- Announcing ncurses 5.2
+ Announcing ncurses 5.3
- 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
+ The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
+ curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
+ supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
+ and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
enhancements over BSD curses.
- In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
- considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
- Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
+ In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
+ considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
+ Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
ncurses.
- The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily
- to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2
- Warp!
+ The 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!
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
+ a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
+ tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
- The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
+ 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://dickey.his.com/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
- 5.1; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
- the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
- ncurses 5.1 release.
+ 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 of ospeed variable back to short to match its use in
- legacy applications. It was altered after ncurses 4.2 to speed_t
- to repair a type mismatch which was introduced after 1.9.4 in
- 1995. The principal users of termcap continued to use short, which
- is not the same size.
- NOTE: A few applications will have to be recompiled (about 1% of
- the programs in a typical Linux distribution, 10% of the programs
- that use ncurses). These are easy to identify with nm or strings.
- * remove a private function _nc_can_clear_with(), which was built
- with the configure --enable-expanded option but not used.
- * add several private functions (prefixed with "_nc_") for tracing
- chtype values in the debug library, and for better access and
- buffer limit checking.
+ * 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:
- * rewrote tgoto() to make it better support existing termcap
- applications which use hardcoded strings rather than obtain all of
- their information from the termcap file. If the string does not
- appear to be a terminfo string (i.e., does not refer to a "%p"
- parameter, or terminfo-style padding), and termcap support is
- configured, tgoto() will interpret it as termcap. Otherwise, as
- before, it will use tparm().
- * to ensure that the tgoto() changes work properly, added checks to
- tic which report capabilities that do not reference the expected
- number of parameters.
- * new configure script options:
- + option --disable-root-environ adds runtime checks which tell
- ncurses to disregard $TERMINFO and similar environment
- variables if the current user is root, or running
- setuid/setgid.
- + option --disable-assumed-color allows you to use the pre-5.1
- convention of default colors used for color-pair 0 to be
- configured (see assume_default_colors()).
- + implement configure script options that transform installed
- program names, e.g., --program-prefix, including the manpage
- names and cross references.
- + option --with-database allows you to specify a different
- terminfo source-file to install. On OS/2 EMX, the default is
- misc/emx.src, otherwise misc/terminfo.src
- + option --with-default-terminfo-dir allows you to specify the
- default terminfo database directory.
- + option --with-libtool allows you to build with libtool.
- NOTE: libtool uses a different notation for numbering shared
- library versions from the existing ncurses configuration.
- + option --with-manpage-tbl causes the manpages to be
- preprocessed by tbl(1) prior to installation,
- + option --without-curses-h causes the installation process to
- install curses.h as ncurses.h and make appropriate changes to
- headers and manpages.
- * modified configure script options:
- + change symbol used by the --install-prefix configure option
- from INSTALL_PREFIX to DESTDIR (the latter has become common
- usage although the name is misleading).
- + modify ld -rpath options (e.g., Linux, and Solaris) to use an
- absolute pathname for the build tree's lib directory,
- avoiding confusion with directories relative to the current
- one with the installed programs.
- + modified misc/run_tic.in to use tic -o, to eliminate
- dependency on $TERMINFO variable for installs.
- * terminfo database:
- + updated xterm terminfo entries to match XFree86 xterm patch
- #146.
- + added amiga-vnc, Matrix Orbital, and QNX qansi to
- misc/terminfo.src.
- + added os2 entry to misc/emx.src.
- + add S0 and E0 extensions to screen's terminfo entry since
- otherwise the FreeBSD port makes it pass termcap equivalents
- to tgoto, which would be misinterpreted by older versions of
- ncurses.
- * improvements to program usability:
- + modify programs to use curses_version() string to report the
- version of ncurses with which they are compiled rather than
- the NCURSES_VERSION string. The function returns the patch
- level in addition to the major and minor version numbers.
- + modify tput program so it can be renamed or invoked via a
- link as 'reset' or 'init', producing the same effect as
- tput reset or tput init.
- + add error checking to infocmp's -v and -m options to ensure
- that the option value is indeed a number.
- * improved performance:
- + replace a lookup table in lib_vidattr.c used to decode
- no_color_video with a logic expression which is faster.
+ * 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:
- * correct manlinks.sed script introduced in ncurses 5.1 to avoid
- using ERE "\+", which is not understood by standard versions of
- sed. This happens to work with GNU sed, but is not portable, and
- was the initial motivation for this release.
- * remove "hpux10.*" case from CF_SHARED_OPTS configure script macro.
- This differed from the "hpux*" case by using reversed symbolic
- links, which made the 5.1 version not match the configuration of
- 5.0 shared libraries.
- * guard against corrupt terminfo data:
- + modify tparm() to disallow arithmetic on strings, analyze the
- varargs list to read strings as strings and numbers as
- numbers.
- + modify tparm()'s internal function spop() to treat a null
- pointer as an empty string.
- + modify parse_format() in lib_tparm.c to ignore precision if
- it is longer than 10000.
- + rewrote limit checks in lib_mvcur.c using new functions
- _nc_safe_strcat(), etc. Made other related changes to check
- lengths used for strcat() and strcpy().
- * corrections to screen optimization:
- + added special case in lib_vidattr.c to reset underline and
- standout for devices that have no sgr0 defined.
- + change handling of non_dest_scroll_region in tty_update.c to
- clear text after it is shifted in rather than before shifting
- out. Also correct row computation.
- + modify rs2 capability in xterm-r6 and similar entries where
- cursor save/restore bracketed the sequence for resetting
- video attributes. The cursor restore would undo that.
- * UTF-8 support:
- + when checking LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment
- variables for UTF-8 locale, ignore those which are set to an
- empty value, as per SUSV2.
- + encode 0xFFFD in UTF-8 with 3 bytes, not 2.
- + modify _nc_utf8_outch() to avoid sign-extension when checking
- for out-of-range value.
- * other library fixes:
- + added checks for an empty $HOME environment variable, to
- avoid retrieving terminfo descriptions from ./.terminfo .
- + change functions _nc_parse_entry() and postprocess_termcap()
- to avoid using strtok(), because it is non-reentrant.
- + initialize fds[] array to 0's in _nc_timed_wait(); apparently
- poll() only sets the revents members of that array when there
- is activity corresponding to the related file.
- + add a check for null pointer in Make_Enum_Type().
- + fix a heap problem with the c++ binding.
- + correct missing includes for <string.h> in several places,
- including the C++ binding. This is not noted by gcc unless we
- use the -fno-builtin option.
- * several fixes for tic:
- + add a check for empty buffers returned by fgets() in
- comp_scan.c next_char() function, in case tic is run on a
- non-text file (fixes a core dump).
- + modify tic to verify that its inputs are really files, in
- case someone tries to read a directory (or /dev/zero).
- + correct an uninitialized parameter to open_tempfile() in
- tic.c which made "tic -I" give an ambiguous error message
- about tmpnam.
- + correct logic in adjust_cancels(), which did not check both
- alternatives when reclassifying an extended name between
- boolean, number and string, causing an infinite loop in tic.
- * using new checks in tic for parameter counts in capability
- strings, found/fixed several errors both in the terminfo database
- and in the include/Caps file.
- + modified several terminfo capability strings, including the
- definitions for setaf, setab, in include/Caps to indicate
- that the entries are parameterized. This information is used
- to tell which strings are translated when converting to
- termcap. This fixes a problem where the generated termcap
- would contain a spurious "%p1" for the terminfo "%p1%d".
- + correct parameter counts in include/Caps for dclk as well as
- some printer-specific capabilities: csnm, defc, scs, scsd,
- smgtp, smglp.
- * various fixes for install scripts used to support configure
- --srcdir and --with-install-prefix.
- * correct several mismatches between manpage filename and ".TH"
- directives, renaming dft_fgbg.3x to default_colors.3x and
- menu_attribs.3x to menu_attributes.3x.
+ * 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:
- + newer config.guess, config.sub, including changes to support
- OS/2 EMX. The configure script for OS/2 EMX still relies on a
- patch since there is no (working) support for that platform
- in the main autoconf distribution.
- + make configure script checks on variables $GCC and $GXX
- consistently compare against 'yes' rather than test if they
- are nonnull, since either may be set to the corresponding
- name of the C or C++ compiler.
- + change configure script to use AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM rather
- than AC_CANONICAL_HOST, which means that configure --target
- will set a default program-prefix.
- + modify the check for big-core to force a couple of memory
- accesses, which may work as needed for older/less-capable
- machines (if not, there's still the explicit configure
- option).
- + modify configure test for tcgetattr() to allow for old
- implementations, e.g., on BeOS, which only defined it as a
- macro.
- + add configure check for filesystems (such as OS/2 EMX) which
- do not distinguish between upper/lowercase filenames, use
- this to fix tags rules in makefiles.
- + add MKncurses_def.sh to generate fallback definitions for
- ncurses_cfg.h, to quiet gcc -Wundef warnings, modified
- ifdef's in code to consistently use "#if" rather than
- "#ifdef".
- + change most remaining unquoted parameters of test in
- configure script to use quotes, for instance fixing a problem
- in the --disable-database option.
- + modify scripts so that "make install.data" works on OS/2 EMX.
- + modify scripts and makefiles so the Ada95 directory builds on
- OS/2 EMX.
+ + modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used
+ by default unless the --prefix/$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:
- + replaced case-statement in _nc_tracebits() for CSIZE with a
- table to simplify working around implementations that define
- random combinations of the related macros to zero.
- + improved OS/2 mouse support by retrying as a 2-button mouse
- if code fails to set up a 3-button mouse.
- + added private entrypoint _nc_basename(), used to consolidate
- related code in progs, as well as accommodating OS/2 EMX
- pathnames.
- + alter definition of NCURSES_CONST to make it non-empty.
- + redefine 'TEXT' in menu.h for AMIGA, since it is reported to
- have an (unspecified) symbol conflict.
+ + 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:
- + modified progs/tset.c and tack/sysdep.c to build with sgttyb
- interface if neither termio or termios is available. Tested
- this with FreeBSD 2.1.5 (which does have termios - but the
- sgttyb does work).
+ + 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
The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
curses:
- * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ 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
+ * 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
+ 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).
- * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
- corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
+ * 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
+ * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm 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
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
+ 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.
- * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
+ * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
or System V's.
- * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
- 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
+ * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
+ 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.
- * 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
- beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
- It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
- would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
+ * 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
+ beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
+ It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
+ would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
visual appearance of the screen.
- * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
- fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
- types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
- (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
+ * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
+ fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
+ 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
+ to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
sets.
* A BSD-like tset(1) 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
- system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
- personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
+ entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
+ directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
+ system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
+ personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
terminfo directory.
- * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
- descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
- generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
+ * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
+ descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
+ generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
V.)
- * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
+ * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
- compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
+ 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
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ * The table-of-entries utility 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
+ 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
+ * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
+ provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
interface.
State of the Package
Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
- is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
- `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
- according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
+ is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
+ `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
+ according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
- The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
+ The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
including (versions starting with those noted):
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
- [4]http://dickey.his.com/cdk.
+ [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk.
+ [4]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://dickey.his.com/ded.
+ [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded.
dialog
- the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
+ the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [6]http://dickey.his.com/dialog.
+ [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog.
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
[7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
- Midnight Commander 4.1
+ Midnight Commander
file manager
[8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
vile
vi-like-emacs
- [16]http://dickey.his.com/vile.
+ [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile.
- The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ 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
- Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
+ S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and
+ [20]Jürgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
+ Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
- To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
+ To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
and testing of this package.
- Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at [23]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
+ Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
+ available at [23]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses.
Future Plans
- * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
+ * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
support.
* Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
- We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
+ We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
working on them, please join the ncurses list.
Other Related Resources
- The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
+ The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
+ terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
[24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
- You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
+ You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive.
References
1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
- 2. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
- 3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
- 4. http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html
- 5. http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html
- 6. http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html
+ 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses
+ 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html
+ 4. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html
+ 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html
7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20001021/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/
+ 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20021012/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/
9. http://www.mutt.org/
10. http://www.ncftp.com/
11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
13. http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/
14. http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
15. http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html
- 16. http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html
+ 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. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
+ 20. http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en
21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 23. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
+ 23. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses
24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff