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<HEAD>
-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses 5.6</TITLE>
+<TITLE>Announcing ncurses 5.7</TITLE>
<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<BODY>
-<H1>Announcing ncurses 5.6</H1>
+<H1>Announcing ncurses 5.7</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,
<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.5;
+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 5.5 release.
+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>
- getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
- getpary, getpary,
- <br>
- and (for libncursesw)
- <br>
- wgetbkgrnd
+ getattrs
</ul>
New features and improvements:
<ul>
<li>library
<ul>
- <li>support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions.
- This uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for
- several versions on different platforms.
-
- <li>add <code>use_legacy_coding()</code> function to support
- lynx's font-switching feature.
-
- <li>add extension <code>nofilter()</code>, to cancel a prior
- <code>filter()</code> call.
-
- <li>add/install a package config script, e.g.,
- <code>ncurses5-config</code> or
- <code>ncursesw5-config</code>, according to
- configuration options.
-
- <li>provide ifdef for <code>NCURSES_NOMACROS</code> which
- suppresses most macro definitions from curses.h, i.e.,
- where a macro is defined to override a function to improve
- performance.
-
- <li>make ifdef's consistent in <code>curses.h</code> for the
- extended colors so the header file can be used for the
- normal curses library. The header file installed for
- extended colors is a variation of the wide-character
- configuration.
-
- <li>improve <code>tgetstr()</code> by making the return value
- point into the user's buffer, if provided.
-
- <li>add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with
- <code>tparm()</code> using either varargs (the existing
- status), or using a fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
-
- <li>widen the test for xterm <code>kmous</code> a little to
- <code>allow</code> for other
- strings than "\E[M", e.g., for <code>xterm-sco</code>
- functionality in xterm.
-
- <li>modify <code>wgetnstr()</code> to return
- <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> if a sigwinch occurs.
-
- <li>move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
- curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
- those if <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED</code> is defined
- without ensuring that <wchar.h> is included.
-
- <li>change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are
- installed. Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries,
- link the shared objects into the install directory. This
- makes the <code>--with-rpath</code> option work except with
- <code>$(DESTDIR)</code>.
-
- <li>several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are
- only available if the library is configured using
- <code>--enable-xmc-glitch</code>.
-
- <li>Add <code>NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS</code> and
- <code>NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE</code> environment variables
- to allow runtime suppression of the related hard-tabs and
- xmc-glitch features.
+ <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>add new test programs: chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c,
- echochar.c, foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting
- that existing test programs also were modified to test
- additional features).
-
- <li>modify tack to test extended capability function-key
- strings.
+ <li>modified three test-programs to demonstrate the threading
+ support in this version: ditto, rain, worm.
- <li>modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via <code>cgetent()</code>
- functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
+ <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>improve infocmp/tic <code>-f</code> option formatting.
+ <li>add <code>adacurses-config</code> to the Ada95 install.
- <li>add <code>toe -a</code> option, to show all databases.
- This uses new private interfaces in the ncurses library for
- iterating through the list of databases.
+ <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>modify <code>MKfallback.sh</code> to use
- <code>tic -x</code> when constructing fallback tables to
- allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a fallback entry.
+ <li>The <code>tack</code> program is now distributed separately
+ from ncurses.
</ul>
<li>terminal database
<ul>
- <li>add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome terminal (mgt)
- <li>add nsterm-16color entry
- <li>updated mlterm terminfo entry
- <li>add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
- <li>remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux entry, since it does not really do this
- <li>add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
- <li>add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri strings
- <li>add hpterm-color terminfo entry
- <li>add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which are reported to implement this feature
- <li>correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
+ <li>added entries:
+ <ul>
+ <li><code>Eterm-256color</code>,
+ <code>Eterm-88color</code> and
+ <code>rxvt-88color</code>
+ <li><code>aterm</code>
+ <li><code>konsole-256color</code>
+ <li><code>mrxvt</code>
+ <li><code>screen.mlterm</code>
+ <li><code>screen.rxvt</code>
+ <li><code>teraterm4.59</code> is now the primary primary
+ teraterm entry, renamed original to
+ <code>teraterm2.3</code>
+ <li><code>9term</code> terminal
+ <li>Newbury Data entries
+ </ul>
+ <li>updated/improved entries:
+ <ul>
+ <li><code>gnome</code> to version 2.22.3
+ <li><code>h19</code>, <code>z100</code>
+ <li><code>konsole</code> to version 1.6.6
+ <li><code>mlterm</code>, <code>mlterm+pcfkeys</code>
+ <li><code>xterm</code>, and building-blocks for function-keys
+ to <a href="http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_230">xterm patch #230</a>.
+ </ul>
</ul>
</ul>
Major bug fixes:
<ul>
- <li>correct a typo in configure <code>--with-bool</code> option for the
- case where <code>--without-cxx</code> is used.
+ <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>move assignment from environment variable <code>ESCDELAY</code>
- from <code>initscr()</code> down to <code>newterm()</code> so the
- environment variable affects timeouts for terminals opened with
- newterm() as well.
+ <li>change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line.
- <li>modify <code>werase</code> to clear multicolumn characters that
- extend into a derived window.
+ <li>make Ada95 demo_panels() example work.
- <li>modify <code>wchgat()</code> to mark updated cells as changed so a
- refresh will repaint those cells.
+ <li>fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line.
- <li>correct logic in <code>wadd_wch()</code> and
- <code>wecho_wch()</code>, which did not guard against passing the
- multi-column attribute into a call on <code>waddch()</code>, e.g.,
- using data returned by <code>win_wch()</code>
+ <li>fill in extended-color pair to make colors work
+ for wide-characters using extended-colors.
- <li>fix redrawing of windows other than <code>stdscr</code> using
- <code>wredrawln()</code> by touching the corresponding rows in
- <code>curscr</code>.
+ <li>improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters,
+ taking into account split characters on left/right window
+ boundaries.
- <li>reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to <code>tgetent()</code> by
- remembering the last <code>TERMINAL*</code> value allocated to hold
- the corresponding data and freeing that if the
- <code>tgetent()</code> result buffer is the same as the previous
- call.
+ <li>modify <code>win_wchnstr()</code> to ensure that only a base cell
+ is returned for each multi-column character.
- <li>modify <code>read_termtype()</code> so the <code>term_names</code>
- data is always allocated as part of the <code>str_table</code>, a
- better fix for a memory leak.
+ <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>fix <code>wins_nwstr(),</code> which did not handle single-column
- non-8bit codes.
+ <li>restore <code>curs_set()</code> state after
+ <code>endwin()</code>/<code>refresh()</code>
- <li>modify <code>wbkgrnd()</code> to avoid clearing the
- <code>A_CHARTEXT</code> attribute bits since those record the state
- of multicolumn characters.
+ <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>improve <code>SIGWINCH</code> handling by postponing its effect
- during <code>newterm()</code>, etc., when allocating screens.
+ <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>remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
- <code>mvwin()</code>.
+ <li>improve <code>resizeterm()</code> by moving ripped-off lines, and
+ repainting the soft-keys.
- <li>add checks in <code>waddchnstr()</code> and
- <code>wadd_wchnstr()</code> to stop copying when a null character
- is found.
+ <li>modify form library to accept control characters such as newline
+ in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris.
- <li>add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
- region before scrolling on a new line.
+ <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>add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as
- test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with
- A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision
- of legacy coding.
+ <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:
<li>new options:
<dl>
- <dt>--with-hashed-db
- <dd>Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
- each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
- tree.
-
- <dt>--without-dlsym
- <dd>Do not use <code>dlsym()</code> to load GPM dynamically.
-
- <dt>--with-valgrind
- <dd>Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
-
- <dt>--enable-wgetch-events
- <dd>Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
-
- <dt>--enable-signed-char
- <dd>Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
+ <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>--disable-largefile
- <dd>make the option work both ways.
-
- <dt>--with-gpm
- <dd>The option now accepts a parameter,
- i.e., the name of the dynamic GPM library to load via
- <code>dlopen()</code>
-
- <dt>--disable-symlinks
- <dd>The option now allows one to
- disable <code>symlink()</code> in <code>tic</code> even when
- <code>link()</code> does not work.
-
- </dl>
-
- </ul>
-
- <li>other configure/build issues: <ul> <li>remove special case for
- Darwin in <code>CF_XOPEN_SOURCE</code> configure macro.
+ <dt>--enable-ext-colors
+ <dd>requires the wide-character configuration.
- <li>add configure check to ensure that <code>SIGWINCH</code> is
- defined on platforms such as OS X which exclude that when
- <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE,</code> etc., are defined
+ <dt>--with-chtype
+ <dd>ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to
+ the type in curses.h; do the same for --with-mmask-t.
- <li>use ld's <code>-search_paths_first</code> option on Darwin
- to work around odd search rules on that platform.
+ <dt>--with-dmalloc
+ <dd>build-fix for redefinition of <code>strndup</code>.
- <li>improve ifdef's for <code>_POSIX_VDISABLE</code> in tset to
- work with Mac OS X.
-
- <li>modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
- used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
- <code>$(CFLAGS)</code> variable is also used.
+ <dt>--with-hashed-db
+ <dd>accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of a given
+ Berkeley Database.
- <li>use <code>${CC}</code> rather than <code>${LD}</code> in
- shared library rules for IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure
- that initialization sections are provided for extra linkage
- requirements, e.g., of C++ applications.
+ <dt>--with-hashed-db
+ <dd>the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search for the db
+ library.
- <li>improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
- FreeBSD and NetBSD to make
- <code>--with-shlib-version</code> work.
+ <dt>--without-hashed-db
+ <dd>assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
- <li>split up dependency of <code>names.c</code> and
- <code>codes.c</code> in <code>ncurses/Makefile</code> to
- work with parallel make.
+ </dl>
- <li>modify <code>MKlib_gen.sh</code> to change
- preprocessor-expanded <code>_Bool</code> back to <code>bool</code>.
+ </ul>
- <li>modify <code>progs/Makefile.in</code> to make
- <code>tput init</code> work properly with cygwin,
- i.e., do not pass a <code>.exe</code> in the reference
- string used in check_aliases.
+ <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>ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that
- <code>wcwidth()</code> claims are not one-column. This is
- a workaround for Solaris' broken locale support.
-
- <li>reduce name-pollution in <code>term.h</code> by removing
- <code>#define</code>'s for HAVE_xxx symbols.
-
- <li>fix <code>#ifdef</code> in <code>c++/internal.h</code> for
- QNX 6.1
+ <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>modify <code>test/configure</code> script
- to allow building test programs with PDCurses/X11.
-
- <li>modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD
- curses. Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a
- subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4
- additions. But it is enough for comparison.
-
- <li>improved <code>test/configure</code> to build test/ncurses
- on HPUX 11 using the vendor curses.
-
- <li>change configure script to produce
- <code>test/Makefile</code> from data file.
+ <li>test programs:
+ <ul>
+ <li>update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses for
+ comparisons.
</ul>
</ul>
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
<br>
<DT> pinfo
<DD> Lynx-like info browser.
-<A HREF="http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/</A>
+<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>
-<DT> vh-1.6
-<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>
</DL>
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
<DL>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff