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- <h1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>The ncurses (new curses)
+ <h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (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.
+ Release 4.0 (SVr4), 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 SVr4-curses
+ enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
+ X/Open Curses.</p>
<p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
that he 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>
+ keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
+ BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
+
+ <p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
+ ported to many systems:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
+ (aside from some embedded applications).</li>
+
+ <li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
+ and MacOS.</li>
- <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>
+ <li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
+ first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
+
+ <li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
+ curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
+ "main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
+ Solaris, Tru64.</li>
+
+ <li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
+ <span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
+ </ul>
<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), and a termcap conversion tool
- captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for the library and
- tools.</p>
-
- <p>The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the
- GNU distribution site <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> .</p>
-
- <h1>Release Notes</h1>This release is designed to be upward
- compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.8; very few applications
- will require recompilation, depending on the platform. These are
- the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.8 release.
- <p>
- This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent problems
- in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release.
- <p>
- It also improves the Ada95 binding:
+ including</p>
+
<ul>
- <li>fixes a longstanding portability problem with its use of the
- <a href="http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x">set_field_type</a>
- function. Because that function uses variable-length argument lists,
- its interface with gnat does not work with certain platforms.
- <li>improves configurability and portability, particularly when built
- separately from the main ncurses tree. The 5.8 release introduced
- scripts which can be used to construct separate tarballs for the
- Ada95 and ncurses examples.
- <p>Those were a proof of concept. For the 5.9 release, those
- scripts are augmented with rpm- and dpkg-scripts used in test builds
- against a variety of gnat- and system ncurses versions as old as
- gnat 3.15 and ncurses 5.4 (see snapshots and systems tested
- <a href="http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html">here</a>.
- <li>additional improvements were made for portability of the
- ncurses examples, adding rpm- and dpkg-scripts for test-builds.
- See
- <a href="http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">this page</a>
- for snapshots and other information.
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
+ tool</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
+ screen</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
+ entries</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
+ capabilities in shell scripts</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
</ul>
- <h1>Features of Ncurses</h1>The ncurses package is fully
- compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
+ <p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
+ available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/">homepage</a>:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
+ or<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution
+ site</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
+ Notes</a></h2>
+
+ <p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ @VERSION@, released <strong>February 12, 2020</strong>.</p>
+
+ <p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.1; providing
+ extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
+ the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
+ to reflect improvements to the <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
+ programs.</p>
+
+ <p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
+ this announcement.</p>
+
+ <p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
+ bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with user-defined capabilities
+ in terminal descriptions. The release notes also mention some
+ other bug-fixes, but are focused on new features and improvements
+ to existing features since <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ 6.1 release.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
+
+ <p>There are several new features:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_EDGE_INSERT_STAY</a>
+ tells the form library to optionally delay cursor movement on
+ a field edge/boundary</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_INPUT_FIELD</a>
+ extension to form library allows a dynamic field to shrink if
+ the new limit is smaller than the current field size.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>added <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_curses</a> and
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_terminfo</a> to
+ replace internal symbols for leak-checking.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>added <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_trace.3x.html#h3-Functions">curses_trace</a>,
+ to replace trace().</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
+ extensions) are provided in this release:</p>
<ul>
- <li>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
- documented).</li>
+ <li>
+ <p>mouse decoding now handles shift/control/alt logic when
+ decoding xterm's 1006 mode</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>ncurses now defines a limit for <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html">wgetnstr</a>, <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html">wgetn_wstr</a> when
+ length is negative or “too large”.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>reordered loop-limit checks in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_insstr.3x.html">winsnstr</a> in case the
+ string has no terminating null and only the number of
+ characters is used.</li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>there is now no buffer-size limit when reading the
+ <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
+ variable.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>the <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
+ variable may be interpreted as a fallback to a terminfo
+ entry</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
+ mvcur</tt></a> now decides whether to use hard-tabs, using
+ <strong><tt>xt</tt></strong>, <strong><tt>tbc</tt></strong>
+ and <strong><tt>hts</tt></strong> as clues.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>extended colors are improved by modifying an internal call
+ to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
+ vid_puts</tt></a> to pass extended color pairs e.g., from
+ <tt>tty_update.c</tt> and <tt>lib_mvcur.c</tt></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p id="getenv-fixes">the initialization functions now avoid
+ relying upon persistent data for the result from <a href=
+ "#getenv-check"><tt>getenv</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>scrolling is improved:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>a limit check in <tt>newline_forces_scroll</tt> handles
+ the case where the row is inside scroll-margins, but not at
+ the end.</li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improved loop limits in <tt>_nc_scroll_window</tt>
+ handle a case where the scrolled data is a pad which is
+ taller than the window.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
- <li>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard
- mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
- automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.</li>
+ <h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
+ improvements</a></h4>
- <li>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack
- of windows with backing store, is included.</li>
+ <p>These are revised features:</p>
- <li>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a
- uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is
- included.</li>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>used “<tt>const</tt>” in some prototypes
+ rather than <tt>NCURSES_CONST</tt> where X/Open Curses was
+ updated to do this, e.g., <tt>wscanw</tt>, <tt>newterm</tt>,
+ the terminfo interface. Also use “<tt>const</tt>”
+ for consistency in the termcap interface, which was withdrawn
+ by X/Open Curses in Issue 5 (2007). As of Issue 7, X/Open
+ Curses still lacks “<tt>const</tt>” for certain
+ return values, e.g., <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-keyname_key_name">keyname</a>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd"><tt>wbkgd</tt></a>
+ and <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgrnd.3x.html#h3-bkgrnd"><tt>wbkgrnd</tt></a>
+ to improve compatibility with SVr4 curses, changing the way
+ the window rendition is updated when the background character
+ is modified</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improved terminfo write/read by modifying the fourth item
+ of the extended header to denote the number of valid strings
+ in the extended string table (see <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">term(5)</a>).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified the initialization checks for mouse so that the
+ <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
+ block will work with terminal descriptions not mentioning
+ <em>xterm</em>.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
- <li>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data
- collection through on-screen forms, is included.</li>
+ <p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>
- <li>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
- implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
- SVr4 curses uses.</li>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>deprecated <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t970831">safe-sprintf</a>, since the
+ <tt>vsnprintf</tt> function, which does what was needed, was
+ standardized long ago.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>marked <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h3-PORTABILITY"><tt>vwprintw</tt></a>
+ and <tt>vwscanw</tt> as deprecated; recommend using <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html"><tt>vw_printw</tt></a>
+ and <tt>vw_scanw</tt>, respectively.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>added deprecation warnings for internal functions called
+ by older versions of <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack</a>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>removed unused <tt>_nc_import_termtype2</tt> function.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
- <li>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
- entries for use with less capable
- <strong>curses</strong>/<strong>terminfo</strong> versions such
- as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</li>
- </ul>The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over
- SVr4:
+ <p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
<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, 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>
-
- <li>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the
- rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if your terminal has
- an insert-character capability.</li>
-
- <li>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</li>
-
- <li>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
- FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</li>
-
- <li>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
- package.</li>
-
- <li>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
- windows, preserving their data.</li>
-
- <li>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
- use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
- achieving the effect of transparent colors.</li>
-
- <li>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
- <code>define_key</code> 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 key
- code.</li>
-
- <li>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when
- configured using the <code>--enable-ext-colors</code>
- option.</li>
-
- <li>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
- and <em>modern xterm</em>.</li>
-
- <li>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
- features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
- than either BSD's or System V's.</li>
-
- <li>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 <code>quickch</code>
- routine.</li>
-
- <li>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.</li>
-
- <li>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).</li>
-
- <li>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
- ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
- AT&T extension sets.</li>
-
- <li>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.</li>
-
- <li>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 terminfo directory.</li>
-
- <li>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.)</li>
-
- <li>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 user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</li>
-
- <li>A script (<strong>capconvert</strong>) 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 $HOME/.terminfo.</li>
-
- <li>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled
- in when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This
- feature is neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it
- unless you have to, but it's there.</li>
-
- <li>The table-of-entries utility <strong>toe</strong> makes it
- easy for users to see exactly what terminal types are available
- on the system.</li>
-
- <li>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
- entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
- (and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
- disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</li>
-
- <li>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
- provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
- interface.</li>
+ <li>
+ <p>check parameter of <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_escdelay</a>,
+ return ERR if negative.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>check parameter of <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_tabsize</a>, return
+ ERR if not greater than zero</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct a status-check in _nc_read_tic_entry() so that if
+ reading a hex/b64 <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>,
+ and the <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERM"><tt>$TERM</tt></a>
+ does not match, fall-through to the compiled-in search
+ list.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>amend check for <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities"><tt>
+ repeat_char</tt></a> to handle a case where setlocale() was
+ called after <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_initscr.3x.html"><tt>initscr</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>move macro for <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_touch.3x.html"><tt>is_linetouched</tt></a>
+ inside <strong><tt>NCURSES_NOMACROS</tt></strong>
+ <em><tt>ifndef</tt></em>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use <tt>_nc_copy_termtype2</tt> rather than direct
+ assignment in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization">setupterm</a>,
+ in case it is called repeatedly using fallback terminfo
+ descriptions</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve workaround for Solaris wcwidth versus line-drawing
+ characters</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add checks in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html"><tt>repair_subwindows</tt></a>
+ to keep the current position and scroll-margins inside the
+ resized subwindow.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct a buffer-limit in <tt>write_entry.c</tt> for
+ systems that use caseless filenames.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improved build-time utility <em>report_offsets</em>:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add categories, e.g., "w" for wide-character, "t" for
+ threads to make the report more readable. Reorganized the
+ structures reported to make the categories more
+ apparent.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add <tt>NCURSES_GLOBALS</tt> and
+ <tt>NCURSES_PRESCREEN</tt> to report to show how similar
+ the different <em>libtinfo</em> configurations are.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified some header files to ensure that those include
+ necessary files except for the previously-documented
+ cases</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>added some traces in initialization to show whether a
+ fallback entry is used.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>made minor optimization to reduce calls to
+ _nc_reserve_pairs</p>
+ </li>
</ul>
- <h1>State of the Package</h1>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 and arena
- corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
+ <p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
- <p>The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of
- applications including (versions starting with those noted):</p>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>fix a special case in <tt>PutAttrChar</tt> where a cell is
+ marked as alternate-character set, but the terminal does not
+ actually support the given graphic character. This would
+ happen in an older terminal such as <em>vt52</em>, which
+ lacks most line-drawing capability.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>corrected flag for "seq" method of db 1.8.5 interface,
+ needed by toe on some of the BSDs.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify comparison in make_hash.c to correct a special case
+ in collision handling for Caps-hpux11</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add extended_slk_color{,_sp} symbols to the appropriate
+ package/*.{map,sym} files</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify lib_setup to avoid calling pthread_self() without
+ first verifying that the address is valid, i.e., for weak
+ symbols</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add a couple of broken-linker symbols to the list of
+ versioned symbols to help with link-time optimization versus
+ weak symbols.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
+ improvements</a></h3>
+
+ <p>Several improvements were made to the utility programs:</p>
<dl>
- <dt>cdk</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">clear</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>improved logic for clearing with the <em>E3</em>
+ extension, in case the terminal scrolls content onto its
+ saved-lines before actually clearing the display, by
+ clearing the saved-lines after clearing the display</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
- <dd>Curses Development Kit<br>
- <a href=
- "http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
+ </dt>
- <a href=
- "http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>omit filtering of “<tt>OTxx</tt>” names
+ which are used for obsolete capabilities, when the output
+ is sorted by long-names. This change helps when making a
+ table of the short/long capability names.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
- <dt>ded</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tic</span>
+ </dt>
- <dd>directory-editor<br>
- <a href=
- "http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>added check for consistent alternate character set
+ capabilities.</li>
- <dt>dialog</dt>
+ <li>added check for paired <tt>indn</tt>/<tt>rin</tt>.</li>
- <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/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></dd>
+ <li>added check for terminals with <tt>parm_dch</tt> vs
+ <tt>parm_ich</tt>.</li>
- <dt>lynx</dt>
+ <li>added check for the case where
+ <tt>setf</tt>/<tt>setb</tt> are given using different
+ strings, but provide identical results to
+ <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setab</tt>.</li>
- <dd>the character-screen WWW browser<br>
- <a href=
- "http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</a></dd>
+ <li>corrected check for <tt>ich1</tt>.</li>
+
+ <li>changed a too-large terminal entry from a fatal error
+ to a warning.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
- <dt>Midnight Commander</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">toe</span>
+ </dt>
- <dd>file manager<br>
- <a href=
- "http://www.midnight-commander.org/">http://www.midnight-commander.org/</a></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>ignores any hex/b64 <tt>$TERMINFO</tt> value in the
+ list of terminfo databases.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
- <dt>mutt</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tset</span>
+ </dt>
- <dd>mail utility<br>
- <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>replace check in <span class="part-name">reset</span>
+ command for obsolete “<tt>pt</tt>” capability
+ using <tt>tbc</tt> and <tt>hts</tt> capabilities as
+ clues</li>
- <dt>ncftp</dt>
+ <li>modify <span class="part-name">reset</span> to allow
+ for tabstops at intervals other than 8.</li>
- <dd>file-transfer utility<br>
- <a href="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</a></dd>
+ <li>change <span class="part-name">reset</span>'s behavior
+ for margins to simply clear soft-margins if possible,
+ rather than clearing and then setting them according to the
+ terminal's width.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
- <dt>nvi</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tput</span>
+ </dt>
- <dd>New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7
- and later.<br>
- <a href=
- "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi</a><br>
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>add “<tt>x</tt>” to <tt>getopt</tt> string
+ so that “<tt>tput -x clear</tt>”
+ works.</li>
+ </ul>
</dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>Several changes were made to the generated ncurses*config
+ scripts and the analogous “<tt>.pc</tt>” files to
+ reduce differences between the configurations they report:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>modified the ncurse*-config and pc-files to more closely
+ match for the <tt>-I</tt> and <tt>-l</tt> options.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>filtered out linker-specs from the <tt>--libs</tt>
+ report.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>amended the ncurses*-config and pc-files to take into
+ account the rpath hack which differed between those
+ files.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified generated ncurses*config and ncurses.pc,
+ ncursesw.pc, etc., to list helper libraries such as gpm for
+ static linking.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
- <dt>pinfo</dt>
+ <h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
- <dd>Lynx-like info browser. <a href=
- "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/</a></dd>
+ <p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
+ to the <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. Most of
+ this activity aimed at improving the test-packages. A few changes
+ are more generally useful, e.g., for the main ncurses
+ test-program, and for analyzing traces using the
+ <em>tracemunch</em> script:</p>
- <dt>tin</dt>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>improve recovery from error when reading command-character
+ in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>, showing the relevant error
+ message and not exiting on EINTR.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>, by keeping track of
+ <tt>TERMINAL*</tt> values, and if tracing was first turned on
+ after initialization, attempt to show distinct screen, window
+ and terminal names anyway.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <em>tracemunch</em> to accept filename parameters
+ in addition to use as a pipe/filter.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>update <em>tracemunch</em> to work with <em>perl
+ 5.26.2</em>, which changed the rules for escaping regular
+ expressions.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add some checks in <em>tracemunch</em> for undefined
+ variables.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <tt>TurnOn</tt>/<tt>TurnOff</tt> macros (in
+ lib_vidattr.c and lib_vid_attr.c) to avoid expansion of
+ “<tt>CUR</tt>” in trace.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
- <dd>newsreader, supporting color, MIME <a href=
- "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></dd>
- </dl>as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support
- alone:
+ <p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
+ examples:</p>
<dl>
- <dt>minicom</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">color_content</span>
+ </dt>
- <dd>terminal emulator<br>
- <a href=
- "http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></dd>
+ <dd>Demonstrate the <tt>color_content</tt> and
+ <tt>extended_color_content</tt> functions.</dd>
- <dt>vile</dt>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">demo_tabs</span>
+ </dt>
- <dd>vi-like-emacs<br>
- <a href=
- "http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></dd>
+ <dd>A simple demo of tabs in curses.</dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">dump_window</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>A portable curses screen-dump, used to compare ncurses
+ screen contents with Solaris.</dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">pair_content</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>Demonstrate the <tt>pair_content</tt> and
+ <tt>extended_pair_content</tt> functions.</dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">report_hashing</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>Check hash-tables used for terminfo and termcap names.</dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">parse_rgb</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>Sample implementation of the ncurses RGB extension from
+ <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>, used
+ in <em>picsmap</em> and <em>savescreen</em> programs.</dd>
</dl>
- <p>The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
- (including a few games).</p>
+ <p>A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both
+ new features as well as options added to make the set of programs
+ more consistent.</p>
- <h2>Who's Who and What's What</h2>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@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>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
- <code>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</code> containing the line:</p>
- <pre>
- subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add “<tt>-l</tt>” option to test/background,
+ to dump screen contents in a form that lets different curses
+ implementations be compared.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add “<tt>@</tt>” command to test/ncurses
+ F-test, to allow rapid jump to different character pages.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>added enum, regex examples to test/demo_forms</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>amend Scaled256() macro in test/picsmap.c to cover the
+ full range 0..1000</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>corrected pathname used in Ada95 sample programs for
+ <tt>explain.txt</tt>, to work with test-packages, and used an
+ awk script to split the resulting pathname when it would be
+ too long for a single line.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>ignore interrupted system-call in test/ncurses's
+ command-line, e.g., if the terminal were resized.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improved ifdef's for <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable, to help
+ with AIX/HPUX ports.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
+
+ <p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
+
+ <blockquote style="word-break:keep-all">
+ <p><tt>alacritty</tt>, <tt>domterm</tt>, <tt>kitty</tt>,
+ <tt>mintty</tt>, <tt>mintty-direct</tt>, <tt>ms-terminal</tt>,
+ <tt>n7900</tt>, <tt>nsterm-build309</tt>,
+ <tt>nsterm-direct</tt>, <tt>screen5</tt>, <tt>ti703</tt>,
+ <tt>ti707</tt>, <tt>ti703-w</tt>, <tt>ti707-w</tt>
+ <tt>vscode</tt>, <tt>vscode-direct</tt>, <tt>xterm-mono</tt>,
+ <tt>xterm.js</tt></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
+ were updates to several descriptions:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>use <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_rep"><tt>ansi+rep</tt></a>
+ in a dozen places</li>
+
+ <li>add rs1 to konsole, mlterm</li>
+
+ <li>improve several flash capabilities with trailing mandatory
+ delays</li>
+
+ <li>drop <tt>ich1</tt> from <tt>rxvt-basic</tt>, <tt>Eterm</tt>
+ and <tt>mlterm</tt> to improve compatibility with old
+ non-curses programs</li>
+
+ <li>add/use <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_keypad"><tt>xterm+keypad</tt></a>
+ in <tt>xterm-new</tt></li>
+
+ <li>use <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl-twm"><tt>xterm+sl-twm</tt></a>
+ for consistency, nine places</li>
+
+ <li>improve <em>xm</em> example in <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11mouse">xterm+x11mouse</a>
+ and <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006">xterm+sm_1006</a>.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
+ retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><tt>terminator</tt>, <tt>st</tt></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
+ documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
+ "part-name">tic</span>:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-adds200">adds200</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>fix typo</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-gnome-256color">gnome-256color</a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>base entry on "gnome", not "vte", for consistency</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-interix">interix</a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>trim unnecessary setf/setb</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux-16color">linux-16color</a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>accommodate <a href=
+ "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2019-10/msg00061.html">
+ Linux console driver</a> incompatibility introduced in
+ early 2018</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm-256color">nsterm-256color</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>add nsterm-build309 to replace nsterm-256color,
+ assigning the latter as an alias of nsterm, to make mouse
+ work with nsterm-256color</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent40">regent40</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>renumber function-keys to match manual</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent60">regent60</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>add cd (clr_eos)</li>
+
+ <li>corrected acsc</li>
+
+ <li>add shifted function-keys</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi950">tvi950</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>added function-key definitions to agree with Televideo
+ 950 manual</li>
+
+ <li>corrected acsc</li>
+
+ <li>remove bogus kf0</li>
+
+ <li>add bel</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi955">tvi955</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>fix typo</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vi200">vi200</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>add acsc string, including right/down-arrow</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>corrected acsc</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a> and
+ <a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy60">wy60</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>add shifted function-keys as kF1 to kF16</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11hilite">xterm+x11hilite</a>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>eliminate unused <em>p5</em> parameter.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
+ capabilities):</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>use <a href=
+ "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
+ (aka “SGR 1006 mouse”) for konsole-base and
+ putty</li>
+
+ <li>add <em><tt>Smol/Rmol</tt></em> user-defined capability to
+ <tt>tmux</tt> and <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
+
+ <li>add <em><tt>Smulx</tt></em> user-defined capability to
+ <tt>tmux</tt>, <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
+ "h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
+
+ <p>As usual, this release</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>attempts to improve the description of features which
+ users have found confusing</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
+ described in the <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
+ but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>In addition to providing background information to explain
+ these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
+ clarifications, etc.:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>Corrections:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>correct error-returns listed in manual pages for a few
+ form functions</li>
+
+ <li>corrected prototypes in several manpages using script
+ to extract those in compilable form.</li>
+
+ <li>fix typo in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">term.5</a>,
+ improve explanation of format</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Clarify in manual pages that <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwprintw</a>
+ and <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scanw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwscanw</a>
+ are obsolete.<br>
+ They have not been part of X/Open Curses since 2007.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">curs_addch.3x</a>
+ gives some background for ACS symbols.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getcchar.3x</a>
+ explains a difference between ncurses and X/Open
+ Curses.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getstr.3x</a>
+ gives historical/portability background for the length
+ parameter of <tt>wgetnstr</tt>.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_slk.3x.html">curs_slk.3x</a> lists a
+ few differences between SVr4 curses and X/Open Curses for
+ soft-keys.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo.3x</a>
+ explains that the initial implementation of terminfo in
+ SVr2 was mostly replaced by other developers in SVr3.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp.1</a>
+ explains that the initial version of terminfo had no tool
+ for decompiling descriptions. That came later, with SVr3,
+ with a different developer.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1">tabs.1</a> tells more
+ than you wanted to know about the tool.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic.1</a> explains
+ that the initial version of terminfo had a rudimentary tool
+ (based on termcap) for compiling entries. The tool used
+ with Unix was developed by others for SVr3.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">toe.1</a> explains
+ the origin of this tool.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Improvements for <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>mention <tt>meml</tt>, <tt>memu</tt> and
+ <tt>box1</tt></li>
+
+ <li>expanded description of <tt>XM</tt></li>
+
+ <li>add a clarification regarding the <tt>RGB</tt>
+ capability.</li>
+
+ <li>mention user_caps.5 in the tic and infocmp manual
+ pages.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Other improvements:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_add_wch.3x.html#h3-Line-Graphics">curs_add_wch.3x</a>
+ adds note about Unicode terminology for the line-drawing
+ characters.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-RETURN-VALUE">curs_color.3x</a>
+ improves discussion of error returns and extensions.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_mouse.3x.html">curs_mouse.3x</a>
+ explains how the <tt>kmous</tt> and <tt>XM</tt>
+ capabilities are used for xterm-mouse input.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_refresh.3x.html#h3-wnoutrefresh_doupdate">
+ curs_refresh.3x</a> improves documentation regarding the
+ virtual and physical screens.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html">curs_util.3x</a>
+ mentions a difference between SVr4 and X/Open Curses for
+ <tt>unctrl.h</tt></li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_variables.3x</a>
+ improves description of the <em>init_tabs</em> capability
+ and <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
+ ncurses.3x</a> improves documentation regarding
+ feature-test macros in curses.h</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h3-resize_term">resizeterm.3x</a>
+ about top-level windows which touch the screen's
+ borders.</li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html#h3-Terminal-Size">tput.1</a>
+ clarifies how <em>tput</em> determines the terminal
+ size.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
+ are to existing pages).</p>
+
+ <p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
+ the information is presented. For instance, the generated
+ terminfo.5 file uses a different table layout, allowing it to use
+ space on wide terminals more effectively.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
+ bug-fixes</a></h3>
+
+ <p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
+ 6.2, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
+ and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
+ which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
+ are detailed in the NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.</p>
+
+ <p>The interesting bugs were in tic/infocmp's handling of
+ user-defined capabilities. These were not recent bugs. Initially
+ it was a simple problem:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>The user-defined capabilities can be any type (boolean,
+ number or string), but once given a type all uses of the name
+ must conform to that type—unless some special support for
+ a particular multi-typed name is built into ncurses.</li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>One of simpleterm's contributors copied some definitions
+ for using <em>tmux</em>'s user-defined capabilities in
+ <a href=
+ "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/06f8cf8ca87a81db15816658c40b2afcd1ad5332.html">
+ late in 2016</a>.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <pre class="demo-name">
+diff --git a/st.info b/st.info
+@@ -185,7 +185,10 @@ st| simpleterm,
+ tsl=\E]0;,
+ xenl,
+ vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,
+-
++# Tmux unofficial extensions, see TERMINFO EXTENSIONS in tmux(1)
++ Se,
++ Ss,
++ Tc,
+
+ st-256color| simpleterm with 256 colors,
+ use=st,
+</pre>
+ </blockquote>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Later, in (referring to a version from <a href=
+ "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/c0882f2ed1d7a2dd0fa2efa52157e6fc6fde3652.html">
+ mid-2017</a>), a user asked to have it updated in
+ ncurses.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>However, it had an error from the change in late 2016. The
+ terminal description made what <em>tmux</em> expected to be
+ <strong>string</strong> actually a
+ <strong>boolean</strong>.</p>
+
+ <p>Over the years, there were problems with each of
+ simpleterm's terminal descriptions. I repaired those, and
+ usually dealt with the problem.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The difference in this case was that when compiling the
+ terminal database, <em>tic</em> may have in memory the
+ definitions for more than one terminal description (so that
+ it can resolve “<tt>use=</tt>” clauses). Seeing
+ two different types for the same name, in certain situations
+ it would incorrectly merge the symbol tables for the two
+ terminal descriptions.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>On simpleterm's side, their bug was finally fixed in
+ <a href=
+ "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/83866428de031300eab03fbb116bcf7d2b1d4f60.html">
+ late 2019</a>, three years after the bug was created.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>For ncurses, the elapsed time to fix this bug was less than
+ three years. Someone reported a problem with the terminal
+ description a few weeks after releasing ncurses 6.1 (in <a href=
+ "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1264">tmux #1264</a>), and
+ the terminal description was updated that week (ncurses patch
+ <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t20180224">20180224</a>):</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <pre class="demo-name">
+20180224
+ + modify _nc_resolve_uses2() to detect incompatible types when merging
+ a "use=" clause of extended capabilities. The problem was seen in a
+ defective terminfo integrated from simpleterm sources in 20171111,
+ compounded by repair in 20180121.
+ + correct Ss/Ms interchange in st-0.7 entry (tmux #1264) -TD
</pre>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>The larger part of that change added a check to prevent a
+ simple merge of terminal descriptions where the same user-defined
+ name was used with different types. But it raised some
+ questions:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>Was there a reliable way to manage terminal descriptions
+ which used the same extended name in different ways?</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Should ncurses provide a registry of well-known extended
+ names, with their types?</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Since the correction to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database"><tt>terminfo.src</tt></a>
+ could have been readily adopted by packagers, there was nothing
+ more to be done from ncurses' standpoint on that part. But
+ improving ncurses to prevent issues like that is the reason for
+ making a release.</p>
+
+ <p>Nothing more (constructive) was mentioned with regard to
+ simpleterm. But a few problems were found in the handling of
+ user-defined capabilities:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>Forward-references to user-defined capabilities in a
+ “<tt>use=</tt>” clause did not allocate new data
+ for each use. In <em>tic</em>, successive compilation of
+ terminal entries could add user-defined capabilities to the
+ wrong terminal entry.</p>
+
+ <p>This was not noticed before, since xterm's terminal
+ descriptions were the main users of the feature, and almost
+ all of the uses of the building-blocks which contained
+ user-defined capabilities were backward-references.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>There is one (documented) case where ncurses 6.1 supports
+ a user-defined capability that could be any type (i.e.,
+ “RGB”). The check added in February 2018 to guard
+ against mismatches did not handle all of the combinations
+ needed.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Both of these issues dated from the original implementation of
+ user-defined capabilities. Fixing them does not change the
+ terminal database, but a older <em>tic</em> without the fixes
+ will not be able to handle terminfo sources which rely upon those
+ fixes. Starting in June 2019, the download link for the terminfo
+ source file was capped at that date. The development sources have
+ an up-to-date copy of the file, for people with a legitimate need
+ for it.</p>
+
+ <p>The “<tt>-c</tt>” (check) option of <em>tic</em>
+ is not very useful if it cannot offer advice on parameters needed
+ for user-defined capabilities. The various <em>Caps</em> files
+ were reorganized to reduce redundancy, and in the common portion
+ (<a href=
+ "https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots/blob/master/include/Caps-ncurses">Caps-ncurses</a>),
+ a registry of user-defined capabilities is provided for use by
+ <em>tic</em>. While users can still define their own custom
+ capabilities, <em>tic</em> will not offer any advice when their
+ parameters do not match.</p>
+
+ <p>In ncurses 6.2, <em>tic</em> makes a special check to allow
+ any type for <em>RGB</em>, but its being able to do this relies
+ upon fixes made in the ncurses library in mid-2019.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
+ "h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
+ changes</a></h4>
+
+ <p>There are no major changes. Several new options were added to
+ ease integration of packages with systems using different
+ versions of <em>GNAT</em> and <em>ncurses</em>. Also,
+ improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
+ "h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
+
+ <p>There are a few new/modified configure options:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt><tt>--with-config-suffix</tt>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>helps work around a filename conflict with Debian packages
+ versus test-packages.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt>--with-ada-libname</tt>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>allows one to rename the “AdaCurses” library
+ (at least one packager prefers a lowercase name).</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt>--with-fallbacks</tt>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>now ensures there is a value, and adds the fallback
+ information to top-level Makefile summary.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt>--with-pcre2</tt>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>check for pcre-posix library to help with MinGW port.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt>--with-tic-path</tt> and<br></dt>
+
+ <dt><tt>--with-infocmp-path</tt>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>help work around problems building fallback source using
+ pre-6.0 tic/infocmp.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt>--with-versioned-syms</tt>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>option value can now be a relative pathname.</p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
+
+ <p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
+ configure script:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>ignore <a href=
+ "/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>
+ as a default value in configure script if it came from the
+ <tt>infocmp</tt> <strong><tt>-Q</tt></strong> option.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>distinguish gcc from icc and clang when the
+ <tt>--enable-warnings</tt> option is not used, to avoid
+ unnecessary warnings about unrecognized inline options</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>consistently prepend new libraries as they are found
+ during configuration, rather than relying upon the linker to
+ resolve order dependencies of libraries.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified configure scripts to reduce relinking/ranlib
+ during library install :</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>use “<tt>install -p</tt>” when available,
+ to avoid need for ranlib of static libraries.</li>
+
+ <li>scripts which use
+ “<tt>--disable-relink</tt>;” add a 1-second
+ sleep to work around tools which use whole-second
+ timestamps, e.g., in <tt>utime</tt> rather than the actual
+ file system resolution.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p id="getenv-check">add configure check for <a href=
+ "#getenv-fixes"><tt>getenv</tt></a> to work around
+ implementation shown in Emscripten which overwrites the
+ previous return value on each call.</p>
+
+ <p>Use that to optionally suppress <tt>START_TRACE</tt>
+ macro, whose call to <tt>getenv</tt> may not work
+ properly</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>change target configure level for <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>
+ to 600 to address use of <tt>vsscanf</tt> and
+ <tt>setenv</tt>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>reduce use of <tt>_GNU_SOURCE</tt> for current glibc where
+ <tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> combines with
+ <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt></p>
+
+ <p>Allow for Cygwin's newlib when checking for the
+ _DEFAULT_SOURCE symbol.</p>
+
+ <p>MidnightBSD is now checked for the
+ <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>-related definitions.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>If the check for <tt>va_copy</tt> or <tt>__va_copy</tt>
+ fails,</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>configure now tries copying the pointers for
+ <tt>va_list</tt>, or as an array.</li>
+
+ <li>alternatively, it checks for
+ <tt>__builtin_va_copy</tt>(), which could be used with AIX
+ <tt>xlc</tt> in <em>c89</em> mode.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>several changes to support a port to Ultrix 3.1:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>check if "b" binary feature of fopen works</li>
+
+ <li>check for missing feature of locale.h</li>
+
+ <li>add fallback for strstr() in test-programs</li>
+
+ <li>add fallback for STDOUT_FILENO in test-programs</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <em>test/configure</em> script (used for <a href=
+ "/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html"><em>ncurses-examples</em></a>)
+ is improved:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>work around non-ncurses termcap.h file, e.g., in
+ Slackware.</li>
+
+ <li>check for <a href=
+ "/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h3-TABSIZE"><tt>TABSIZE</tt></a>
+ variable.</li>
+
+ <li>checks for the X11/Intrinsic.h header, accommodate
+ recent MacOS changes which largely emptied
+ <tt>/usr/include</tt>.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>added dummy "check" rule in top-level and test-Makefile to
+ simplify building test-packages for ArchLinux.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>dropped library-dependency on psapi for MinGW port, since
+ win_driver.c defines <tt>PSAPI_VERSION</tt> to 2, making it
+ use <tt>GetProcessImageFileName</tt> from kernel32.dll</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>made build-fixes for configuration using --program-suffix
+ with Ada95, noticed with MacOS but applicable to other
+ platforms without libpanelw, etc.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified ncurses/Makefile.in to fix a case where
+ Debian/testing changes to the ld --as-needed configuration
+ broke ncurses-examples test packages.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>used <tt>_WIN32</tt>/<tt>_WIN64</tt> in preference to
+ <tt>__MINGW32__</tt>/<tt>__MINGW64__</tt> symbols to simplify
+ building with Microsoft Visual C++, since the former are
+ defined in both compiler configurations.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <hr>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
+ upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
+ documented).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
+ for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
+ forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
+ of keypad and function keys.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
+ add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
+ backing store.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
+ interface for menu programming.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>the form library, supporting data collection through
+ on-screen forms.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
+ is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
+ user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
+ hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
+ <em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
+ used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
+ directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
+ options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
+ less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
+ as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
+ many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>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, 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).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
+ your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
+ FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
+ package.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
+ windows, preserving their data.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
+ use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
+ achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
+ <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
+ of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
+ than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
+ and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
+ features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
+ than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>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
+ <code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>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.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>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).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> utility
+ provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has the
+ ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
+ AT&T extension sets.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>A BSD-like <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 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 terminfo directory.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>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.)</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>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 user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see
+ exactly what terminal types are available on the system.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>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 <code>#undef</code>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
+ Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html"><span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online
+ documentation).</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
+ includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
+ These are available separately as <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
+
+ <p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>Curses Development Kit</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/cdk/">@WEBSITE@/cdk/</a><br>
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>directory-editor</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/ded/">@WEBSITE@/ded/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
+ and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
+ many systems.</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/dialog/">@WEBSITE@/dialog/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>the text WWW browser</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>mail utility</p>
+
+ <p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>file-transfer utility</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
+
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
+ <em>Python</em>.</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
+
+ <p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
+
+ <p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>as well as some that use <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminfo action checker</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
+ termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/vile/">@WEBSITE@/vile/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>text editor</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
+ displays text files).</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>text editor</p>
+
+ <p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
+ activities</a></h2>
+
+ <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
+ Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of
+ the form and menu libraries.</p>
+
+ <p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
+ "mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
+ E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
+ Foundation, which holds a <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html">copyright on ncurses</a> for
+ releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following the release of ncurses 6.1,
+ effective as of release 6.2, copyright for ncurses reverted to
+ Thomas E. Dickey (see the <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">ncurses FAQ</a> for
+ additional information).</p>
+
+ <p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <a href=
+ "mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
+ </blockquote>
+ containing the line:
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><code>subscribe</code>
+ <em><name>@<host.domain></em></p>
+ </blockquote>
<p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
development and testing of this package.</p>
- <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> .</p>
+ <p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
+ made available at</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/</a>
+ and<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/</a>
+ and<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
+ (also <a href=
+ "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
+ </blockquote>
- <h2>Future Plans</h2>
+ <h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
+ resources</a></h2>
+
+ <p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
+ which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
<ul>
- <li>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
- support.</li>
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
+ in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-slang.html">Comments on
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
+ "main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack – terminfo action
+ checker</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tctest.html">tctest – termcap
+ library checker</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal
+ Database</a></li>
+ </ul>
- <li>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.</li>
- </ul>We need people to help with these projects. If you are
- interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list.
+ <h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
+ resources</a></h2>
- <h2>Other Related Resources</h2>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
+ <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.
+ terminfo data are provided in the same file, which also provides
+ several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open
+ specification.</p>
<p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
"http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
- Richard Shuford's archive</a> .</p>
+ Richard Shuford's archive</a> . The collection of computer
+ manuals at <a href=
+ "http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
+ useful.</p>
+
+ <div class="nav">
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
+ improvements</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
+ options</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </div>
</body>
</html>
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