provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from
- terminfo data and using it as the padding character in tputs.
- + provide support for termcap ospeed variable by copying it
- from the internal cur_term member, and using ospeed as the
- baudrate reference for the delay_output and tputs functions.
- + change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more
- than 2 characters.
- + add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially
- allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap.
- * add mouse support to ncurses menus.
- * add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX
- * modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants
- * add configure option --enable-no-padding, to allow environment
- variable $NCURSES_NO_PADDING to eliminate non-mandatory padding,
- thereby making terminal emulators (e.g., for vt100) a little more
- efficient.
- * modify lib_color.c to eliminate dependency on orig_colors and
- orig_pair, since SVr4 curses does not require these either, but
- uses them when they are available.
- * add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo
- if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and
- tabs).
- * modify tic to compile into %'char' form in preference to
- %{number}, since that is a little more efficient.
-
+ * added a new extension, assume_default_colors() to provide better
+ control over the use of default colors. This is the principal
+ visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding versions. The
+ new extension allows an application to specify what colors pair 0
+ uses.
+ NOTE: Pair 0 defaults to white on black unless you have invoked
+ use_default_colors() or set it via assume_default_colors(). An
+ application that calls start_colors() without setting the
+ background color will consistently have a black background no
+ matter what color your terminal's background actually is.
+ * made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and have
+ been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning.
+ This builds on the extension use_extended_names() by adding
+ "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src
+ + modified tic so that if extended names (i.e.,
+ configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then tic -x will
+ also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the
+ terminfo source.
+ + added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to
+ applicable terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check
+ for a small improvement in setting default colors.
+ + add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out
+ capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g.,
+ captoinfo and infotocap.
+ * implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm:
+ + if the configure --enable-widec option is given, append 'w'
+ to names of the generated libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so) to
+ avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries.
+ + add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental
+ wide-character support. If any of the environment variables
+ LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this
+ driver will be used to translate the output to UTF-8.
+ + modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text.
+ * modify raw() and noraw() to clear/restore IEXTEN flag which
+ affects stty lnext on systems such as FreeBSD
+ * reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to
+ run in xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped
+ test for $DISPLAY in favor of the terminfo capability kmous=\E[M
+ or if $TERM environment variable contains "xterm".
+ * added configure option --with-manpage-symlinks, which provides for
+ fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links for the
+ aliases.
+ * changed unctrl() to render C1 characters (128-159) as ~@, ~A, etc.
+ * add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for
+ $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm.
+ * made the infocmp -F option less verbose.
+ * dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current).
+
Major bug fixes:
- * modify lib_tstp.c to block SIGTTOU when handling SIGTSTP, fixes a
- problem where ncurses applications which were run via a shell
- script would hang when given a ^Z. Also, check if the terminal's
- process group is consistent, i.e., a shell has not taken ownership
- of it, before deciding to save the current terminal settings in
- the SIGTSTP handler.
- * suppress sc/rc capabilities from terminal description if they
- appear in smcup/rmcup. This affects only scrolling optimization,
- to fix a problem reported by several people with xterm's alternate
- screen, though the problem is more general.
- * modify relative_move and tputs to avoid an interaction with the
- BSD-style padding. The relative_move function could produce a
- string to replace on the screen which began with a numeric
- character, which was then interpreted by tputs as padding.
- * modify setupterm so that cancelled strings are treated the same as
- absent strings, cancelled and absent booleans false (does not
- affect tic, infocmp).
- * modify lib_vidattr.c to allow for terminal types (e.g.,
- xterm-color) which may reset all attributes in the 'op'
- capability, so that colors are set before turning on bold and
- other attributes, but still after turning attributes off.
- * use 'access()' to check if ncurses library should be permitted to
- open or modify files with fopen/open/link/unlink/remove calls, in
- case the calling application is running in setuid mode.
- * correction to doupdate, for case where terminal does not support
- insert/delete character. The logic did not check that there was a
- difference in alignment of changes to old/new screens before
- repainting the whole non-blank portion of the line. Modified to
- fall through into logic that reduces by the portion which does not
- differ.
-
+ * modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated
+ fallback.c type for Booleans agrees with term.h
+ * documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2
+ and 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL.
+ * corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A
+ negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call
+ to wait indefinitely.
+ * made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in
+ delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo
+ to specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud
+ rate could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding
+ characters.
+ * modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right
+ corner, rather than displaying only the first character written
+ until the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can
+ update the lower-right corner, and behave this way.
+ * modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for
+ carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella).
+ * corrected offsets used for subwindows in wresize()
+ * modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined
+ to a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++
+ compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option
+ * corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM
+ mouse support when poll() is used rather than select().
+ * made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion,
+ improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details.
+
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
* 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 package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
* The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
* An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
interface.
-
+
State of the Package
-
+
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.
-
+
The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
including (versions starting with those noted):
-
+
cdk
- Curses Development Kit [3]Curses Development Kit
- [4]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk.
-
+ Curses Development Kit
+ [3]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ [4]http://dickey.his.com/cdk.
+
ded
- directory-editor [5]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded.
-
+ directory-editor
+ [5]http://dickey.his.com/ded.
+
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
-
+ [6]http://dickey.his.com/dialog.
+
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
-
+ [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
+
Midnight Commander 4.1
file manager
-
+ [8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
+
mutt
mail utility
-
+ [9]http://www.mutt.org.
+
ncftp
file-transfer utility
-
+ [10]http://www.ncftp.com.
+
nvi
New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
later.
-
+ [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/.
+
tin
newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- [6]ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff.
-
+ [12]http://www.tin.org.
+
taper
tape archive utility
-
+ [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
+
vh-1.6
Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
-
+ [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
+
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
-
+
minicom
terminal emulator
-
+ [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
+
vile
- vi-like-emacs [7]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile.
-
+ vi-like-emacs
+ [16]http://dickey.his.com/vile.
+
The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
(including a few games).
-
+
Who's Who and What's What
- The original developers of ncurses are [8]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [9]Eric
- S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [10]Thomas Dickey and
- [11]Jürgen Pfeifer. [12]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
+ The original developers of ncurses are [17]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [18]Eric
+ S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and
+ [20]Jürgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
- Contact the current maintainers at [13]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
-
+ Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
+
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
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 [14]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
-
+ available at [23]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
+
Future Plans
* Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
support.
* Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
-
+
We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
working on them, please join the ncurses list.
-
+
Other Related Resources
The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
- [15]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
-
+ [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
+
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
- covered in the terminfo file at [16]Richard Shuford's archive.
+ covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive.
References
1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
- 2. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
+ 2. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
- 4. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk
- 5. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded
- 6. ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff
- 7. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile
- 8. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
- 9. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
- 10. mailto:dickey@clark.net
- 11. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
- 12. mailto:dickey@clark.net
- 13. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 14. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
- 15. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
- 16. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ 4. http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html
+ 5. http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html
+ 6. http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html
+ 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.1-20000704/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/
+ 9. http://www.mutt.org/
+ 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
+ 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
+ 12. http://www.tin.org/
+ 13. http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/
+ 14. http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
+ 15. http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html
+ 16. http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html
+ 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
+ 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
+ 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
+ 20. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
+ 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
+ 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+ 23. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
+ 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
+ 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff