+
+ 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.
+
+ Release Notes
+
+ This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and
+ 5.2; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
+ the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
+ ncurses 5.2 release.
+
+ Interface changes:
+ * change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which
+ usually is the same as the compiler's definition for bool.
+ * add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character
+ support. These are only available if the library is configured
+ using the --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
+ + pecho_wchar()
+ + slk_wset()
+ * add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
+ assume_default_colors() extension.
+
+ New features and improvements:
+ * Improved support for termcap applications:
+ + add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions
+ that do not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated
+ termcaps. This makes hds200 fit.
+ + modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the
+ alternate character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the
+ copy of the termcap "me" string which it will return to
+ eliminate that part. In particular, 'screen' would lose track
+ of line-drawing characters.
+ + add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about
+ missing acsc string. This happens in configurations where raw
+ termcap information is processed; tic already does this and
+ other checks.
+ + add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are
+ commented out when translating to termcap.
+ + modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to
+ make it work properly for termcap applications (patch by
+ Andrey A Chernov).
+ * add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications
+ such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes
+ Debian #131263, cf: 20011215).
+ * correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is
+ compiled with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making
+ it slightly incompatible with itself. In either case, the
+ background color is the last field.
+
+ Major bug fixes:
+ * rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated
+ _nc_scroll_window(), to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is
+ larger than the size of the scrolling region, then the scrolling
+ region will be cleared.
+ * modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is
+ encountered. Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently
+ rather than mixing with write().
+ * move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop
+ with callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise
+ initialized the tty modes before saving them.
+ * modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not
+ corrupt the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within
+ the resized window.
+ * altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
+ cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
+ * correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in
+ tput, which did not exit with an error when told to put a string
+ not in the current terminfo entry.
+ * modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is
+ running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it
+ returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without
+ picking up extraneous trailing blanks.
+ * add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
+ the overwrite logic.
+ * add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
+ * modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl()
+ mode is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual
+ terminal mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it
+ is useful to allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to
+ avoid staircasing effects after spawning a process which writes
+ messages (for lynx 2.8.4).
+
+ Portability:
+ * configure script:
+ + modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used
+ by default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in
+ attempt to work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL
+ notes.
+ + correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and
+ move it to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
+ + modify configure script to allow building with termcap only,
+ or with fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and
+ toe.
+ + modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile.
+ In that case, do not use the build's tic to install the
+ terminfo database.
+ + modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that
+ are different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's
+ C++ compilers on Solaris and IRIX.
+ + add several configure script options to aid with
+ cross-compiling: --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags,
+ --with-build-ldflags, and --with-build-libs.
+ + add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to
+ similar terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
+ + add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in
+ transition to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
+ * library:
+ + implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the
+ %n conversion to help parse the input data.
+ + various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
+ vsscanf().
+ + add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
+ platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g.,
+ Solaris.
+ + finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
+ + add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in
+ curses.h
+ * programs:
+ + modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic
+ links on platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
+ + modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that
+ linking aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not
+ succeed because the source and destination differ only by
+ case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0 on cygwin.
+ + modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for
+ basename of argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2
+ which have case-independent filenames and/or program
+ suffixes, e.g., ".ext".
+
+ Features of Ncurses
+
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff