-
- Announcing ncurses 5.3
+ Announcing ncurses 5.9
The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
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.
+ 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
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://invisible-island.net/ncurses.
+ 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 and
- 5.2; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
- the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
- ncurses 5.2 release.
-
- Interface changes:
- * change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which
- usually is the same as the compiler's definition for bool.
- * add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character
- support. These are only available if the library is configured
- using the --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
- + pecho_wchar()
- + slk_wset()
- * add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
- assume_default_colors() extension.
-
- New features and improvements:
- * Improved support for termcap applications:
- + add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions
- that do not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated
- termcaps. This makes hds200 fit.
- + modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the
- alternate character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the
- copy of the termcap "me" string which it will return to
- eliminate that part. In particular, 'screen' would lose track
- of line-drawing characters.
- + add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about
- missing acsc string. This happens in configurations where raw
- termcap information is processed; tic already does this and
- other checks.
- + add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are
- commented out when translating to termcap.
- + modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to
- make it work properly for termcap applications (patch by
- Andrey A Chernov).
- * add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications
- such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes
- Debian #131263, cf: 20011215).
- * correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is
- compiled with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making
- it slightly incompatible with itself. In either case, the
- background color is the last field.
-
- Major bug fixes:
- * rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated
- _nc_scroll_window(), to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is
- larger than the size of the scrolling region, then the scrolling
- region will be cleared.
- * modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is
- encountered. Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently
- rather than mixing with write().
- * move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop
- with callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise
- initialized the tty modes before saving them.
- * modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not
- corrupt the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within
- the resized window.
- * altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
- cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
- * correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in
- tput, which did not exit with an error when told to put a string
- not in the current terminfo entry.
- * modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is
- running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it
- returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without
- picking up extraneous trailing blanks.
- * add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
- the overwrite logic.
- * add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
- * modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl()
- mode is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual
- terminal mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it
- is useful to allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to
- avoid staircasing effects after spawning a process which writes
- messages (for lynx 2.8.4).
-
- Portability:
- * configure script:
- + modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used
- by default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in
- attempt to work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL
- notes.
- + correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and
- move it to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
- + modify configure script to allow building with termcap only,
- or with fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and
- toe.
- + modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile.
- In that case, do not use the build's tic to install the
- terminfo database.
- + modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that
- are different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's
- C++ compilers on Solaris and IRIX.
- + add several configure script options to aid with
- cross-compiling: --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags,
- --with-build-ldflags, and --with-build-libs.
- + add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to
- similar terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
- + add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in
- transition to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
- * library:
- + implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the
- %n conversion to help parse the input data.
- + various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
- vsscanf().
- + add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
- platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g.,
- Solaris.
- + finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
- + add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in
- curses.h
- * programs:
- + modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic
- links on platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
- + modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that
- linking aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not
- succeed because the source and destination differ only by
- case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0 on cygwin.
- + modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for
- basename of argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2
- which have case-independent filenames and/or program
- suffixes, e.g., ".ext".
+ This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
+ through 5.8; very few applications will require recompilation,
+ depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
+ change-log since ncurses 5.8 release.
+
+ This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent
+ problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release.
+
+ It also improves the Ada95 binding:
+ * fixes a longstanding portability problem with its use of the
+ [3]set_field_type function. Because that function uses
+ variable-length argument lists, its interface with gnat does not
+ work with certain platforms.
+ * improves configurability and portability, particularly when built
+ separately from the main ncurses tree. The 5.8 release introduced
+ scripts which can be used to construct separate tarballs for the
+ Ada95 and ncurses examples.
+ Those were a proof of concept. For the 5.9 release, those scripts
+ are augmented with rpm- and dpkg-scripts used in test builds
+ against a variety of gnat- and system ncurses versions as old as
+ gnat 3.15 and ncurses 5.4 (see snapshots and systems tested
+ [4]here.
+ * additional improvements were made for portability of the ncurses
+ examples, adding rpm- and dpkg-scripts for test-builds. See
+ [5]this page for snapshots and other information.
Features of Ncurses
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
- level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
- EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
- support are implemented, including many function calls not
- supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
- documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
+ level features, and most EXTENDED features). It includes many
+ function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of
+ all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
capability.
* Ada95 and C++ bindings.
- * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2
- console windows.
+ * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD
+ and OS/2 console windows.
* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
- * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
+ * The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
- * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
+ * The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's
default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
transparent colors.
- * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
- the 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 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
+ * The functions keyok and define_key allow you to better control the
+ 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 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
or System V's.
incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
- powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
+ powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch routine.
* Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk.
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ [6]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ [7]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded.
+ [8]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog.
+ [9]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
+ [10]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
Midnight Commander
file manager
- [8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
+ [11]http://www.midnight-commander.org/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org.
+ [12]http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com.
+ [13]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
- [12]http://www.tin.org.
+ [14]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
- taper
- tape archive utility
- [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
+ pinfo
+ Lynx-like info browser.
+ [15]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
+ tin
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME [16]http://www.tin.org/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
terminal emulator
- [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
+ [17]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
vile
vi-like-emacs
- [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile.
+ [18]http://invisible-island.net/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 [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
+ 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 [19]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
- Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
+ Contact the current maintainers at [20]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
and testing of this package.
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at [23]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses.
+ available at [21]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
Future Plans
Other Related Resources
- The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
- [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
+ The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
+ terminal description file once maintained by [22]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
+ X/Open specification.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
- covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive.
+ covered in the terminfo file at [23]Richard Shuford's archive .
References
- 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
- 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html
- 4. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html
- 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20021012/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://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html
- 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
- 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
- 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
- 20. http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en
- 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
- 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 23. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses
- 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
- 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
+ 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
+ 3. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x
+ 4. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html
+ 5. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
+ 6. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ 7. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+ 8. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ 9. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ 10. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ 11. http://www.midnight-commander.org/
+ 12. http://www.mutt.org/
+ 13. http://www.ncftp.com/
+ 14. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
+ 15. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
+ 16. http://www.tin.org/
+ 17. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ 18. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+ 19. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
+ 20. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+ 21. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
+ 22. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
+ 23. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal
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