+ Announcing ncurses 6.0
- Announcing ncurses 5.4
+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 is better known today as
+ X/Open 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
- 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
+ OSX.
+ * 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.
+ * [1]captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
+ * [2]clear, utility for clearing the screen
+ * [3]infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
+ * [4]tabs, set tabs on a terminal
+ * [5]tic, the terminfo compiler
+ * [6]toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
+ * [7]tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
+ scripts
+ * [8]tset, to initialize the terminal
+
+ 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 and
- 5.3; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
- the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
- ncurses 5.3 release.
-
- Interface changes:
- * add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character
- support.
- + pecho_wchar()
- + slk_wset()
- These are only available if the library is configured using the
- --enable-widec option.
- * write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
- getcurx(), etc.
- * simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
- * modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__()
- for g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses
- uses.
- * add key_defined() function, to tell which keycode a string is
- bound to.
-
- New features and improvements:
- * library
- + implement logic in lib_mouse.c to handle position reports
- which are generated when XFree86 xterm is initialized with
- private modes 1002 or 1003. These are returned to the
- application as the REPORT_MOUSE_POSITION mask, which was not
- implemented.
- + modify soft-key initialization to use A_REVERSE if A_STANDOUT
- would not be shown when colors are used, i.e., if ncv#1 is
- set in the terminfo as is done in "screen".
- + add configure option for FreeBSD sysmouse, --with-sysmouse,
- and implement library support for that.
- * programs:
- + tack:
- o allow it to run from fallback terminfo data.
- o reset colors after each color test, correct a place
- where exit_standout_mode was used instead of
- exit_attribute_mode.
- o improve bce test by making it set colors other than
- black on white.
- + tic:
- o handle a case where an entry has no description, and
- capabilities begin on the same line as the entry name.
- o allow a terminfo entry with a leading 2-character name.
- o improved warnings when suppressing items to fit in
- termcap's 1023-byte limit.
- o add check for multiple "tc=" clauses in a termcap.
- o correct logic for resolving "use=" clauses allow infocmp
- and tic to show cancelled capabilities.
- o check for incomplete line-drawing character mapping.
- o check for missing/empty/illegal terminfo name.
- + tput:
- o modify tput to use the same parameter analysis as
- tparm() does, to provide for user-defined strings, e.g.,
- for xterm title, a corresponding capability might be
- title=\E]2;%p1%s^G,
- + tset:
- o use the system's default values for CKILL and other
- default control characters.
- o correct interchanged defaults for kill and interrupt
- characters, which caused it to report unnecessarily.
-
- Major bug fixes:
- * prevent recursion in wgetch() via wgetnstr() if the connection
- cannot be switched between cooked/raw modes because it is not a
- TTY.
- * correct a case in _nc_remove_string(), used by define_key(), to
- avoid infinite loop if the given string happens to be a substring
- of other strings which are assigned to keys.
- * modify logic of acsc to use the original character if no mapping
- is defined, rather than a null.
- * several improvements for handling multi-cell display of wide
- characters.
- + modify setcchar() to allow converting control characters to
- complex characters.
- + correct handling of multibyte characters in waddch_literal()
- which force wrapping because they are started too late on the
- line.
- + modify setcchar() to allow for wchar_t input strings that
- have more than one spacing character.
- * other fixes for wide-character support:
- + rewrote lib_acs.c to allow PutAttrChar() to decide how to
- render alternate-characters, i.e., to work with Linux console
- and UTF-8 locale.
- + implement a workaround so that line-drawing works with
- screen's crippled UTF-8 support (tested with 3.9.13). This
- only works with the wide-character support (--enable-widec);
- the normal library will simply suppress line-drawing when
- running in a UTF-8 locale in screen.
- + corrections to lib_get_wstr.c:
- o null-terminate buffer passed to setcchar(), which
- occasionally failed.
- o map special characters such as erase- and
- kill-characters into key-codes so those will work as
- expected even if they are not mentioned in the terminfo.
- * modify setupterm() to check if the terminfo and terminal-modes
- have already been read. This ensures that it does not reinvoke
- def_prog_mode() when an application calls more than one function,
- such as tgetent() and initscr().
- * fix form_driver() cases for REQ_CLR_EOF, REQ_CLR_EOL,
- REQ_DEL_CHAR, REQ_DEL_PREV and REQ_NEW_LINE, which did not ensure
- the cursor was at the editing position before making
- modifications.
- * correct keybound(), which reported definitions in the wrong table,
- i.e., the list of definitions which are disabled by keyok().
- * fixes related to safe_sprintf.c:
- + correct an allocation size in safe_sprintf.c for the "*"
- format code.
- + correct safe_sprintf.c to not return a null pointer if the
- format happens to be an empty string.
- + make return value from _nc_printf_string() consistent.
- Before, depending on whether --enable-safe-sprintf was used,
- it might not be cached for reallocating.
- * other low-level improvements to the optimization code include:
- + if the output is a socket or other non-tty device, use 1
- millisecond for the cost in mvcur; previously it was 9
- milliseconds because the baudrate was not known.
- + modify lib_getch.c to avoid recursion via wgetnstr() when the
- input is not a tty and consequently mode-changes do not work.
- + fix several places in tack/pad.c which tested and used the
- parameter- and parameterless strings inconsistently.
- + change several tputs() calls in scrolling code to use putp(),
- to enable padding which may be needed for some terminals.
- + improve mvcur() by checking if it is safe to move when video
- attributes are set (msgr), and if not, reset/restore
- attributes within that function rather than doing it
- separately in the GoTo() function in tty_update.c.
- + use tputs() rather than putp() in a few cases in tty_update.c
- since the corresponding delays are proportional to the number
- of lines affected: repeat_char, clr_eos,
- change_scroll_region.
- * correct line/column reference in adjust_window(), needed to make
- special windows such as curscr track properly when resizing.
- * fix a potential recursion between napms() and _nc_timed_wait()
- * rewrote lib_insch.c, combining it with lib_insstr.c so both handle
- tab and other control characters consistently.
- * do not try to open gpm mouse driver if standard output is not a
- tty; the gpm library does not make this check.
-
- Portability:
- * configure script:
- + new options:
-
- --with-abi-version option.
- addresses platforms where packagers have diverged
- from ncurses ABI numbering.
-
- --with-manpage-format=catonly
- addresses behavior of BSDI, allow install of
- man+cat files on NetBSD, whose behavior has
- diverged by requiring both to be present.
-
- --with-manpage-aliases
- extends "--with-manpage-aliases" to provide the
- option of generating ".so" files rather than
- symbolic links for manpage aliases.
-
- --with-rel-version
- workaround to force libtool on Darwin generate the
- "same" library names as with the "--with-shared"
- option. The Darwin ld program does not work well
- with a zero as the minor-version value.
-
- --with-trace
- simplifies defining TRACE to incorporate trace() in
- libraries.
-
- + fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
- o allow BUILD_CC and related configure script variables to
- be overridden from the environment.
- o use AC_CHECK_TOOL to get proper values for AR and LD for
- cross compiling.
- o use $cross_compiling variable in configure script rather
- than comparing $host_alias and $target alias, since
- "host" is traditionally misused in autoconf to refer to
- the target platform.
- o modify run_tic.in to avoid using wrong shared libraries
- when cross-compiling.
- + fixes for Mac OS X:
- o fix a redefinition of $RANLIB in the configure script
- when libtool is used.
- o modify MKlib_gen.sh to avoid passing "#" tokens through
- the C preprocessor. This works around Mac OS X's
- preprocessor, which insists on adding a blank on each
- side of the token.
- + workarounds for broken tools:
- o add configure check for wchar_t and wint_t types, rather
- than rely on preprocessor definitions. Also work around
- for gcc fixinclude bug which creates a shadow copy of
- curses.h if it sees these symbols apparently typedef'd.
- o modify configure script to omit -Winline for gcc 3.3,
- since that feature is broken.
- o several script fixes to work around the ironically named
- POSIXLY_CORRECT feature of GNU sed 4.0.
- o modify configure script to avoid using "head -1", which
- does not work if POSIXLY_CORRECT (sic) is set.
- o update configure script to reflect fix for
- AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL, which is broken in autoconf
- 2.5x for Mac OS X 10.2.3.
- o repair check for missing C++ compiler, which is broken
- in autoconf 2.5x by hardcoding it to g++.
- + corrected ifdef's relating to configure check for wchar_t,
- etc.
- + remove configure script check to allow -Wconversion for older
- versions of gcc
- + modify configure script to accommodate libtool 1.5, as well
- as add an parameter to the "--with-libtool" option which can
- specify the pathname of libtool.
- + change several sed scripts to avoid using "\+" since it is
- not a BRE (basic regular expression). One instance caused
- terminfo.5 to be misformatted on FreeBSD.
- + use '%' as sed substitute delimiter in run_tic script to
- avoid problems with pathname delimiters such as ':' and '@'.
- + add -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=500 if needed when configuring with
- "--enable-widec", to get mbstate_t declaration on HPUX 11.11.
- * library:
- + adjust include-options in CF_ETIP_DEFINES to avoid missing
- ncurses_dll.h, fixing special definitions that may be needed
- for etip.h.
- + modify CF_LIB_SUFFIX for Itanium releases of HP-UX, which use
- a ".so" suffix.
- + improve ifdef's to guard against redefinition of wchar_t and
- wint_t in curses.h.
- + remove an #undef for KEY_EVENT from curses.tail used in the
- experimental NCURSES_WGETCH_EVENTS feature. The #undef
- confuses Debian dpkg's build script.
-
- 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.
+ distribution site
+
+ [9]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
+
+ It is also available at
+
+ [10]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
+
+Release Notes
+
+ These notes are for ncurses 6.0, released August 8, 2015.
+
+ This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
+ through 5.9; providing a new application binary interface (ABI).
+ Although the source can still be configured to support the ncurses 5
+ ABI, the intent of the release is to provide extensions which are
+ generally useful, but binary-incompatible with ncurses 5:
+ * Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
+ encoded.
+ * Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse
+ button. That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with
+ xterm or similar X terminal emulators.
+
+ There are, of course, numerous other improvements, including
+ * fixes made based on the Clang and Coverity static analyzers.
+ * memory leak fixes using Valgrind
+
+ The release notes mention some bug-fixes, but are focused on new
+ features and improvements to existing features log since ncurses 5.9
+ release.
+
+ While the intent of the release is to provide a new stable ABI, there
+ are other development activities which are summarized below.
+ * The original release plan, e.g., for "5.10" was to improve the
+ MinGW port. Ultimately that was completed (wide-character support,
+ mouse, etc), but was deferred to focus on termcap support and
+ performance issues. Also, pinpointing the problems with Console2
+ took a while.
+ * A review of termcap compatibility in 2011 led to several minor
+ fixes in the library and improvements to utilities. To do this
+ properly, a review of the various extent termcap implementations
+ was needed.
+ The [11]termcap library checker (tctest) (not part of ncurses) was
+ one result. A followup review of performance using
+ [12]ncurses-examples in 2014 led to additional improvements.
+ * Output buffering provided a further, but worthwhile distraction. A
+ bug report in 2012 regarding the use of signal handlers in
+ ncurses) pointed out [13]a problem with the use of unsafe
+ functions for handling SIGTSTP. Other signals could be addressed
+ with workarounds; repairing SIGTSTP required a different approach.
+ The solution required changing internal behavior of the library:
+ how it handles output buffering.
+ Now ncurses buffers its own output, independently of the standard
+ output. A few applications relied upon the library's direct reuse
+ of the standard output buffering; however that is unspecified
+ behavior and has never been a recommended practice. Identifying
+ these applications as well as refining the change to permit
+ low-level applications to work consistently took time.
+ * Since the introduction of the experimental support for 256 colors
+ early in [14]2005 (released in [15]ncurses 5.5), there has been
+ increased user interest. Almost all packagers continue providing
+ the ncurses ABI 5 which cannot support 256 colors.
+ * Symbol versioning, or the lack of it in ncurses, is the main
+ reason why packagers would be reluctant to add a new ncurses ABI.
+ This release provides the new ABI along with script-generated
+ lists of versioned symbols which can be used for both ABI 5 and 6
+ (with distinct names to keep the two separate). This took time to
+ development, as reported in [16]Symbol versioning in ncurses.
+
+ Library improvements
+
+ Output buffering
+
+ X/Open curses provides more than one initialization function:
+ * [17]initscr (the simplest) accepts no parameters.
+ * [18]newterm accepts parameters for the stream input and output
+ * [19]setupterm (the low-level function) accepts a parameter for the
+ file descriptor of the output.
+
+ They are documented in X/Open as if initscr calls newterm using stdout
+ for output stream, and in turn newterm calls setupterm using
+ fileno(stdout) for the file descriptor. As long as an implementation
+ acts as if it does this, it conforms. In practice, implementations do
+ what is implied. This creates a problem: the low-level setupterm
+ function's file descriptor is unbuffered, while newterm implies
+ buffered output. X/Open Curses says that all output is done through
+ the file descriptor, and does not say how the output stream is
+ actually used.
+
+ Initially, ncurses used the file descriptor (obtained from the output
+ stream passed to newterm) for changing the terminal modes, and relied
+ upon the output parameter of newterm for buffered output. Later (to
+ avoid using unsafe buffered I/O in signal handlers), ncurses was
+ modified to use the file descriptor (unbuffered output) when cleaning
+ up on receipt of a signal. Otherwise (when not handling a signal), it
+ continued to use the buffered output.
+
+ That approach worked reasonably well and as a side effect, using the
+ same buffered output as an application might use for printf meant that
+ no flushing was needed when switching between normal- and
+ screen-modes.
+
+ There were a couple of problems:
+ * to get good performance, curses (not only ncurses, but SVr4 curses
+ in general) set an output buffer using setbuf or similar function.
+ There is no standard (or portable) way to turn that output buffer
+ off, and revert to line-buffering. The [20]NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
+ environment variable did make it optional.
+ * to handle SIGTSTP (the "stop" signal), ncurses relied upon unsafe
+ functions. That is, due to the complexity of the feature, it
+ relied upon reusing existing functions which should not have been
+ called via the signal handler.
+
+ Conveniently, solving the second problem (by making ncurses do its own
+ output buffering) also fixed the first one. But there were special
+ cases to resolve: [21]low-level functions such as mvcur, putp, vidattr
+ explicitly use the standard output. Those functions were reused
+ internally, and required modification to distinguish whether they were
+ used by the high-level or low-level interfaces.
+
+ Finally, there may still be a few programs which should be modified to
+ improve their portability, e.g., adding an
+
+fflush(stdout);
+
+ when switching from "[22]shell" mode to "[23]program" (curses) mode.
+ Those are fairly rare because most programmers have learned not to mix
+ printf and [24]printw.
+
+ Symbol versioning
+
+ This release introduces symbol-versioning to ncurses because without
+ it, the change of ABI would be less successful. A lengthy discussion
+ will be presented in [25]Symbol versioning in ncurses. These notes
+ summarize what has changed, and what can be done with the new release.
+
+ Symbol-versioning allows the developers of a library to mark each
+ public symbol (both data and functions) with an identifier denoting
+ the library name and the version for which it was built. By doing
+ this, users of the library have a way to help ensure that applications
+ do not accidentally load an incompatible library. In addition, private
+ symbols can be hidden entirely.
+
+ This release provides sample files for the four principal
+ configurations of ncurses libraries: ncurses, ncursesw, ncursest and
+ ncursestw. Each sample is given in two forms:
+
+ ".map"
+ These list all public symbols, together with version names.
+
+ ".sym"
+ These list all public symbols, without version names.
+
+ The sample files are generated by scripts which take into account a
+ few special cases such as [26]tack to omit many of the ncurses private
+ symbols (beginning with "_nc_"). Here are counts of globals versus
+ locals:
+
+ Config Symbols Globals Locals "_nc_"
+ ncurses 976 796 180 332
+ ncursesw 1089 905 184 343
+ ncursest 979 804 175 358
+ ncursestw 1098 914 184 372
+
+ Although only four sample configurations are presented, each is formed
+ by merging symbols from several combinations of configure-script
+ options, taking into account advice from downstream packagers. Because
+ they are formed by merging, the sample files may list a symbol which
+ is not in a given package. That is expected. The samples have been
+ tested and are working with systems (such as Fedora, FreeBSD and
+ Debian) which fully support this feature. There are other systems
+ which do not support the feature, and a few (such as Solaris) which
+ provide incomplete support.
+
+ The version-naming convention used allows these sample files to build
+ distinct libraries for ABI 5 and 6. Version names consist of
+ * configuration name, e.g., "NCURSESW" for the wide-character
+ libraries
+ * ABI version (if not 5)
+ * library name for two special cases which have the same interface
+ across configurations: "TINFO" and "TIC"
+ * release version
+ * patch date (for the release version)
+
+ For example, running nm -D on the libraries in the ncurses6 test
+ package shows these symbol-versions:
+
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.0.19991023
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.1.20000708
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.5.20051010
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.7.20081102
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.9.20150530
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.0.19991023
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.1.20000708
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.2.20001021
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.3.20021019
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.4.20040208
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.5.20051010
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.6.20061217
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.7.20081102
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.8.20110226
+0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.9.20150530
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.1.20000708
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.3.20021019
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.4.20040208
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.5.20051010
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.6.20061217
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.7.20081102
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.8.20110226
+0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.9.20150530
+
+ As a special case, this release (which makes the final change for ABI
+ 5) is marked with release version 5.9 and patch date 20150530.
+
+ Miscellaneous
+
+ The new release has several improvements for performance and building.
+ For instance:
+ * several files in ncurses- and progs-directories were modified to
+ allow const data used in internal tables to be put by the linker
+ into the readonly text segment.
+ * various improvements were made to building the Ada95 binding, both
+ in simplifying the generated files as well as improving the way it
+ uses gnatmake
+
+ There are also new features in the libraries:
+ * added [27]use_tioctl function
+ * added [28]wgetdelay to retrieve _delay member of WINDOW if it
+ happens to be opaque, e.g., in the pthread configuration.
+ * added [29]A_ITALIC extension.
+ * added form library extension [30]O_DYNAMIC_JUSTIFY option which
+ can be used to override the different treatment of justification
+ for static versus dynamic fields .
+ * rewrote [31]putwin and [32]getwin, making an extended version
+ which is capable of reading screen-dumps between the wide/normal
+ ncurses configurations. These are text files, except for a magic
+ code at the beginning:
+
+0 string \210\210 Screen-dump (ncurses)
+
+ * several changes to mouse support include:
+ + added decoder for xterm SGR 1006 mouse mode.
+ + added experimental support for "%u" format to terminfo.
+ + improved behavior of wheel-mice for xterm protocol: noting
+ that there are only button-presses for buttons "4" and "5",
+ so there is no need to wait to combine events into
+ double-clicks .
+
+ There are a few new configure options dealing with library
+ customization:
+ * add "--enable-ext-putwin" configure option to turn on the extended
+ putwin/getwin. By default, this is enabled for ABI 6 and disabled
+ with ABI 5.
+ * add "--enable-string-hacks" option to control whether strlcat and
+ strlcpy may be used. Because ncurses already does the requisite
+ buffer-limit checks, this feature is mainly of interest to quiet
+ compiler-warnings on a few systems.
+ * add configure option "--with-tparm-arg" to allow [33]tparm's
+ parameters to be something more likely to be the same size as a
+ pointer, e.g., intptr_t (again, the default is set for ABI 6).
+
+ Program improvements
+
+ Utilities
+
+ Most of the termcap-related changes based on development of [34]tctest
+ (termcap library checker) are implemented in the tic and infocmp
+ programs rather than affecting the library. As noted in the
+ [35]discussion of tctest, ncurses's ability to translate between
+ terminfo and termcap formats has been improved at different times, but
+ subject to feedback from "real" termcap users. There are very few of
+ those. Nowadays, virtually all termcap users are using ncurses (or
+ NetBSD, with its own terminfo library) and their programs are actually
+ using terminfo rather than termcap data.
+
+ Still, there are a few. A comment about the translation of the ASCII
+ NUL character prompted a review:
+ * Both terminfo and termcap store string capabilities as
+ NUL-terminated strings.
+ * In terminfo, a \0 in a terminal description is stored as \200.
+ * There are no (known) terminals which would behave differently when
+ sent \0 or \200.
+ * When translating to terminfo format (or displaying a printable
+ version of an entry using infocmp), ncurses shows \200 as \0.
+ * It has done this since 1998 (quoting from the NEWS file):
+
+[36]980103
+...
+ + modify _nc_tic_expand() to generate \0 rather than \200.
+...
+ + correct translation of terminfo "^@", to \200, like \0.
+
+ * However, the _nc_tic_expand function (which optionally produces
+ terminfo or termcap format) did not address this special case for
+ termcap. Even the later 4.4BSD [37]cgetstr interprets a \0
+ literally, ending that string (rather than using the terminfo
+ improvement).
+
+ As a result of the review, several improvements were made to ncurses
+ translation to/from termcap format -- and improving the checks made in
+ tic for consistency of entries. Most of these are not of general
+ interest, except for two new command-line options for tic and infocmp:
+ * the "-0" option generates termcap/terminfo source on a single
+ line.
+ * the "-K" option provides stricter BSD-compatibility for termcap
+ output.
+
+ Other user-visible improvements and new features include:
+ * added "-D" option to tic and infocmp, to show the database
+ locations that it could use.
+ * added "-s" option to toe, to sort its output.
+ * extended "-c" and "-n" options of infocmp to allow comparing more
+ than two entries.
+ * modified toe's report when "-a" and "-s" options are combined, to
+ add a column showing which entries belong to a given database.
+ * modified the clear program to take into account the "E3" extended
+ capability to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer.
+
+ Examples
+
+ Along with the library and utilities, many improvements were made to
+ the [38]ncurses-examples. Some were made to allow building (and
+ comparison-testing) against NetBSD curses and PDCurses. Both lack some
+ of the X/Open Curses features, necessitating customization. But this
+ activity was useful because it showed some remaining performance
+ issues (which have been resolved in this release).
+
+ These changes were made to verify compatibility or compare performance
+ of ncurses:
+ * made workarounds for compiling test-programs with NetBSD curses,
+ though it lacks some common functions such as [39]use_env.
+ * added dots_termcap test-program
+ * added dots_curses test-program, for comparison with the low-level
+ examples.
+ * added test_setupterm test-proram to demonstrate normal/error
+ returns from the setupterm and restartterm functions.
+ * added "-d", "-e" and "-q" options to the demo_terminfo and
+ demo_termcap test-programs.
+ * added "-y" option to demo_termcap and test/demo_terminfo
+ test-programs to demonstrate behavior with/without extended
+ capabilities.
+ * modified demo_termcap and demo_terminfo test-programs to make
+ their options more directly comparable, and add "-i" option to
+ specify a terminal description filename to parse for names to
+ lookup.
+ * rewrote the tests for [40]mvderwin and test for recursive
+ [41]mvwin in the movewindow test-program.
+
+ These changes were made to help with the MinGW port:
+ * added test-screens to the ncurses test-program to show
+ 256-characters at a time, to help with MinGW port.
+ * modified the view test-program to load UTF-8 when built with MinGW
+ by using regular win32 API because the MinGW functions mblen and
+ mbtowc do not work.
+ * added "-s" option to the view test-program to allow it to start in
+ single-step mode, reducing size of trace files when it is used for
+ debugging MinGW changes.
+
+ These changes were made to verify new extensions in ncurses:
+ * added [42]form_driver_w entrypoint to wide-character forms
+ library, as well as form_driver_w test-program.
+ * modified ncurses test-program's b/B tests to display lines only
+ for the attributes which a given terminal supports, to make room
+ for an italics test.
+ * modified ncurses test-program, adding "-E" and "-T" options to
+ demonstrate use_env versus use_tioctl.
+ * modified ncurses test-program's c/C tests to cycle through subsets
+ of the total number of colors, to better illustrate
+ 8/16/88/256-colors by providing directly comparable screens.
+ * modified the ncurses test-program to also show position reports in
+ 'a' test.
+
+ These changes were made to make the examples more useful:
+ * added scripts for building dpkg and rpm test-packages
+ * modified the hanoi test-program to show the minimum number of
+ moves possible for the given number of tiles.
+ * modified the knight test-program to show the number of choices
+ possible for each position in automove option, e.g., to allow user
+ to follow Warnsdorff's rule to solve the puzzle.
+
+ Terminal database
+
+ This release provides improvements to tic's "-c" checking option,
+ which was used for example to
+ * make sgr in several entries agree with other caps.
+ * correct padding in some entries where earlier versions had
+ miscounted the number of octal digits.
+
+ There are several new terminal descriptions:
+ * [43]mlterm is now aliased to mlterm3
+ * [44]nsterm is now derived from nsterm-256color
+ * [45]putty-sco
+ * [46]teken is FreeBSD's "xterm" console.
+ * [47]terminator
+ * [48]terminology
+ * [49]tmux is derived from screen.
+ * several screen.XXX entries support the respective variations for
+ 256 colors.
+ * [50]simpleterm is now 0.5
+ * [51]vte is aliased to vte-2012
+ * [52]vt520ansi
+
+ A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities):
+ * E3, used in linux, putty and xterm-basic is tested in the
+ [53]clear program to erase a terminal's scrollback.
+ * TS is used in the [54]xterm+sl building block to help deprecate
+ the misuse of tsl for xterm's title-string.
+ * XT is used in some terminfo entries to improve usefulness for
+ other applications than screen, which would like to pretend that
+ xterm's title is a status-line.
+ * xm is used in examples [55]xterm-1005 and [56]xterm-1006 to
+ illustrate a way to make mouse handling more general
+
+ A few terminals support italics and/or dim capabilities. In
+ particular, screen does not. Documented that, and accommodated the
+ terminals where this feature works with the A_ITALIC extension.
+ * konsole, mlterm3 (italics)
+ * nsterm (dim)
+ * screen (dim)
+ * vte (dim, italics)
+ * xterm (dim, italics)
+
+ 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 [57]NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
+
+ In addition, the mechanism for producing HTML versions of the
+ documentation has been improved:
+ * use an improved version of [58]man2html to generate html manpages.
+ * regenerated [59]NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html to fix some of the
+ broken html emitted by docbook.
+
+ Interesting bug-fixes
+
+ * Ada95 binding:
+ + modify makefile rules to ensure that the PIC option is not
+ used when building a static library
+ + make Ada95 build-fix for big-endian architectures such as
+ sparc. This undoes one of the fixes from [60]20110319, which
+ added an "Unused" member to representation clauses, replacing
+ that with pragmas to suppress warnings about unused bits.
+ * Color and attributes:
+ + parenthesize parameter of COLOR_PAIR and PAIR_NUMBER in
+ curses.h in case it happens to be a comma-expression.
+ + improve [61]20021221 workaround for broken acs, handling a
+ case where that ACS_xxx character is not in the acsc string
+ but there is a known wide-character which can be used.
+ + modify [62]init_pair to accept -1's for color value after
+ [63]assume_default_colors has been called.
+ + add a check in [64]start_color to limit color-pairs to 256
+ when extended colors are not supported.
+ * Resizing the screen:
+ + propagate error-returns from wresize, i.e., the internal
+ increase_size and decrease_size functions through
+ [65]resize_term.
+ + add check for zero/negative dimensions for resizeterm and
+ resize_term.
+ + modify resizeterm to always push a KEY_RESIZE onto the fifo,
+ even if screensize is unchanged. Modify library to push a
+ KEY_RESIZE if there was a SIGWINCH, even if it does not call
+ resizeterm). These changes eliminate the case where a
+ SIGWINCH is received, but ERR is returned from wgetch or
+ wgetnstr because the screen dimensions did not change.
+ * Low-level interfaces
+ + fix an old bug in the termcap emulation; "%i" was ignored in
+ tparm because the parameters to be incremented were already
+ on the internal stack.
+ + change "%l" behavior in tparm to push the string length onto
+ the stack rather than saving the formatted length into the
+ output buffer.
+ + modify name-comparison for tgetstr, etc., to accommodate
+ legacy applications as well as to improve compatbility with
+ BSD 4.2 termcap implementations (see note for [66]980725).
+ * High-level interfaces
+ + modify internal recursion in wgetch which handles cooked mode
+ to check if the call to wgetnstr returned an error. This can
+ happen when both nocbreak and nodelay are set, for instance
+ (see note for [67]960418).
+ + add a check in internal function waddch_nosync to ensure that
+ tab characters are treated as control characters; some broken
+ locales claim they are printable.
+ + modify menu library to ensure that a menu's top-row is
+ adjusted as needed to ensure that the current item is on the
+ screen
+ + fix special case where double-width character overwrites a
+ single- width character in the first column.
+
+ Configuration changes
+
+ Major changes
+
+ The ncurses 6.0 configure script makes changes to the default value of
+ several configure options, depending on the --with-abi-version option
+ (i.e., whether its value is "5" or "6"):
+
+ --enable-const
+ Feature introduced in [68]970405 supports the use of const
+ where X/Open Curses should have, but did not. NetBSD curses
+ does something similar with const.
+
+ --enable-ext-colors
+ Extends the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to
+ be encoded. This applies only to the wide-character
+ (--enable-widec) configuration.
+
+ --enable-ext-mouse
+ Modifies the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th
+ mouse button. That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse
+ with xterm or similar X terminal emulators.
+
+ --enable-ext-putwin
+ Modifies the file-format written by putwin to use printable
+ text rather than binary files, allowing getwin to read screen
+ dumps written by differently-configured ncurses libraries. The
+ extended getwin can still read binary screen dumps from the
+ same configuration of ncurses. This does not change the ABI
+ (the binary interface seen by calling applications).
+
+ --enable-interop
+ Modifies the FIELDTYPE structure used for the form library to
+ make it more generic.
+
+ --enable-lp64
+ Allows an application to define _LP64 to declare chtype and
+ mmask_t as simply "unsigned" rather than the configured types
+ using the --with-chtype and --with-mmask_t options.
+
+ --enable-sp-funcs
+ Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN
+ pointer, reducing the need for juggling the global SP value
+ with [69]set_term and [70]delscreen.
+
+ --with-chtype=uint32_t
+ Makes chtype explicitly a 32-bit unsigned value.
+
+ --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
+ Makes mmask_t explicitly a 32-bit unsigned value.
+
+ --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
+ X/Open Curses declares [71]tparm using long for each of the
+ parameters aside from the formatting string, presuming that
+ long and char* are the same size. This configure option uses
+ intptr_t which provides a better guarantee of the sizes.
+
+ The configure script no longer checks for antique compilers; c89 is
+ assumed as a minimum. There are a few features from later revisions
+ which are used when available. The configure script makes checks to
+ turn on useful warnings from clang, gcc and icc. You should be able to
+ build ncurses 6.0 with any of the current (or not so current) C
+ compilers available in 2015.
+
+ The configure script, by the way, makes changes which do not work with
+ systems whose /bin/sh is non-POSIX. This mainly affects Solaris (the
+ other vendor unix systems have followed the POSIX guidelines for the
+ past twenty years). If you must build on Solaris, its [72]xpg4
+ binaries suffice, e.g.,
+
+ #!/bin/sh
+ WHAT=`hostname|sed -e 's/\..*//'`
+ OUT=configure.out
+ cat >>$OUT <<EOF/
+ ** `date`
+ ** node: $WHAT
+ ** user: `id`
+ ** conf: $*
+ EOF/
+
+ SHELL=/bin/sh
+ if test -f /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
+ then
+ CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/xpg4/bin/sh
+ export CONFIG_SHELL
+ SHELL=$CONFIG_SHELL
+ fi
+
+ rm -f config.status config.cache
+ TOP=$HOME/$WHAT
+ $SHELL ./configure --verbose \
+ --disable-echo \
+ --disable-overwrite \
+ --enable-warnings \
+ --with-warnings \
+ --prefix=$TOP $* 2>&1 | tee -a $OUT
+
+ Other major changes to the configure script include:
+ * ABI 6 is now the default, intending that the existing ABI 5 should
+ build as before using the "--with-abi-version=5" option.
+ * added --with-extra-suffix option to help with installing
+ nonconflicting ncurses6 packages, e.g., avoiding header- and
+ library-conflicts.
+ NOTE: as a side-effect, this renames
+
+ adacurses-config to adacurses5-config and
+ adacursesw-config to adacursesw5-config
+ * the configure script looks for gnatgcc if the Ada95 binding is
+ built, in preference to the default gcc/cc. The script also
+ ensures that the Ada95 binding is built with the level of
+ optimization as the C libraries.
+ * the configure script captures define's related to -D_XOPEN_SOURCE
+ from the configure check and adds those to the *-config and *.pc
+ files, to simplify use for the wide-character libraries.
+
+ Configuration options
+
+ There are several new (or extended) configure options:
+
+ --disable-db-install
+ Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit
+ features for packages, as done with --without-progs. The option
+ simplifies building cross-compile support packages.
+
+ --disable-gnat-projects
+ This option is used for regression testing
+
+ --disable-lib-suffixes
+ Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be
+ added to the library names for the --enable-widec and
+ --with-pthread options.
+
+ --with-cxx-shared
+ When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared
+ library. This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++,
+ since other compiler suites may have differences in the way
+ shared libraries are built. libtool by the way has similar
+ limitations.
+
+ --with-hashed-db
+ Extended this configure option to simplify building with
+ different versions of Berkeley database using FreeBSD ports.
+
+ --with-pc-suffix
+ If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the
+ files and corresponding package names to separate unusual
+ configurations. If no option value is given (or if it is
+ "none"), no suffix is added. This option is used in the test
+ package for ncurses6.
+
+ --with-xterm-kbs
+ Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e.,
+ ASCII backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127).
+
+ Portability
+
+ MinGW
+
+ Most of the portability-related work since [73]ncurses 5.9 extended
+ and improved the MinGW port introduced in [74]ncurses 5.8.
+
+ The MinGW port can be readily cross-compiled:
+ * modified configure script to allow creating dll's for MinGW when
+ cross-compiling.
+ * enforced Windows-style path-separator if cross-compiling,
+ * added scripts for test-builds of cross-compiled packages for
+ ncurses6 to MinGW.
+ * added pc-files to the MinGW cross-compiling test-packages.
+ * added script for building test-packages of binaries cross-compiled
+ to MinGW using NSIS.
+ * added nc_mingw.h to installed headers for MinGW port; this is
+ needed for cross-compiling [75]ncurses-examples.
+ * added test-packages for cross-compiling ncurses-examples using the
+ MinGW test-packages.
+
+ The MinGW-specific Windows driver accounts for several changes:
+ * wide-character display is made usable by replacing MinGW's
+ non-working wcrtomb and wctomb functions.
+ * implemented some display features: [76]beep, [77]flash,
+ [78]curs_set.
+ * the driver handles repainting on endwin/refresh combination.
+ * modified treatment of TERM variable for MinGW port to allow
+ explicit use of the Windows console driver by checking if $TERM is
+ set to "#win32console" or an abbreviation of that.
+ * the Windows driver also matches the special TERM value "unknown"
+ * the driver now returns characters for special keys, (like ansi.sys
+ does), when keypad mode is off, rather than returning nothing at
+ all.
+ * the driver checks a new environment variable [79]NCURSES_CONSOLE2
+ to optionally work around a deficiency in Console2 (and its
+ descendent ConsoleZ) which hang when an application creates a
+ console buffer.
+
+ Finally, there are other improvements:
+ * MinGW is one of the configurations where ncurses installs by
+ default into /usr
+ * configuration for cross-compiling uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS in
+ preference to AC_PATH_PROGS when searching for ncurses*-config,
+ e.g., in Ada95/configure and test/configure.
+ * extend Windows support to work with MSYS2;
+ + this works with a scenario where there is an ANSI-escape
+ handler such as ansicon running in the console window.
+ + wrap isatty calls with a macro, provide a corresponding set
+ of support routines to address differences between MinGW and
+ MSYS2.
+ * ensure WINVER is defined in makefiles rather than using headers.
+ * add check for the gnatprep "-T" option.
+ * work around a bug introduced by [80]gcc 4.8.1 in MinGW which
+ breaks "trace" feature.
+ * add a driver-name method to each of the drivers.
+
+ Other ports
+
+ These changes affect certain platforms (ports):
+ * the configure script knows how to build shared libraries with
+ DragonFlyBSD and Interix.
+ * support for AIX shared libraries is improved, tested with AIX 5.3,
+ 6.1 and 7.1 with both gcc 4.2.4 and cc:
+ + the shared-library suffix for AIX 5 and 6 is now ".so"
+ + the -brtl option is used with AIX 5-7; it is needed to link
+ with the shared libraries.
+ * the configure --enable-pc-files option takes into account the
+ [81]PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable.
+ * the configure option --with-pkg-config-libdir provides control
+ over the actual directory into which pc-files are installed.
+ * the build scripts add explicit -ltinfo, etc., to the generated
+ ".pc" file when ld option "--as-needed" is used, or when ncurses
+ and tinfo are installed without using rpath.
+ * the configure script disallows conflicting options
+ "--with-termlib" and "--enable-term-driver".
+ * the check for missing c++ compiler to work when no error is
+ reported, and no variables set is improved (see note for
+ [82]20021206).
+ * the misc/gen_edit.sh script selects a "linux" entry which works
+ with the current kernel rather than assuming it is always
+ "linux3.0"
+ * the test/configure script makes it simpler to override names of
+ curses-related libraries, to help with linking with pdcurses in
+ MinGW environment.
+ * the configure-script/ifdef's allow the BSD OLD_TTY feature to be
+ suppressed if the type of ospeed is configured using the option
+ --with-ospeed to not be a short. By default, it is a short for
+ termcap-compatibility.
+ * the MKlib_gen.sh script works around a recent change in gcc 5
+ (released [83]mid-2015) which essentially emits multiple #line
+ statements for the same position in a file.
+ * the configure script works with Minix3.2 (see [84]note on
+ portability)
+ * OS/2 redux:
+ + the configure script supports OS/2 kLIBC.
+ + the --with-lib-prefix option allows configuring for old/new
+ flavors of OS/2 EMX.
+ * improved configure-script checks for _XOPEN_SOURCE:
+ + the definition works starting with Solaris 10.
+ + the definition is suppressed for IRIX64, since its header
+ files have a conflict versus _SGI_SOURCE.
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+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.
+ * 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
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.
+ * 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
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
- sets.
- * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
+ * The [85]tic/[86]captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
+ ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T
+ extension sets.
+ * A BSD-like [87]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
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 table-of-entries utility [88]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
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 [89]Additional
+ Reading section of the [90]ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
- State of the Package
+Applications using ncurses
- 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 distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games). These are available separately as
+ [91]ncurses-examples
- The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
- including (versions starting with those noted):
+ The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including:
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+
+ [92]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+
+ [93]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/
+ basis for similar install/configure applications on many
+ systems.
+
+ [94]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
- the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ the text WWW browser
+
+ [95]http://lynx.isc.org/
Midnight Commander
file manager
- [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
+
+ [96]http://www.midnight-commander.org/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org/
+
+ [97]http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com/
+
+ [98]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/
+ New vi uses ncurses.
- pinfo
- Lynx-like info browser.
- [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
+ [99]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
+ [100]http://www.tin.org/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
- terminal emulator
- [15]http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
+ terminal emulator for serial modem connections
+
+ [101]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+
+ mosh
+ a replacement for ssh.
+
+ [102]https://mosh.mit.edu/
+
+ tack
+ terminfo action checker
+
+ [103]http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+
+ tmux
+ terminal multiplexor
+
+ [104]http://tmux.github.io/
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).
+ [105]http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+
+ and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:
+
+ emacs
+ text editor
+
+ [106]http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+
+ screen
+ terminal multiplexor
+
+ [107]http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
+
+ vim
+ text editor
+
+ [108]http://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. Jürgen 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. Ongoing
+ development work is done by [109]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey also
+ acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds
+ the [110]copyright on ncurses.
- To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
- bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
- subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
+ Contact the current maintainers at
+
+ [111]bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+
+ To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
+
+ [112]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 [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
+ available at
+
+ [113]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
-Future Plans
+ There is an archive of the mailing list here:
- * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
- support.
- * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
+ [114]http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also
+ [115]https)
- We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
- working on them, please join the ncurses list.
+Related resources
-Other Related Resources
+ The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may
+ be interesting by themselves:
+ * [116]man2html
+ * [117]ncurses licensing
+ * [118]Symbol versioning in ncurses
+ * [119]The MinGW port of ncurses
+ * [120]tack - terminfo action checker
+ * [121]tar versus portability
+ * [122]tctest - termcap library checker
+ * [123]Terminal Database
+
+Other resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike the
- older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
- file.
+ terminal description file once maintained by [124]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 [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
+ covered in the terminfo file at [125]Richard Shuford's archive .
+
+ * [126]Overview
+ * [127]Release Notes
+ + [128]Library improvements
+ o [129]Output buffering
+ o [130]Symbol versioning
+ o [131]Miscellaneous
+ + [132]Program improvements
+ o [133]Utilities
+ o [134]Examples
+ + [135]Terminal database
+ + [136]Documentation
+ + [137]Interesting bug-fixes
+ + [138]Configuration changes
+ o [139]Major changes
+ o [140]Configuration options
+ + [141]Portability
+ o [142]MinGW
+ o [143]Other ports
+ * [144]Features of ncurses
+ * [145]Applications using ncurses
+ * [146]Development activities
+ * [147]Related resources
+ * [148]Other resources
References
- 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
- 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- 4. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
- 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
- 9. http://www.mutt.org/
- 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- 12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
- 13. http://www.tin.org/
- 14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
- 15. http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
- 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://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ 1. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html
+ 2. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html
+ 3. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html
+ 4. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html
+ 5. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html
+ 6. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html
+ 7. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html
+ 8. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html
+ 9. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
+ 10. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
+ 11. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
+ 12. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
+ 13. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2012-07/msg00029.html
+ 14. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20050101
+ 15. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.5.html
+ 16. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html
+ 17. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-initscr
+ 18. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-newterm
+ 19. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization
+ 20. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
+ 21. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html
+ 22. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-reset_prog_mode_-reset_shell_mode
+ 23. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-reset_prog_mode_-reset_shell_mode
+ 24. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_printw.3x.html
+ 25. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html
+ 26. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+ 27. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_tioctl
+ 28. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_opaque.3x.html
+ 29. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY
+ 30. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_field_opts.3x.html
+ 31. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-putwin_getwin
+ 32. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-putwin_getwin
+ 33. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output
+ 34. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
+ 35. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html#my-better-translation
+ 36. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t980103
+ 37. https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/lib/libc/gen/getcap.c?revision=244092&view=markup#l784
+ 38. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
+ 39. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_env
+ 40. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h3-derwin
+ 41. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h3-mvwin
+ 42. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_driver.3x.html#h3-form_driver_w
+ 43. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_M_L_T_E_R_M
+ 44. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm
+ 45. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty-sco
+ 46. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken
+ 47. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_T_E_R_M_I_N_A_T_O_R
+ 48. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_T_E_R_M_I_N_O_L_O_G_Y
+ 49. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux
+ 50. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_S_I_M_P_L_E_T_E_R_M
+ 51. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte
+ 52. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt520ansi
+ 53. http://aerie.jexium-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html
+ 54. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl
+ 55. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-1005
+ 56. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-1006
+ 57. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html
+ 58. http://invisible-island.net/scripts/man2html.html
+ 59. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html
+ 60. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20110319
+ 61. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20021221
+ 62. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-Routine-Descriptions
+ 63. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/default_colors.3x.html
+ 64. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-Routine-Descriptions
+ 65. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html
+ 66. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t980725
+ 67. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t960418
+ 68. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t970405
+ 69. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-set_term
+ 70. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-delscreen
+ 71. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output
+ 72. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/html/817-0552/fhkpy.html
+ 73. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.9.html
+ 74. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.8.html
+ 75. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
+ 76. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_beep.3x.html
+ 77. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_beep.3x.html
+ 78. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-curs_set
+ 79. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-NCURSES_CONSOLE2
+ 80. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20877689/gcc-4-8-1-minggw-d-option-does-not-work-as-usual
+ 81. http://linux.die.net/man/1/pkg-config
+ 82. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20021206
+ 83. https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-5/
+ 84. http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/portability-test.html
+ 85. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html
+ 86. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html
+ 87. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html
+ 88. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html
+ 89. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading
+ 90. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html
+ 91. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
+ 92. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ 93. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ 94. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ 95. http://lynx.isc.org/
+ 96. http://www.midnight-commander.org/
+ 97. http://www.mutt.org/
+ 98. http://www.ncftp.com/
+ 99. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
+ 100. http://www.tin.org/
+ 101. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ 102. https://mosh.mit.edu/
+ 103. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+ 104. http://tmux.github.io/
+ 105. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+ 106. http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+ 107. http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
+ 108. http://www.vim.org/
+ 109. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
+ 110. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html
+ 111. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+ 112. mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
+ 113. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
+ 114. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses
+ 115. https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses
+ 116. http://invisible-island.net/scripts/man2html.html
+ 117. http://invisible-island.nethttp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html
+ 118. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html
+ 119. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mingw.html
+ 120. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+ 121. http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/portability-tar.html
+ 122. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
+ 123. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database
+ 124. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
+ 125. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal
+ 126. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-overview
+ 127. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-release-notes
+ 128. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-library
+ 129. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-lib-setbuf
+ 130. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-lib-versioning
+ 131. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-lib-other
+ 132. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-programs
+ 133. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-utilities
+ 134. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-examples
+ 135. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-database
+ 136. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-documentation
+ 137. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-bug-fixes
+ 138. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-config-config
+ 139. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-config-major
+ 140. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-config-options
+ 141. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-portability
+ 142. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-port-mingw
+ 143. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-port-systems
+ 144. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-features
+ 145. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-who-uses
+ 146. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-development
+ 147. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-this-stuff
+ 148. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-other-stuff
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff