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-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@ Pre-Release</TITLE>
+<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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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>.
+<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</A> .
<br>It is also available at
-<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
+<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A> .
<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.2;
+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 5.2 release.
+These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.3 release.
<p>
Interface changes:
<ul>
- <li>change type for bool used in headers to <code>NCURSES_BOOL</code>,
- which usually is the same as the compiler's definition for
- <code>bool</code>.
-
- <li>add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
- These are only available if the library is configured using the
- <kbd>--enable-widec</kbd> option. Missing functions are
- <ul>
- <li>pecho_wchar()
- <li>slk_wset()
- </ul>
-
- <li>add environment variable <code>$NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS</code> to
- modify the <code>assume_default_colors()</code> extension.
-
+ <li>add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character
+ support.
+ <ul>
+ <li>pecho_wchar()
+ <li>slk_wset()
+ </ul>
+ These are only available if the library is configured using the
+ <kbd>--enable-widec</kbd> option.
+
+ <li>write <code>getyx()</code> and related 2-return macros in terms of
+ <code>getcury()</code>,
+ <code>getcurx()</code>, etc.
+
+ <li>simplify ifdef for <code>bool</code> declaration in curses.h
+
+ <li>modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of
+ <code>__attribute__()</code> for g++, since recent versions
+ implement the cases which ncurses uses.
+
+ <li>add <code>key_defined()</code> function, to tell which keycode a
+ string is bound to.
</ul>
New features and improvements:
<ul>
- <li>Improved support for termcap applications:
- <ul>
- <li>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.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are commented out
- when translating to termcap.
-
- <li>modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to make it
- work properly for termcap applications (patch by Andrey A Chernov).
-
- </ul>
-
- <li>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).
-
- <li>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.
+ <li>library
+ <ul>
+ <li>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.
+ <li>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".
+ <li>add configure option for FreeBSD sysmouse, --with-sysmouse, and
+ implement library support for that.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>programs:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>tack:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>allow it to run from fallback terminfo data.
+ <li>reset colors after each color test, correct a place
+ where <code>exit_standout_mode</code> was used instead of
+ <code>exit_attribute_mode</code>.
+ <li>improve <code>bce</code> test by making it set colors other
+ than black on white.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>tic:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>handle a case where an entry has no
+ description, and capabilities begin on the same line as the entry
+ name.
+ <li>allow a terminfo entry with a leading 2-character name.
+ <li>improved warnings when suppressing items to fit in termcap's
+ 1023-byte limit.
+ <li>add check for multiple "tc=" clauses in a termcap.
+ <li>correct logic for resolving "use=" clauses
+ allow infocmp and tic to show cancelled capabilities.
+ <li>check for incomplete line-drawing character mapping.
+ <li>check for missing/empty/illegal terminfo name.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>tput:
+ <ul>
+ <li>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,
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>tset:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>use the system's default values for CKILL and other default
+ control characters.
+ <li>correct interchanged defaults for kill and interrupt
+ characters, which caused it to report unnecessarily.
+ </ul>
+
+ </ul>
</ul>
Major bug fixes:
<ul>
- <li>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.
-
- <li>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().
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not corrupt
- the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within the resized
- window.
-
- <li>altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
- cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
- the overwrite logic.
-
- <li>add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
+ <li>prevent recursion in wgetch() via wgetnstr() if the connection
+ cannot be switched between cooked/raw modes because it is not a TTY.
+
+ <li>correct a case in _nc_remove_string(), used by
+ <code>define_key()</code>, to avoid infinite loop if the given string
+ happens to be a substring of other strings which are assigned to keys.
+
+ <li>modify logic of acsc to use the original character if no mapping is
+ defined, rather than a null.
+
+ <li>several improvements for handling multi-cell display of wide
+ characters.
+ <ul>
+ <li>modify setcchar() to allow converting control characters to complex
+ characters.
+ <li>correct handling of multibyte characters in waddch_literal() which
+ force wrapping because they are started too late on the line.
+ <li>modify setcchar() to allow for wchar_t input strings that have
+ more than one spacing character.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>other fixes for wide-character support:
+ <ul>
+ <li>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.
+ <li>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.
+ <li>corrections to lib_get_wstr.c:
+ <ul>
+ <li>null-terminate buffer passed to setcchar(), which occasionally
+ failed.
+ <li>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.
+ </ul>
+ </ul>
- <li>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).
+ <li>modify <code>setupterm()</code> to check if the terminfo and
+ terminal-modes have already been read. This ensures that it does not
+ reinvoke <code>def_prog_mode()</code> when an application calls more
+ than one function, such as <code>tgetent()</code> and
+ <code>initscr()</code>.
+
+ <li>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.
+
+ <li>correct <code>keybound()</code>, which reported definitions in the
+ wrong table, i.e., the list of definitions which are disabled by
+ <code>keyok()</code>.
+
+ <li>fixes related to safe_sprintf.c:
+ <ul>
+ <li>correct an allocation size in safe_sprintf.c for the "*" format
+ code.
+ <li>correct safe_sprintf.c to not return a null pointer if the format
+ happens to be an empty string.
+ <li>make return value from _nc_printf_string() consistent. Before,
+ depending on whether --enable-safe-sprintf was used, it might not
+ be cached for reallocating.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>other low-level improvements to the optimization code include:
+ <ul>
+ <li>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.
+ <li>modify lib_getch.c to avoid recursion via wgetnstr() when the
+ input
+ is not a tty and consequently mode-changes do not work.
+ <li>fix several places in tack/pad.c which tested and used the
+ parameter- and parameterless strings inconsistently.
+ <li>change several tputs() calls in scrolling code to use putp(), to
+ enable padding which may be needed for some terminals.
+ <li>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.
+ <li>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.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>correct line/column reference in adjust_window(), needed to make
+ special windows such as curscr track properly when resizing.
+
+ <li>fix a potential recursion between napms() and _nc_timed_wait()
+
+ <li>rewrote lib_insch.c, combining it with lib_insstr.c so both handle
+ tab and other control characters consistently.
+
+ <li>do not try to open gpm mouse driver if standard output is not a
+ tty; the gpm library does not make this check.
</ul>
Portability:
<ul>
- <li>configure script:
- <ul>
- <li>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.
-
- <li>correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and move it
- to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
-
- <li>modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, or with
- fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and toe.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>add several configure script options to aid with cross-compiling:
- --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, --with-build-ldflags, and
- --with-build-libs.
-
- <li>add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to similar
- terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
-
- <li>add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in transition
- to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
- </ul>
-
- <li>library:
- <ul>
- <li>implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the %n
- conversion to help parse the input data.
-
- <li>various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
- vsscanf().
-
- <li>add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
- platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., Solaris.
-
- <li>finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
-
- <li>add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in curses.h
- </ul>
-
- <li>programs:
- <ul>
- <li>modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic links on
- platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>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".
- </ul>
+ <li>configure script:
+ <ul>
+ <li>new options:
+ <dl>
+ <dt>--with-abi-version option.
+ <dd>addresses platforms where packagers have diverged from
+ ncurses ABI numbering.
+ <dt>--with-manpage-format=catonly
+ <dd>addresses
+ behavior of BSDI, allow install of man+cat files on NetBSD,
+ whose behavior has diverged by requiring both to be present.
+ <dt>--with-manpage-aliases
+ <dd>extends
+ "--with-manpage-aliases" to provide the option of generating
+ ".so" files rather than symbolic links for manpage aliases.
+ <dt>--with-rel-version
+ <dd>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.
+ <dt>--with-trace
+ <dd>simplifies defining TRACE to incorporate trace() in libraries.
+ </dl>
+
+ <li>fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>allow BUILD_CC and related configure script variables to be
+ overridden from the environment.
+ <li>use AC_CHECK_TOOL to get proper values for AR and LD for cross
+ compiling.
+ <li>use <code>$cross_compiling</code> variable in configure script
+ rather than comparing <code>$host_alias</code> and
+ <code>$target</code> alias, since "host" is traditionally misused
+ in autoconf to refer to the target platform.
+ <li>modify run_tic.in to avoid using wrong shared libraries when
+ cross-compiling.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>fixes for Mac OS X:
+ <ul>
+ <li>fix a redefinition of <code>$RANLIB</code> in the configure
+ script when libtool is used.
+ <li>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.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>workarounds for broken tools:
+ <ul>
+ <li>add configure check for wchar_t and wint_t types, rather than
+ rely on preprocessor definitions. Also work around for gcc
+ <code>fixinclude</code> bug which creates a shadow copy of
+ curses.h if it sees these symbols apparently typedef'd.
+ <li>modify configure script to omit -Winline for gcc 3.3, since
+ that feature is broken.
+ <li>several script fixes to work around the ironically named
+ <em>POSIXLY_CORRECT</em> feature of GNU sed 4.0.
+ <li>modify configure script to avoid using "head -1", which does
+ not work if POSIXLY_CORRECT (sic) is set.
+ <li>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.
+ <li>repair check for missing C++ compiler, which is broken in
+ autoconf 2.5x by hardcoding it to g++.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>corrected ifdef's relating to configure check for wchar_t, etc.
+ <li>remove configure script check to allow -Wconversion for older
+ versions of gcc
+ <li>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.
+ <li>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.
+ <li>use '%' as sed substitute delimiter in run_tic script to avoid
+ problems with pathname delimiters such as ':' and '@'.
+ <li>add -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=500 if needed when configuring with
+ "--enable-widec", to get <code>mbstate_t</code> declaration on HPUX
+ 11.11.
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>library:
+ <ul>
+ <li>adjust include-options in CF_ETIP_DEFINES to avoid missing
+ ncurses_dll.h, fixing special definitions that may be needed for
+ etip.h.
+ <li>modify CF_LIB_SUFFIX for Itanium releases of HP-UX, which use a
+ ".so" suffix.
+ <li>improve ifdef's to guard against redefinition of wchar_t and wint_t
+ in curses.h.
+ <li>remove an #undef for KEY_EVENT from curses.tail used in the
+ experimental NCURSES_WGETCH_EVENTS feature. The #undef confuses
+ Debian <code>dpkg</code>'s build script.
+ </ul>
</ul>
<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
<DT> cdk
<DD> Curses Development Kit
<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html">http://invisible-island.net/cdk</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A>
<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
+<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a>
<DT> ded
<DD> directory-editor
<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html">http://invisible-island.net/ded</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/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://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html">http://invisible-island.net/dialog</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</A>
<DT> lynx
<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
<br>
-<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
+<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</A>
<DT> Midnight Commander
<DD> file manager
<br>
-<A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
+<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/</A>
<DT> mutt
<DD> mail utility
<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>.
+<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>.
+<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>.
+<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>
+<br>
+<DT> pinfo
+<DD> Lynx-like info browser.
+<A HREF="http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/</A>
<DT> tin
<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
-<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>.
+<A HREF="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</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>.
+<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.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>.
+<A HREF="http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>
<DT> vile
<DD> vi-like-emacs
<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html">http://invisible-island.net/vile</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</A>
</DL>
<P>
<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
-The original developers of ncurses are <A
-HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and
-<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
+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
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
-and
-<A HREF="http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en">Jürgen Pfeifer</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.
+<A HREF="mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</A>.
+Thomas Dickey
+acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
+which holds the copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at
<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>.
<P>
testing of this package.<P>
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
+<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A> .
<H2>Future Plans</H2>
<UL>
<H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
-The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
-terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
-<A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P>
+The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
+terminal description file maintained by
+<A HREF="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric Raymond</A> .
+Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided
+in the same file.<P>
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
not covered in the terminfo file at
<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
-archive</A>.
+archive</A> .
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