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+ $Id: announce.html.in,v 1.39 2000/07/04 21:59:36 tom Exp $
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The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
the GNU distribution site
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>.
-It is also available at
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
+<br>It is also available at
+<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-We decided to release ncurses as a new whole number release (5.0) because it
-incorporates several interface changes, including some that would invalidate
-existing shared libraries. These are the highlights from the change-log
-since ncurses 4.2 release.
+This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0; very few
+applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
+These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.0 release.
<p>
Interface changes:
<ul>
- <li>The principal source of changes to the interface comes from the
- release of X/Open Curses in 1997. Earlier versions of ncurses (4.0
- and before) were based on a draft version of the specification. The
- release version adds parameters to some functions to support the
- evolving internationalization of curses. These summarize the impact:
-<ul>
- <li>modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of
- X/Open Curses (affects ABI since developers have used attr_get).
-
- <li>corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
- attr_t.
-
- <li>the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
- parameter according to XSI.
-
- <li>correct macros for wattr_set, wattr_get, separate wattrset macro from
- these to preserve behavior that allows attributes to be combined with
- color pair numbers.
-
- <li>reviewed/updated curses.h, term.h against X/Open Curses Issue 4
- Version 2. This includes making some parameters NCURSES_CONST
- rather than const, e.g., in termcap.h.
-
- <li>reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document.
-
- <li>add set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch to terminfo structure, as per
- XSI and Solaris 2.5.
-</ul>
- <li>The newest version of the X/Open Curses is implemented on Solaris
- and other vendor's systems. It adds new features to the terminfo
- descriptions:
-<ul>
- <li>implement tparm %l format.
-
- <li>implement tparm printf-style width and precision for %s, %d, %x, %o
- as per XSI.
-</ul>
- <li>We made additional changes to reduce impact by future interface
- changes:
-<ul>
- <li>rename key_names[] array to _nc_key_names since it is not part of
- the curses interface.
-
- <li>move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
-</ul>
- <li>modify configure script to embed ABI in shared libraries for HP-UX
- 10.x (detailed request by Tim Mooney).
-
- <li>modify configuration of shared libraries on Digital Unix so that
- versioning is embedded in the library, rather than implied by
- links (patch by Tim Mooney).
+ <li>made the extended terminal capabilities
+ (<code>configure --enable-tcap-names</code>)
+ a standard feature (though the configure script can disable it,
+ it is built by default).
+
+ <li>removed the <code>trace()</code> function and related trace support
+ from the production library. This is the only interface change that
+ may cause problems with existing applications linked to shared
+ libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number.
+
+ <li>explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were
+ implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly
+ initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems
+ linking on some platforms.
+
+ <li>modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict with
+ C++ STL.
</ul>
New features:
<ul>
- <li>enable sigwinch handler by default.
+ <li>added a new extension, <code>assume_default_colors()</code> to
+ provide better control over the use of default colors. This is
+ the principal visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding
+ versions. The new extension allows an application to specify what
+ colors pair 0 uses.
+ <p>
+ <em>NOTE</em>: Pair 0 defaults to white on black unless
+ you have invoked <code>use_default_colors()</code> or set it via
+ <code>assume_default_colors()</code>. An application that calls
+ <code>start_colors()</code> without setting the background color
+ will consistently have a black background no matter what color your
+ terminal's background actually is.
+
+ <li>made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and
+ have been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning.
+ This builds on the extension <code>use_extended_names()</code> by
+ adding "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src
+ <ul>
+ <li>modified <code>tic</code> so that if extended names (i.e.,
+ configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then <code>tic -x</code>
+ will also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the
+ terminfo source.
+
+ <li>added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to applicable
+ terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check for a small
+ improvement in setting default colors.
+
+ <li>add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out
+ capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g., captoinfo
+ and infotocap.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm:
+ <ul>
+ <li>if the <code>configure --enable-widec</code> option is
+ given, append 'w' to names of the generated libraries (e.g.,
+ libncursesw.so) to avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries.
+ <li>add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental
+ wide-character support. If any of the environment variables
+ LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this driver
+ will be used to translate the output to UTF-8.
+ <li>modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>modify <code>raw()</code> and <code>noraw()</code> to clear/restore
+ IEXTEN flag which affects <code>stty lnext</code> on systems such as FreeBSD
+
+ <li>reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to run
+ in xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped test
+ for <code>$DISPLAY</code> in favor of the terminfo capability
+ <code>kmous=\E[M</code> or
+ if <code>$TERM</code> environment variable contains "xterm".
+
+ <li>added configure option <code>--with-manpage-symlinks</code>, which
+ provides for fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links
+ for the aliases.
+
+ <li>changed <code>unctrl()</code> to render C1 characters (128-159) as
+ <code>~@</code>, <code>~A</code>, etc.
+
+ <li>add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for
+ $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm.
+
+ <li>made the <code>infocmp -F</code> option less verbose.
+
+ <li>dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current).
- <li>turn on hashmap scrolling code by default
-
- <li>improved support for termcap applications
+</ul>
+Major bug fixes:
<ul>
- <li>modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to terminfo
- names.
+ <li>modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated fallback.c
+ type for Booleans agrees with term.h
- <li>provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from terminfo
- data and using it as the padding character in tputs.
+ <li>documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2 and
+ 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL.
- <li>provide support for termcap ospeed variable by copying it from the
- internal cur_term member, and using ospeed as the baudrate
- reference for the delay_output and tputs functions.
+ <li>corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A
+ negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call to
+ wait indefinitely.
- <li>change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more than 2
- characters.
+ <li>made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in
+ delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo to
+ specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud rate
+ could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding characters.
- <li>add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially
- allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap.
-</ul>
- <li>add mouse support to ncurses menus.
-
- <li>add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX
+ <li>modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right
+ corner, rather than displaying only the first character written until
+ the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can update the
+ lower-right corner, and behave this way.
- <li>modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants
+ <li>modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for
+ carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella).
- <li>add configure option --enable-no-padding, to allow environment
- variable $NCURSES_NO_PADDING to eliminate non-mandatory padding,
- thereby making terminal emulators (e.g., for vt100) a little more
- efficient.
+ <li>corrected offsets used for subwindows in <code>wresize()</code>
- <li>modify lib_color.c to eliminate dependency on orig_colors and
- orig_pair, since SVr4 curses does not require these either, but
- uses them when they are available.
+ <li>modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined to
+ a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++
+ compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option
- <li>add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo
- if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and
- tabs).
+ <li>corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM mouse
+ support when poll() is used rather than select().
- <li>modify tic to compile into %'char' form in preference to %{number},
- since that is a little more efficient.
-</ul>
-Major bug fixes:
-<ul>
- <li>modify lib_tstp.c to block SIGTTOU when handling SIGTSTP, fixes a
- problem where ncurses applications which were run via a shell script
- would hang when given a ^Z. Also, check if the terminal's process
- group is consistent, i.e., a shell has not taken ownership of it,
- before deciding to save the current terminal settings in the SIGTSTP
- handler.
-
- <li>suppress sc/rc capabilities from terminal description if they appear
- in smcup/rmcup. This affects only scrolling optimization, to fix a
- problem reported by several people with xterm's alternate screen,
- though the problem is more general.
-
- <li>modify relative_move and tputs to avoid an interaction with the
- BSD-style padding. The relative_move function could produce a string
- to replace on the screen which began with a numeric character, which
- was then interpreted by tputs as padding.
-
- <li>modify setupterm so that cancelled strings are treated the same as
- absent strings, cancelled and absent booleans false (does not affect
- tic, infocmp).
-
- <li>modify lib_vidattr.c to allow for terminal types (e.g., xterm-color)
- which may reset all attributes in the 'op' capability, so that colors
- are set before turning on bold and other attributes, but still after
- turning attributes off.
-
- <li>use 'access()' to check if ncurses library should be permitted to
- open or modify files with fopen/open/link/unlink/remove calls, in
- case the calling application is running in setuid mode.
-
- <li>correction to doupdate, for case where terminal does not support
- insert/delete character. The logic did not check that there was a
- difference in alignment of changes to old/new screens before
- repainting the whole non-blank portion of the line. Modified to fall
- through into logic that reduces by the portion which does not differ.
+ <li>made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion,
+ improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details.
</ul>
<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
<DL>
<DT> cdk
<DD> Curses Development Kit
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">Curses Development Kit</a>
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html">http://dickey.his.com/cdk</A>.
<DT> ded
<DD> directory-editor
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html">http://dickey.his.com/ded</A>.
<DT> dialog
<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html">http://dickey.his.com/dialog</A>.
<DT> lynx
<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1
<DD> file manager
+<br>
+<A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
<DT> mutt
<DD> mail utility
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>.
<DT> ncftp
<DD> file-transfer utility
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com">http://www.ncftp.com</A>.
<DT> nvi
<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>.
<DT> tin
<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff">ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>.
<DT> taper
<DD> tape archive utility
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/">http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/</A>.
<DT> vh-1.6
<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>.
</DL>
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
<DL>
<DT> minicom
<DD> terminal emulator
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>.
<DT> vile
<DD> vi-like-emacs
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html">http://dickey.his.com/vile</A>.
</DL>
<P>
HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
Ongoing work is being done by
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A>
+<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
and
<A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A>
+<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at
testing of this package.<P>
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
+<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
<H2>Future Plans</H2>
<UL>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff