X-Git-Url: http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=announce.html.in;fp=announce.html.in;h=936b2053d5881ba09959a7073b8892a3be8f5f47;hp=b797f0d03c36d00f7d7451a83f7c697083300dea;hb=b1f61d9f3aa244512045a6b02e759825d7049d34;hpb=0eb88fc5281804773e2a0c7a488a4452463535ce
diff --git a/announce.html.in b/announce.html.in
index b797f0d0..936b2053 100644
--- a/announce.html.in
+++ b/announce.html.in
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
@@ -33,153 +33,141 @@ the library and tools.
The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
the GNU distribution site
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
-It is also available at
-ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
+
It is also available at
+ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
Release Notes
-We decided to release ncurses as a new whole number release (5.0) because it
-incorporates several interface changes, including some that would invalidate
-existing shared libraries. These are the highlights from the change-log
-since ncurses 4.2 release.
+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.
Interface changes:
- - The principal source of changes to the interface comes from the
- release of X/Open Curses in 1997. Earlier versions of ncurses (4.0
- and before) were based on a draft version of the specification. The
- release version adds parameters to some functions to support the
- evolving internationalization of curses. These summarize the impact:
-
- - modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of
- X/Open Curses (affects ABI since developers have used attr_get).
-
-
- corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
- attr_t.
-
-
- the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
- parameter according to XSI.
-
-
- correct macros for wattr_set, wattr_get, separate wattrset macro from
- these to preserve behavior that allows attributes to be combined with
- color pair numbers.
-
-
- reviewed/updated curses.h, term.h against X/Open Curses Issue 4
- Version 2. This includes making some parameters NCURSES_CONST
- rather than const, e.g., in termcap.h.
-
-
- reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document.
-
-
- add set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch to terminfo structure, as per
- XSI and Solaris 2.5.
-
- - The newest version of the X/Open Curses is implemented on Solaris
- and other vendor's systems. It adds new features to the terminfo
- descriptions:
-
- - implement tparm %l format.
-
-
- implement tparm printf-style width and precision for %s, %d, %x, %o
- as per XSI.
-
- - We made additional changes to reduce impact by future interface
- changes:
-
- - rename key_names[] array to _nc_key_names since it is not part of
- the curses interface.
-
-
- move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
-
- - modify configure script to embed ABI in shared libraries for HP-UX
- 10.x (detailed request by Tim Mooney).
-
-
- modify configuration of shared libraries on Digital Unix so that
- versioning is embedded in the library, rather than implied by
- links (patch by Tim Mooney).
+
- made the extended terminal capabilities
+ (
configure --enable-tcap-names)
+ a standard feature (though the configure script can disable it,
+ it is built by default).
+
+ - removed the
trace() 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.
+
+ - 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.
+
+
- modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict with
+ C++ STL.
New features:
+Major bug fixes:
- - modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to terminfo
- names.
+
- modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated fallback.c
+ type for Booleans agrees with term.h
-
- provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from terminfo
- data and using it as the padding character in tputs.
+
- documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2 and
+ 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL.
-
- provide support for termcap ospeed variable by copying it from the
- internal cur_term member, and using ospeed as the baudrate
- reference for the delay_output and tputs functions.
+
- 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.
-
- change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more than 2
- characters.
+
- 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.
-
- add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially
- allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap.
-
- add mouse support to ncurses menus.
-
- add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX
+ 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.
- modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants
+ modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for
+ carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella).
- add configure option --enable-no-padding, to allow environment
- variable $NCURSES_NO_PADDING to eliminate non-mandatory padding,
- thereby making terminal emulators (e.g., for vt100) a little more
- efficient.
+ corrected offsets used for subwindows in wresize()
- modify lib_color.c to eliminate dependency on orig_colors and
- orig_pair, since SVr4 curses does not require these either, but
- uses them when they are available.
+ 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
- add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo
- if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and
- tabs).
+ corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM mouse
+ support when poll() is used rather than select().
- modify tic to compile into %'char' form in preference to %{number},
- since that is a little more efficient.
-
-Major bug fixes:
-
- - modify lib_tstp.c to block SIGTTOU when handling SIGTSTP, fixes a
- problem where ncurses applications which were run via a shell script
- would hang when given a ^Z. Also, check if the terminal's process
- group is consistent, i.e., a shell has not taken ownership of it,
- before deciding to save the current terminal settings in the SIGTSTP
- handler.
-
-
- suppress sc/rc capabilities from terminal description if they appear
- in smcup/rmcup. This affects only scrolling optimization, to fix a
- problem reported by several people with xterm's alternate screen,
- though the problem is more general.
-
-
- modify relative_move and tputs to avoid an interaction with the
- BSD-style padding. The relative_move function could produce a string
- to replace on the screen which began with a numeric character, which
- was then interpreted by tputs as padding.
-
-
- modify setupterm so that cancelled strings are treated the same as
- absent strings, cancelled and absent booleans false (does not affect
- tic, infocmp).
-
-
- modify lib_vidattr.c to allow for terminal types (e.g., xterm-color)
- which may reset all attributes in the 'op' capability, so that colors
- are set before turning on bold and other attributes, but still after
- turning attributes off.
-
-
- use 'access()' to check if ncurses library should be permitted to
- open or modify files with fopen/open/link/unlink/remove calls, in
- case the calling application is running in setuid mode.
-
-
- correction to doupdate, for case where terminal does not support
- insert/delete character. The logic did not check that there was a
- difference in alignment of changes to old/new screens before
- repainting the whole non-blank portion of the line. Modified to fall
- through into logic that reduces by the portion which does not differ.
+
- made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion,
+ improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details.
Features of Ncurses
@@ -294,39 +282,62 @@ including (versions starting with those noted):
- cdk
- Curses Development Kit
-Curses Development Kit
-ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk.
+
+http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+
+http://dickey.his.com/cdk.
- ded
- directory-editor
-ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded.
+
+http://dickey.his.com/ded.
- dialog
- the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
+
+http://dickey.his.com/dialog.
- lynx
- the character-screen WWW browser
+
+http://lynx.isc.org/release.
- Midnight Commander 4.1
- file manager
+
+www.gnome.org/mc/.
- mutt
- mail utility
+
+http://www.mutt.org.
- ncftp
- file-transfer utility
+
+http://www.ncftp.com.
- nvi
- New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
+
+http://www.bostic.com/vi/.
- tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME
-ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff.
+
+http://www.tin.org.
- taper
- tape archive utility
+
+http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
+
+http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
- minicom
- terminal emulator
+
+http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
- vile
- vi-like-emacs
-ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile.
+
+http://dickey.his.com/vile.
@@ -339,10 +350,10 @@ The original developers of ncurses are Zeyd Ben-Halim and
Eric S. Raymond.
Ongoing work is being done by
-Thomas Dickey
+Thomas Dickey
and
Jürgen Pfeifer.
-Thomas Dickey
+Thomas Dickey
acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at
@@ -359,7 +370,7 @@ This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
testing of this package.
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
+ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
Future Plans