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-<HTML>
-<HEAD>
-<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">
-</HEAD>
-<BODY>
-
-<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1>
-
-The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
-curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
-supports pads and color
-and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
-and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<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>
-
-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),
-and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
-the library and tools.<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> .
-
-<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-
-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 5.6 release.
-<p>
-Interface changes:
-<ul>
- <li>generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- <br>
- getattrs
-
-</ul>
-New features and improvements:
-<ul>
- <li>library
- <ul>
- <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>add <code>NCURSES_OPAQUE</code> symbol to curses.h, will
- use to make structs opaque in selected configurations.
-
- <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>add wresize() to C++ binding
-
- <li>eliminate fixed-buffer vsprintf() calls in C++ binding.
-
- <li>add several functions to C++ binding which wrap C functions
- that pass a WINDOW* parameter.
-
- <li>adapt mouse-handling code from menu library in form-library
-
- <li>improve tracing for form library, showing created forms,
- fields, etc.
-
- <li>make $NCURSES_NO_PADDING feature work for termcap interface .
-
- <li>add check to trace-file open, if the given name is a
- directory, add ".log" to the name and try again.
-
- <li>several new manpages: curs_legacy.3x, curs_memleaks.3x,
- curs_opaque.3x and curs_threads.3x
- </ul>
-
- <li>programs:
- <ul>
- <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 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>The <code>tack</code> program is now distributed separately
- from ncurses.
- </ul>
-
- <li>terminal database
- <ul>
- <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>add logic to tic for cancelling strings in user-defined
- capabilities
- (this is <em>needed</em> for
- current <code>konsole</code> terminfo entry).
-
- <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>correct check for notimeout() in wgetch().
-
- <li>fix a sign-extension bug in infocmp's repair_acsc() function.
-
- <li>change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line.
-
- <li>make Ada95 demo_panels() example work.
-
- <li>fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line.
-
- <li>fill in extended-color pair to make colors work
- for wide-characters using extended-colors.
-
- <li>improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters,
- taking into account split characters on left/right window
- boundaries.
-
- <li>modify <code>win_wchnstr()</code> to ensure that only a base cell
- is returned for each multi-column character.
-
- <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>restore <code>curs_set()</code> state after
- <code>endwin()</code>/<code>refresh()</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>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>improve <code>resizeterm()</code> by moving ripped-off lines, and
- repainting the soft-keys.
-
- <li>modify form library to accept control characters such as newline
- in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris.
-
- <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 some functions in Ada95 binding which were using return
- value from C where none was returned.
-
- <li>reviewed/fixed issues reported by Coverity and Klocwork tools.
-</ul>
-
-Portability:
-<ul>
- <li>configure script:
- <ul>
- <li>new options:
- <dl>
-
- <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.
-
- <dt>--disable-relink
- <dd>control whether shared libraries are relinked (during install)
- when rpath is enabled.
-
- <dt>--disable-tic-depends
- <dd>make explicit whether tic library depends on ncurses/ncursesw
- library.
-
- <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
-
- <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).
-
- <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).
-
- <dt>--with-pthread
- <dd>build with the POSIX thread library (tested with AIX,
- Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HPUX, IRIX64, Solaris, Tru64).
-
- <dt>--with-ticlib
- <dd>build/install the tic-support functions in a separate library
-
- </dl>
-
- <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.
-
- <dt>--without-hashed-db
- <dd>assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
-
- </dl>
-
- </ul>
-
- <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>library:
- <ul>
- <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>
-
-The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
-
-<UL>
-<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
-<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>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
-a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
-a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
-data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
-<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
-are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
-<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.</UL>
-
-The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
-
-<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>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 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.
-<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>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>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.
-<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 quickch() routine.
-<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>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>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>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
-<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
-entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
-if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
-This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
-without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
-<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
-descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
-generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
-<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
-other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
-compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
-$HOME/.terminfo directory.
-<LI>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>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>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>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>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
-a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
-</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>
-
-The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
-including (versions starting with those noted):
-<DL>
-<DT> cdk
-<DD> Curses Development Kit
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A>
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a>
-<DT> ded
-<DD> directory-editor
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</A>
-<DT> dialog
-<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
-for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">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
-<DD> file manager
-<br>
-<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>
-<DT> ncftp
-<DD> file-transfer utility
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</A>
-<DT> nvi
-<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>
-<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
-<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://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">
-http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</A>
-<DT> vile
-<DD> vi-like-emacs
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</A>
-</DL>
-<P>
-
-The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
-a few games).
-
-<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:
-<PRE>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
+
+<html>
+<head>
+ <meta name="generator" content=
+ "HTML Tidy for Linux (vers 25 March 2009), see www.w3.org">
+
+ <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
+ <link rev="made" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
+ "text/html; charset=us-ascii">
+</head>
+
+<body>
+ <h1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
+
+ <p>The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation
+ of curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo
+ format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms
+ characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other
+ SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.</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>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <p>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>
+
+ <p>This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent
+ problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release.</p>
+
+ <p>It also improves the Ada95 binding:</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>
+
+ <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>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <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>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h1>Features of Ncurses</h1>
+
+ <p>The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V
+ Release 4) curses:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
+ documented).</li>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <li>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack
+ of windows with backing store, is included.</li>
+
+ <li>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a
+ uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is
+ included.</li>
+
+ <li>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data
+ collection through on-screen forms, is included.</li>
+
+ <li>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
+ implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
+ SVr4 curses uses.</li>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <p>The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over
+ SVr4:</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>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h1>State of the Package</h1>
+
+ <p>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>
+
+ <p>The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including (versions starting with those noted):</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt>cdk</dt>
+
+ <dd>Curses Development Kit<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
+
+ <a href=
+ "http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>ded</dt>
+
+ <dd>directory-editor<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>dialog</dt>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <dt>lynx</dt>
+
+ <dd>the character-screen WWW browser<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>Midnight Commander</dt>
+
+ <dd>file manager<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://www.midnight-commander.org/">http://www.midnight-commander.org/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>mutt</dt>
+
+ <dd>mail utility<br>
+ <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>ncftp</dt>
+
+ <dd>file-transfer utility<br>
+ <a href="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>nvi</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>
+
+ <dt>pinfo</dt>
+
+ <dd>Lynx-like info browser. <a href=
+ "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>tin</dt>
+
+ <dd>newsreader, supporting color, MIME <a href=
+ "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support
+ alone:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt>minicom</dt>
+
+ <dd>terminal emulator<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>vile</dt>
+
+ <dd>vi-like-emacs<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games).</p>
+
+ <h2>Who's Who and What's What</h2>
+
+ <p>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>
+
+ <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>
-</PRE>
-
-This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
-testing of this package.<P>
-
-Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A> .
-
-<H2>Future Plans</H2>
-<UL>
-<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
-<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
-</UL>
-We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
-on them, please join the ncurses list.
-
-<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 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> .
-</BODY>
-</HTML>
-<!--
-# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
-# Local Variables:
-# mode:html
-# case-fold-search:nil
-# fill-column:70
-# End:
--->
+</pre>
+
+ <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>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <h2>Future Plans</h2>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
+ support.</li>
+
+ <li>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>We need people to help with these projects. If you are
+ interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list.</p>
+
+ <h2>Other Related Resources</h2>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <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>
+</body>
+</html>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff