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<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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<BODY>
and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P>
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
+considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of
+Unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to
ncurses.<P>
-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!<P>
+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!<P>
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
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://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/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 5.1;
+This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.6;
very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
-These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.1 release.
+These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.6 release.
<p>
Interface changes:
<ul>
- <li>change type of <code>ospeed</code> variable back to
- <code>short</code> to match its use in legacy applications. It was
- altered after ncurses 4.2 to <code>speed_t</code> to repair a type
- mismatch which was introduced after 1.9.4 in 1995. The principal
- users of termcap continued to use <code>short</code>, which is
- not the same size.
- <p>
- <em>NOTE</em>: 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 <code>nm</code> or <code>strings</code>.
-
- <li>remove a private function <code>_nc_can_clear_with()</code>, which
- was built with the configure --enable-expanded option but not used.
-
- <li>add several private functions (prefixed with "_nc_") for tracing
- <code>chtype</code> values in the debug library, and for better
- access and buffer limit checking.
+ <li>generate linkable stubs for some macros:
+ <br>
+ getattrs
+
</ul>
New features and improvements:
<ul>
- <li>rewrote <code>tgoto()</code> 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, <code>tgoto()</code>
- will interpret it as termcap. Otherwise, as before, it will use
- <code>tparm()</code>.
-
- <li>to ensure that the <code>tgoto()</code> changes work properly,
- added checks to <code>tic</code> which report capabilities that do
- not reference the expected number of parameters.
-
- <li>new configure script options:
+ <li>library
<ul>
- <li>option <code>--disable-root-environ</code> adds runtime checks
- which tell ncurses to disregard $TERMINFO and similar environment
- variables if the current user is root, or running setuid/setgid.
+ <li>new flavor of the ncurses library provides rudimentary
+ support for POSIX threads. Several functions are
+ reentrant, but most require either a window-level or
+ screen-level mutex.<br>
+ (This is <em>API</em>-compatible,
+ but not <em>ABI</em>-compatible with the normal library).
- <li>option <code>--disable-assumed-color</code> allows you to use the
- pre-5.1 convention of default colors used for color-pair 0 to be
- configured (see assume_default_colors()).
+ <li>add <code>NCURSES_OPAQUE</code> symbol to curses.h, will
+ use to make structs opaque in selected configurations.
- <li>implement configure script options that transform installed
- program names, e.g., <code>--program-prefix</code>, including the
- manpage names and cross references.
+ <li>add <code>NCURSES_EXT_FUNCS</code> and
+ <code>NCURSES_EXT_COLORS</code> symbols to curses.h to make
+ it simpler to tell if the extended functions and/or colors
+ are declared.
- <li>option <code>--with-database</code> 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
+ <li>add wresize() to C++ binding
- <li>option <code>--with-default-terminfo-dir</code> allows you to
- specify the default terminfo database directory.
+ <li>eliminate fixed-buffer vsprintf() calls in C++ binding.
- <li>option <code>--with-libtool</code> allows you to build with
- <code>libtool</code>. <p> <em>NOTE</em>: <code>libtool</code>
- uses a different notation for numbering shared library versions
- from the existing ncurses configuration.
+ <li>add several functions to C++ binding which wrap C functions
+ that pass a WINDOW* parameter.
- <li>option <code>--with-manpage-tbl</code> causes the manpages to be
- preprocessed by tbl(1) prior to installation,
+ <li>adapt mouse-handling code from menu library in form-library
- <li>option <code>--without-curses-h</code> causes the installation
- process to install curses.h as ncurses.h and make appropriate
- changes to headers and manpages.
- </ul>
+ <li>improve tracing for form library, showing created forms,
+ fields, etc.
- <li>modified configure script options:
- <ul>
- <li>change symbol used by the <code>--install-prefix</code> configure
- option from <code>INSTALL_PREFIX</code> to <code>DESTDIR</code>
- (the latter has become common usage although the name is
- misleading).
-
- <li>modify <code>ld -rpath</code> 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.
-
- <li>modified <code>misc/run_tic.in</code> to use
- <code>tic -o</code>, to eliminate dependency on
- <code>$TERMINFO</code> variable for installs.
- </ul>
+ <li>make $NCURSES_NO_PADDING feature work for termcap interface .
- <li>terminfo database:
- <ul>
- <li>updated xterm terminfo entries to match XFree86 xterm patch #146.
+ <li>add check to trace-file open, if the given name is a
+ directory, add ".log" to the name and try again.
- <li>added amiga-vnc,
- Matrix Orbital, and
- QNX qansi to misc/terminfo.src.
-
- <li>added os2 entry to misc/emx.src.
-
- <li>add S0 and E0 extensions to <code>screen</code>'s terminfo entry
- since otherwise the FreeBSD port makes it pass termcap equivalents
- to <code>tgoto</code>, which would be misinterpreted by older
- versions of ncurses.
+ <li>several new manpages: curs_legacy.3x, curs_memleaks.3x,
+ curs_opaque.3x and curs_threads.3x
</ul>
- <li>improvements to program usability:
+ <li>programs:
<ul>
- <li>modify programs to use <code>curses_version()</code> 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.
+ <li>modified three test-programs to demonstrate the threading
+ support in this version: ditto, rain, worm.
+
+ <li>several new test-programs: demo_panels, dots_mvcur,
+ inch_wide, inchs, key_name, key_names, savescreen,
+ savescreen.sh test_arrays, test_get_wstr, test_getstr,
+ test_instr, test_inwstr and test_opaque.
+
+ <li>add <code>adacurses-config</code> to the Ada95 install.
- <li>modify <code>tput</code> program so it can be renamed or invoked via a link as
- 'reset' or 'init', producing the same effect as <code>tput reset</code> or <code>tput init</code>.
+ <li>modify tic <code>-f</code> option to format spaces as
+ <code>\s</code> to prevent them from being lost when that
+ is read back in unformatted strings.
- <li>add error checking to infocmp's -v and -m options to ensure that
- the option value is indeed a number.
+ <li>The <code>tack</code> program is now distributed separately
+ from ncurses.
</ul>
- <li>improved performance:
+ <li>terminal database
<ul>
- <li>replace a lookup table in lib_vidattr.c used to decode
- <code>no_color_video</code> with a logic expression which is faster.
+ <li>added entries:
+ <ul>
+ <li><code>Eterm-256color</code>,
+ <code>Eterm-88color</code> and
+ <code>rxvt-88color</code>
+ <li><code>aterm</code>
+ <li><code>konsole-256color</code>
+ <li><code>mrxvt</code>
+ <li><code>screen.mlterm</code>
+ <li><code>screen.rxvt</code>
+ <li><code>teraterm4.59</code> is now the primary primary
+ teraterm entry, renamed original to
+ <code>teraterm2.3</code>
+ <li><code>9term</code> terminal
+ <li>Newbury Data entries
+ </ul>
+ <li>updated/improved entries:
+ <ul>
+ <li><code>gnome</code> to version 2.22.3
+ <li><code>h19</code>, <code>z100</code>
+ <li><code>konsole</code> to version 1.6.6
+ <li><code>mlterm</code>, <code>mlterm+pcfkeys</code>
+ <li><code>xterm</code>, and building-blocks for function-keys
+ to <a href="http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_230">xterm patch #230</a>.
+ </ul>
</ul>
-
</ul>
Major bug fixes:
<ul>
- <li>correct <code>manlinks.sed</code> script introduced in ncurses 5.1
- to avoid using ERE "\+", which is not understood by standard versions
- of <code>sed</code>. This happens to work with GNU <code>sed</code>,
- but is not portable, and was the initial motivation for this release.
+ <li>add logic to tic for cancelling strings in user-defined
+ capabilities
+ (this is <em>needed</em> for
+ current <code>konsole</code> terminfo entry).
- <li>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.
+ <li>modify <code>mk-1st.awk</code> so the generated makefile rules for
+ linking or installing shared libraries do not first remove the
+ library, in case it is in use, e.g., <code>libncurses.so</code> by
+ <code>/bin/sh</code>.
- <li>guard against corrupt terminfo data:
- <ul>
- <li>modify <code>tparm()</code> to disallow arithmetic on strings,
- analyze the varargs list to read strings as strings and numbers as
- numbers.
+ <li>correct check for notimeout() in wgetch().
- <li>modify <code>tparm()</code>'s internal function
- <code>spop()</code> to treat a null pointer as an empty string.
+ <li>fix a sign-extension bug in infocmp's repair_acsc() function.
- <li>modify <code>parse_format()</code> in lib_tparm.c to ignore
- precision if it is longer than 10000.
+ <li>change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line.
- <li>rewrote limit checks in lib_mvcur.c using new functions
- <code>_nc_safe_strcat()</code>, etc. Made other related changes to
- check lengths used for <code>strcat()</code> and
- <code>strcpy()</code>.
- </ul>
+ <li>make Ada95 demo_panels() example work.
- <li>corrections to screen optimization:
- <ul>
- <li>added special case in lib_vidattr.c to reset underline and
- standout for devices that have no sgr0 defined.
+ <li>fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line.
- <li>change handling of <code>non_dest_scroll_region</code> in
- tty_update.c to clear text after it is shifted in rather than before
- shifting out. Also correct row computation.
+ <li>fill in extended-color pair to make colors work
+ for wide-characters using extended-colors.
- <li>modify <code>rs2</code> capability in xterm-r6 and similar entries
- where cursor save/restore bracketed the sequence for resetting video
- attributes. The cursor restore would undo that.
- </ul>
+ <li>improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters,
+ taking into account split characters on left/right window
+ boundaries.
- <li>UTF-8 support:
- <ul>
- <li>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.
+ <li>modify <code>win_wchnstr()</code> to ensure that only a base cell
+ is returned for each multi-column character.
- <li>encode 0xFFFD in UTF-8 with 3 bytes, not 2.
+ <li>improve <code>waddch()</code> and <code>winsch()</code> handling of
+ EILSEQ from <code>mbrtowc()</code> by using <code>unctrl()</code>
+ to display illegal bytes rather than trying to append further bytes
+ to make up a valid sequence.
- <li>modify <code>_nc_utf8_outch()</code> to avoid sign-extension when
- checking for out-of-range value.
- </ul>
+ <li>restore <code>curs_set()</code> state after
+ <code>endwin()</code>/<code>refresh()</code>
- <li>other library fixes:
- <ul>
- <li>added checks for an empty <code>$HOME</code> environment
- variable, to avoid retrieving terminfo descriptions from
- <code>./.terminfo</code> .
+ <li>modify <code>keyname()</code> to use "^X" form only if
+ <code>meta()</code> has been called, or if <code>keyname()</code>
+ is called without initializing curses, e.g., via
+ <code>initscr()</code> or <code>newterm()</code>.
- <li>change functions <code>_nc_parse_entry()</code> and
- <code>postprocess_termcap()</code> to avoid using
- <code>strtok()</code>, because it is non-reentrant.
+ <li>modify <code>unctrl()</code> to check codes in 128-255 range versus
+ <code>isprint()</code>.
+ If they are not printable, and locale was set, use a "M-" or "~"
+ sequence.
- <li>initialize <code>fds[]</code> array to 0's in
- <code>_nc_timed_wait()</code>; apparently <code>poll()</code> only
- sets the <code>revents</code> members of that array when there is
- activity corresponding to the related file.
+ <li>improve <code>resizeterm()</code> by moving ripped-off lines, and
+ repainting the soft-keys.
- <li>add a check for null pointer in <code>Make_Enum_Type()</code>.
+ <li>modify form library to accept control characters such as newline
+ in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris.
- <li>fix a heap problem with the c++ binding.
+ <li>use <code>NCURSES_MOUSE_MASK()</code> in definition of
+ <code>BUTTON_RELEASE()</code>, etc., to make those work properly
+ with the <code>--enable-ext-mouse</code> configuration
- <li>correct missing includes for <string.h> in several places,
- including the C++ binding. This is not noted by gcc unless we use
- the <code>-fno-builtin</code> option.
- </ul>
+ <li>correct some functions in Ada95 binding which were using return
+ value from C where none was returned.
- <li>several fixes for tic:
- <ul>
- <li>add a check for empty buffers returned by <code>fgets()</code> in
- comp_scan.c <code>next_char()</code> function, in case
- <code>tic</code> is run on a non-text file (fixes a core dump).
-
- <li>modify <code>tic</code> to verify that its inputs are really files,
- in case someone tries to read a directory (or
- <code>/dev/zero</code>).
-
- <li>correct an uninitialized parameter to <code>open_tempfile()</code>
- in tic.c which made "tic -I" give an ambiguous error message about
- <code>tmpnam</code>.
-
- <li>correct logic in <code>adjust_cancels()</code>, which did not check
- both alternatives when reclassifying an extended name between
- boolean, number and string, causing an infinite loop in
- <code>tic</code>.
- </ul>
-
- <li>using new checks in <code>tic</code> for parameter counts in
- capability strings, found/fixed several errors both in the
- terminfo database and in the include/Caps file.
- <ul>
- <li>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".
-
- <li>correct parameter counts in include/Caps for dclk as well as some
- printer-specific capabilities: csnm, defc, scs, scsd, smgtp, smglp.
- </ul>
-
- <li>various fixes for install scripts used to support configure
- <code>--srcdir</code> and <code>--with-install-prefix</code>.
-
- <li>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.
+ <li>reviewed/fixed issues reported by Coverity and Klocwork tools.
</ul>
Portability:
<ul>
- <li>configure script:
- <ul>
- <li>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.
+ <li>configure script:
+ <ul>
+ <li>new options:
+ <dl>
- <li>make configure script checks on variables <code>$GCC</code> and
- <code>$GXX</code> 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.
+ <dt>--disable-big-strings
+ <dd>control whether static string tables are generated as single
+ large strings (to improve startup performance), or as array
+ of individual strings.
- <li>change configure script to use AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM rather than
- AC_CANONICAL_HOST, which means that <code>configure --target</code>
- will set a default program-prefix.
+ <dt>--disable-relink
+ <dd>control whether shared libraries are relinked (during install)
+ when rpath is enabled.
- <li>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).
+ <dt>--disable-tic-depends
+ <dd>make explicit whether tic library depends on ncurses/ncursesw
+ library.
- <li>modify configure test for <code>tcgetattr()</code> to allow for
- old implementations, e.g., on BeOS, which only defined it as a
- macro.
+ <dt>--enable-mixed-case
+ <dd>override the configure script's check if the filesystem
+ supports mixed-case filenames.
+ This allows one to control how the terminal database
+ maps to the filesystem.
+ For filesystems that do not support mixed-case, the library
+ uses generate 2-character (hexadecimal) codes for the
+ lower-level of the filesystem terminfo database
- <li>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.
+ <dt>--enable-reentrant
+ <dd>builds a different flavor of the ncurses library (ncursest)
+ which improves reentrant use of the
+ library by reducing global and static variables
+ (see the "--with-pthread" option for the threaded support).
- <li>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".
+ <dt>--enable-weak-symbols
+ <dd>use weak-symbols for linking to the POSIX thread library,
+ and use the same soname for the ncurses shared library
+ as the normal library (caveat: the ABI is for the threaded
+ library, which makes global data accessed via functions).
- <li>change most remaining unquoted parameters of <code>test</code> in
- configure script to use quotes, for instance fixing a problem in the
- <code>--disable-database</code> option.
+ <dt>--with-pthread
+ <dd>build with the POSIX thread library (tested with AIX,
+ Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HPUX, IRIX64, Solaris, Tru64).
- <li>modify scripts so that "make install.data" works on OS/2 EMX.
+ <dt>--with-ticlib
+ <dd>build/install the tic-support functions in a separate library
- <li>modify scripts and makefiles so the Ada95 directory builds on
- OS/2 EMX.
- </ul>
+ </dl>
- <li>library:
- <ul>
- <li>replaced case-statement in <code>_nc_tracebits()</code> for CSIZE
- with a table to simplify working around implementations that define
- random combinations of the related macros to zero.
+ <li>improved options:
+ <dl>
+
+ <dt>--enable-ext-colors
+ <dd>requires the wide-character configuration.
+
+ <dt>--with-chtype
+ <dd>ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to
+ the type in curses.h; do the same for --with-mmask-t.
+
+ <dt>--with-dmalloc
+ <dd>build-fix for redefinition of <code>strndup</code>.
+
+ <dt>--with-hashed-db
+ <dd>accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of a given
+ Berkeley Database.
+
+ <dt>--with-hashed-db
+ <dd>the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search for the db
+ library.
- <li>improved OS/2 mouse support by retrying as a 2-button mouse if code
- fails to set up a 3-button mouse.
+ <dt>--without-hashed-db
+ <dd>assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
- <li>added private entrypoint <code>_nc_basename()</code>, used to
- consolidate related code in progs, as well as accommodating OS/2 EMX
- pathnames.
+ </dl>
- <li>alter definition of NCURSES_CONST to make it non-empty.
+ </ul>
- <li>redefine 'TEXT' in menu.h for AMIGA, since it is reported to have
- an (unspecified) symbol conflict.
+ <li>other configure/build issues:
+ <ul>
+ <li>build-fixes for LynxOS
+ <li>modify shared-library rules to allow FreeBSD 3.x to use rpath.
+ <li>build-fix for FreeBSD "contemporary" TTY interface.
+ <li>build-fixes for AIX with libtool.
+ <li>build-fixes for Darwin and libtool.
+ <li>modify BeOS-specific ifdef's to build on Haiku.
+ <li>corrected gcc options for building shared libraries on Solaris
+ and IRIX64.
+ <li>change shared-library configuration for OpenBSD, make rpath work.
+ <li>build-fixes for using libutf8, e.g., on OpenBSD 3.7
+ <li>add "-e" option in ncurses/Makefile.in when generating source-files
+ to force earlier exit if the build environment fails unexpectedly.
+ <li>add support for shared libraries for QNX.
+ <li>change delimiter in <code>MKlib_gen.sh</code> from '%' to '@', to
+ avoid substitution by IBM xlc to '#' as part of its extensions to
+ digraphs.
</ul>
- <li>programs:
+ <li>library:
<ul>
- <li>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).
+ <li>rewrite wrapper for <code>wcrtomb()</code>, making it work on
+ Solaris. This is used in the form library to determine the length
+ of the buffer needed by <code>field_buffer</code>.
+ <li>add/use configure script macro CF_SIG_ATOMIC_T, use the corresponding
+ type for data manipulated by signal handlers.
+ <li>set locale in misc/ncurses-config.in since it uses a range
+ <li>disable GPM mouse support when $TERM does not happen to contain
+ "linux", since Gpm_Open() no longer limits its assertion to terminals
+ that it might handle, e.g., within "screen" in xterm.
+ <li>reset mouse file-descriptor when unloading GPM library.
</ul>
+ <li>test programs:
+ <ul>
+ <li>update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses for
+ comparisons.
+ </ul>
</ul>
<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
<UL>
<LI>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
+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).
<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
-<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows.
+<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm
+and FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.
<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
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 key code.
-<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
+<LI>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when configured
+using the <code>--enable-ext-colors</code> option.
+<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
or System V's.
<DT> cdk
<DD> Curses Development Kit
<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A>
<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html">http://dickey.his.com/cdk</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://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html">http://dickey.his.com/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://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html">http://dickey.his.com/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>.
-<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1
+<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="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/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>.
-<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.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</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://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">
+http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</A>
<DT> vile
<DD> vi-like-emacs
<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html">http://dickey.his.com/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="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">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://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/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 once 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, and provides several user-definable extensions
+beyond the X/Open specification.<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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