-
- Announcing ncurses 5.3
+ Announcing ncurses 5.6
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.
+ This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
+ through 5.5; very few applications will require recompilation,
+ depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
+ change-log since ncurses 5.5 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.
+ * generate linkable stubs for some macros:
+ getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
+ getpary, getpary,
+ and (for libncursesw)
+ wgetbkgrnd
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.
+ * library
+ + support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions. This
+ uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for several
+ versions on different platforms.
+ + add use_legacy_coding() function to support lynx's
+ font-switching feature.
+ + add extension nofilter(), to cancel a prior filter() call.
+ + add/install a package config script, e.g., ncurses5-config or
+ ncursesw5-config, according to configuration options.
+ + provide ifdef for NCURSES_NOMACROS which suppresses most
+ macro definitions from curses.h, i.e., where a macro is
+ defined to override a function to improve performance.
+ + make ifdef's consistent in curses.h for the extended colors
+ so the header file can be used for the normal curses library.
+ The header file installed for extended colors is a variation
+ of the wide-character configuration.
+ + improve tgetstr() by making the return value point into the
+ user's buffer, if provided.
+ + add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with tparm() using
+ either varargs (the existing status), or using a
+ fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
+ + widen the test for xterm kmous a little to allow for other
+ strings than "\E[M", e.g., for xterm-sco functionality in
+ xterm.
+ + modify wgetnstr() to return KEY_RESIZE if a sigwinch occurs.
+ + move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
+ curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
+ those if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is defined without ensuring
+ that <wchar.h> is included.
+ + change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are
+ installed. Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries,
+ link the shared objects into the install directory. This
+ makes the --with-rpath option work except with $(DESTDIR).
+ + several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are only
+ available if the library is configured using
+ --enable-xmc-glitch.
+ + Add NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS and NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE
+ environment variables to allow runtime suppression of the
+ related hard-tabs and xmc-glitch features.
+ * programs:
+ + add new test programs: chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c, echochar.c,
+ foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting that existing
+ test programs also were modified to test additional
+ features).
+ + modify tack to test extended capability function-key strings.
+ + modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via cgetent()
+ functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
+ + improve infocmp/tic -f option formatting.
+ + add toe -a option, to show all databases. This uses new
+ private interfaces in the ncurses library for iterating
+ through the list of databases.
+ + modify MKfallback.sh to use tic -x when constructing fallback
+ tables to allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a
+ fallback entry.
+ * terminal database
+ + add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome
+ terminal (mgt)
+ + add nsterm-16color entry
+ + updated mlterm terminfo entry
+ + add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
+ + remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux
+ entry, since it does not really do this
+ + add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
+ + add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri
+ strings
+ + add hpterm-color terminfo entry
+ + add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which
+ are reported to implement this feature
+ + correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made
+ codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
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).
+ * correct a typo in configure --with-bool option for the case where
+ --without-cxx is used.
+ * move assignment from environment variable ESCDELAY from initscr()
+ down to newterm() so the environment variable affects timeouts for
+ terminals opened with newterm() as well.
+ * modify werase to clear multicolumn characters that extend into a
+ derived window.
+ * modify wchgat() to mark updated cells as changed so a refresh will
+ repaint those cells.
+ * correct logic in wadd_wch() and wecho_wch(), which did not guard
+ against passing the multi-column attribute into a call on
+ waddch(), e.g., using data returned by win_wch()
+ * fix redrawing of windows other than stdscr using wredrawln() by
+ touching the corresponding rows in curscr.
+ * reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to tgetent() by remembering
+ the last TERMINAL* value allocated to hold the corresponding data
+ and freeing that if the tgetent() result buffer is the same as the
+ previous call.
+ * modify read_termtype() so the term_names data is always allocated
+ as part of the str_table, a better fix for a memory leak.
+ * fix wins_nwstr(), which did not handle single-column non-8bit
+ codes.
+ * modify wbkgrnd() to avoid clearing the A_CHARTEXT attribute bits
+ since those record the state of multicolumn characters.
+ * improve SIGWINCH handling by postponing its effect during
+ newterm(), etc., when allocating screens.
+ * remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
+ mvwin().
+ * add checks in waddchnstr() and wadd_wchnstr() to stop copying when
+ a null character is found.
+ * add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
+ region before scrolling on a new line.
+ * add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as
+ test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with
+ A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision
+ of legacy coding.
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.
+ + new options:
+
+ --with-hashed-db
+ Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo
+ data rather than storing each compiled entry in a
+ separate binary file within a directory tree.
+
+ --without-dlsym
+ Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
+
+ --with-valgrind
+ Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
+
+ --enable-wgetch-events
+ Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
+
+ --enable-signed-char
+ Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
+
+ + improved options:
+
+ --disable-largefile
+ make the option work both ways.
+
+ --with-gpm
+ The option now accepts a parameter, i.e., the name
+ of the dynamic GPM library to load via dlopen()
+
+ --disable-symlinks
+ The option now allows one to disable symlink() in
+ tic even when link() does not work.
+
+ * other configure/build issues:
+ + remove special case for Darwin in CF_XOPEN_SOURCE configure
+ macro.
+ + add configure check to ensure that SIGWINCH is defined on
+ platforms such as OS X which exclude that when _XOPEN_SOURCE,
+ etc., are defined
+ + use ld's -search_paths_first option on Darwin to work around
+ odd search rules on that platform.
+ + improve ifdef's for _POSIX_VDISABLE in tset to work with Mac
+ OS X.
+ + modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
+ used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
+ $(CFLAGS) variable is also used.
+ + use ${CC} rather than ${LD} in shared library rules for
+ IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure that initialization sections
+ are provided for extra linkage requirements, e.g., of C++
+ applications.
+ + improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
+ FreeBSD and NetBSD to make --with-shlib-version work.
+ + split up dependency of names.c and codes.c in
+ ncurses/Makefile to work with parallel make.
+ + modify MKlib_gen.sh to change preprocessor-expanded _Bool
+ back to bool.
+ + modify progs/Makefile.in to make tput init work properly with
+ cygwin, i.e., do not pass a .exe in the reference string used
+ in check_aliases.
* 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".
+ + ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that wcwidth() claims
+ are not one-column. This is a workaround for Solaris' broken
+ locale support.
+ + reduce name-pollution in term.h by removing #define's for
+ HAVE_xxx symbols.
+ + fix #ifdef in c++/internal.h for QNX 6.1
+ * test programs:
+ + modify test/configure script to allow building test programs
+ with PDCurses/X11.
+ + modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD
+ curses. Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a
+ subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4
+ additions. But it is enough for comparison.
+ + improved test/configure to build test/ncurses on HPUX 11
+ using the vendor curses.
+ + change configure script to produce test/Makefile from data
+ file.
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
their data.
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.
+ * 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.
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk.
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded.
+ [5]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.
+ [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
+ [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
Midnight Commander
file manager
- [8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
+ [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org.
+ [9]http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com.
+ [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/.
+ [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- [12]http://www.tin.org.
+ pinfo
+ Lynx-like info browser.
+ [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
- taper
- tape archive utility
- [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
+ tin
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/
vh-1.6
Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
+ [14]http://www.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.
+ [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
vile
vi-like-emacs
- [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile.
+ [16]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 [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 [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
+ Contact the current maintainers at [18]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 [19]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 [20]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 [21]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
+ 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. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20021012/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/
+ 8. http://www.ibiblio.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
+ 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://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ 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
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff