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<HEAD>
-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses 5.1</TITLE>
+<TITLE>Announcing ncurses 5.3 Pre-Release</TITLE>
<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
-<H1>Announcing ncurses 5.1</H1>
+<H1>Announcing ncurses 5.3</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,
Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
ncurses.<P>
-The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily to
-any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
+The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux.
+It has been in use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library,
+and on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package.
+It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
+It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
the GNU distribution site
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>.
<br>It is also available at
-<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
+<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0; very few
-applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
-These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.0 release.
+This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.2;
+very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
+These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.2 release.
<p>
Interface changes:
<ul>
- <li>made the extended terminal capabilities
- (<code>configure --enable-tcap-names</code>)
- a standard feature (though the configure script can disable it,
- it is built by default).
-
- <li>removed the <code>trace()</code> function and related trace support
- from the production library. This is the only interface change that
- may cause problems with existing applications linked to shared
- libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number.
-
- <li>explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were
- implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly
- initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems
- linking on some platforms.
-
- <li>modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict with
- C++ STL.
+ <li>change type for bool used in headers to <code>NCURSES_BOOL</code>,
+ which usually is the same as the compiler's definition for
+ <code>bool</code>.
+
+ <li>add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
+ These are only available if the library is configured using the
+ <kbd>--enable-widec</kbd> option. Missing functions are
+ <ul>
+ <li>pecho_wchar()
+ <li>slk_wset()
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>add environment variable <code>$NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS</code> to
+ modify the <code>assume_default_colors()</code> extension.
+
</ul>
-New features:
+New features and improvements:
<ul>
- <li>added a new extension, <code>assume_default_colors()</code> to
- provide better control over the use of default colors. This is
- the principal visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding
- versions. The new extension allows an application to specify what
- colors pair 0 uses.
- <p>
- <em>NOTE</em>: Pair 0 defaults to white on black unless
- you have invoked <code>use_default_colors()</code> or set it via
- <code>assume_default_colors()</code>. An application that calls
- <code>start_colors()</code> without setting the background color
- will consistently have a black background no matter what color your
- terminal's background actually is.
-
- <li>made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and
- have been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning.
- This builds on the extension <code>use_extended_names()</code> by
- adding "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src
+ <li>Improved support for termcap applications:
<ul>
- <li>modified <code>tic</code> so that if extended names (i.e.,
- configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then <code>tic -x</code>
- will also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the
- terminfo source.
-
- <li>added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to applicable
- terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check for a small
- improvement in setting default colors.
-
- <li>add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out
- capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g., captoinfo
- and infotocap.
- </ul>
+ <li>add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions that do
+ not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated termcaps. This makes
+ hds200 fit.
+
+ <li>modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the alternate
+ character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the copy of the termcap
+ "me" string which it will return to eliminate that part. In
+ particular, 'screen' would lose track of line-drawing characters.
+
+ <li>add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about missing acsc
+ string. This happens in configurations where raw termcap information
+ is processed; tic already does this and other checks.
+
+ <li>add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are commented out
+ when translating to termcap.
+
+ <li>modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to make it
+ work properly for termcap applications (patch by Andrey A Chernov).
- <li>implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm:
- <ul>
- <li>if the <code>configure --enable-widec</code> option is
- given, append 'w' to names of the generated libraries (e.g.,
- libncursesw.so) to avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries.
- <li>add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental
- wide-character support. If any of the environment variables
- LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this driver
- will be used to translate the output to UTF-8.
- <li>modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text.
</ul>
- <li>modify <code>raw()</code> and <code>noraw()</code> to clear/restore
- IEXTEN flag which affects <code>stty lnext</code> on systems such as FreeBSD
+ <li>add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications
+ such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes
+ Debian #131263, cf: 20011215).
+
+ <li>correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is compiled
+ with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making it slightly
+ incompatible with itself. In either case, the background color is
+ the last field.
+</ul>
+Major bug fixes:
+<ul>
+ <li>rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated _nc_scroll_window(),
+ to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is larger than the size of
+ the scrolling region, then the scrolling region will be cleared.
+
+ <li>modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is encountered.
+ Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently rather than mixing
+ with write().
+
+ <li>move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop with
+ callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise initialized
+ the tty modes before saving them.
- <li>reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to run
- in xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped test
- for <code>$DISPLAY</code> in favor of the terminfo capability
- <code>kmous=\E[M</code> or
- if <code>$TERM</code> environment variable contains "xterm".
+ <li>modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not corrupt
+ the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within the resized
+ window.
- <li>added configure option <code>--with-manpage-symlinks</code>, which
- provides for fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links
- for the aliases.
+ <li>altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
+ cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
- <li>changed <code>unctrl()</code> to render C1 characters (128-159) as
- <code>~@</code>, <code>~A</code>, etc.
+ <li>correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in tput,
+ which did not exit with an error when told to put a string not in the
+ current terminfo entry.
- <li>add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for
- $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm.
+ <li>modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is
+ running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it
+ returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without picking
+ up extraneous trailing blanks.
- <li>made the <code>infocmp -F</code> option less verbose.
+ <li>add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
+ the overwrite logic.
- <li>dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current).
+ <li>add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
+ <li>modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl() mode
+ is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual terminal
+ mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it is useful to
+ allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to avoid staircasing
+ effects after spawning a process which writes messages (for lynx
+ 2.8.4).
</ul>
-Major bug fixes:
+
+Portability:
<ul>
- <li>modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated fallback.c
- type for Booleans agrees with term.h
+ <li>configure script:
+ <ul>
+ <li>modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used by
+ default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in attempt to
+ work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL notes.
+
+ <li>correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and move it
+ to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
- <li>documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2 and
- 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL.
+ <li>modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, or with
+ fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and toe.
- <li>corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A
- negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call to
- wait indefinitely.
+ <li>modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile. In that
+ case, do not use the build's tic to install the terminfo database.
- <li>made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in
- delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo to
- specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud rate
- could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding characters.
+ <li>modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that are
+ different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's C++
+ compilers on Solaris and IRIX.
- <li>modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right
- corner, rather than displaying only the first character written until
- the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can update the
- lower-right corner, and behave this way.
+ <li>add several configure script options to aid with cross-compiling:
+ --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, --with-build-ldflags, and
+ --with-build-libs.
- <li>modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for
- carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella).
+ <li>add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to similar
+ terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
- <li>corrected offsets used for subwindows in <code>wresize()</code>
+ <li>add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in transition
+ to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
+ </ul>
- <li>modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined to
- a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++
- compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option
+ <li>library:
+ <ul>
+ <li>implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the %n
+ conversion to help parse the input data.
+
+ <li>various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
+ vsscanf().
- <li>corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM mouse
- support when poll() is used rather than select().
+ <li>add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
+ platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., Solaris.
- <li>made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion,
- improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details.
+ <li>finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
+
+ <li>add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in curses.h
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>programs:
+ <ul>
+ <li>modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic links on
+ platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
+
+ <li>modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that linking
+ aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not succeed because
+ the source and destination differ only by case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0
+ on cygwin.
+
+ <li>modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for basename of
+ argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2 which have
+ case-independent filenames and/or program suffixes, e.g., ".ext".
+ </ul>
</ul>
<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
<DT> cdk
<DD> Curses Development Kit
<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html">http://invisible-island.net/cdk</A>.
<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html">http://dickey.his.com/cdk</A>.
+<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
<DT> ded
<DD> directory-editor
<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html">http://dickey.his.com/ded</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html">http://invisible-island.net/ded</A>.
<DT> dialog
<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html">http://dickey.his.com/dialog</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html">http://invisible-island.net/dialog</A>.
<DT> lynx
<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
<br>
<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
-<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1
+<DT> Midnight Commander
<DD> file manager
<br>
<A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
<DT> vile
<DD> vi-like-emacs
<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html">http://dickey.his.com/vile</A>.
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html">http://invisible-island.net/vile</A>.
</DL>
<P>
Ongoing work is being done by
<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
and
-<A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
+<A HREF="http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
copyright on ncurses.
testing of this package.<P>
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
+<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
<H2>Future Plans</H2>
<UL>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff