X-Git-Url: http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=announce.html.in;h=82079c368c753af8b21f761ab0ca21e303288c5e;hp=b797f0d03c36d00f7d7451a83f7c697083300dea;hb=55ccd2b959766810cf7db8d1c4462f338ce0afc8;hpb=0eb88fc5281804773e2a0c7a488a4452463535ce
diff --git a/announce.html.in b/announce.html.in
index b797f0d0..82079c36 100644
--- a/announce.html.in
+++ b/announce.html.in
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
Announcing ncurses @VERSION@
+
@@ -18,12 +19,15 @@ and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.
In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
-considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
-Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
+considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of
+Unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to
ncurses.
-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!
+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!
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
@@ -32,154 +36,280 @@ the library and tools.
-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 through 5.4;
+very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
+These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.4 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).
+
terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
+ "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
-
corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
- attr_t.
+
terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
+ still use ncurses 4.2).
-
the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
- parameter according to XSI.
+
modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
+ initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
+ still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
+ compilers.
-
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.
+
modify parameter type in c++ binding for insch() and mvwinsch() to
+ be consistent with underlying ncurses library (was char, is chtype).
-
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.
+
change NCursesWindow::err_handler() to a virtual function.
-
reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document.
+
form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
+ Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
+ FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw,
+ since that no longer points to an array of char. The
+ set_field_buffer() and field_buffer() functions translate to/from
+ the actual field data.
-
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.
+
add symbol to curses.h which can be used to suppress include of
+ stdbool.h, e.g.,
+
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).
+
change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure
+ that libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason
+ for this is that the corresponding data which belongs to the
+ upper-level ncurses library has a different size in each model.
+
+
winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
+ wide-character configuration.
+
+
assume_default_colors() no longer requires that
+ use_default_colors() be called first.
+
+
data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
+
+
slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
+ multicolumn characters.
+
+
start_color() now returns OK if colors have
+ already been started.
+ start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
+
+
pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair()
+ if it corresponds to the default-color.
+
+
unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
+ to an unsigned char.
-
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).
-New features:
+New features and improvements:
-
enable sigwinch handler by default.
+
library
+
+
environment variable NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS supports
+ miscellaneous terminal emulators which ignore alternate
+ character set escape sequences when in UTF-8 mode.
-
turn on hashmap scrolling code by default
+
modify initialization of key lookup table so that if an extended
+ capability (tic -x) string is defined, and its name begins with 'k',
+ ncurses will automatically treat it as a key.
-
improved support for termcap applications
-
-
modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to terminfo
- names.
+
change GPM initialization, using dl library to load it
+ dynamically at runtime.
-
provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from terminfo
- data and using it as the padding character in tputs.
+
form, menu and panel libraries support debug-tracing.
-
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.
+
-
change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more than 2
- characters.
+
add NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html by Pradeep Padala
+ (see http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/).
-
add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially
- allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap.
-
-
add mouse support to ncurses menus.
+
programs:
+
+
infocmp:
+
+
The -i option now matches 8-bit controls against its table
+ entries, e.g., so it can analyze the xterm-8bit entry.
+
+
add "-x" option to infocmp like tic's "-x", for use in "-F"
+ comparisons. This modifies infocmp to only report extended
+ capabilities if the -x option is given, making this more
+ consistent with tic. Some scripts may break, since infocmp
+ previous gave this information without an option.
+
+
+
+
tic:
+
+
-
add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX
+
modify termcap-parsing to retain 2-character aliases at the
+ beginning of an entry if the "-x" option is used in tic.
-
modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants
+
filter out long extended names when translating to termcap
+ format. Only two characters are permissible for termcap
+ capability names.
-
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.
+
correct translation of "%%" in terminfo format to termcap,
+ e.g., using "tic -C".
-
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.
+
modify the "-c -v" options to ignore delays when comparing
+ strings. Also modify it to ignore a canceled sgr string,
+ e.g., for terminals which cannot properly combine attributes
+ in one control sequence.
-
add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo
- if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and
- tabs).
+
add a check for improperly ended strings, i.e., where a
+ following line begins in column 1.
+
+
add a check in tic for terminfo entries having an sgr0 but no
+ sgr string. This confuses Tru64 and HPUX curses when combined
+ with color, e.g., making them leave line-drawing characters in
+ odd places.
+
+
add check (with debug configuration) that provides about the
+ runtime changes that would be made to sgr0 for termcap
+ applications.
+
+
+
+
tset:
+
+
+
+
add -c and -w options to allow user to suppress ncurses'
+ resizing of the terminal emulator window in the special case
+ where it is not able to detect the true size.
+
+
-
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.
+
+
improve logic in tgetent() which adjusts the termcap "me" string
+ to work with ISO-2022 string used in xterm-new.
+ This is a feature that was incompletely implemented in ncurses 5.3.
+ ncurses attempts to provide termcap clients with the portion of
+ the sgr0 (termcap "me") string that does not reset line-drawing.
+
+
cells in the WINDOW which are continuations of a multicolumn
+ character are encoded differently, making repainting more
+ reliable.
+
+
amend change to setupterm() in ncurses 5.4 (20030405) which would
+ reuse the value of cur_term if the same output was selected. This
+ now reuses it only when setupterm() is called from tgetent(),
+ which has no notion of separate SCREENs. Note that tgetent() must
+ be called after initscr() or newterm() to use this feature.
+
+
make setcchar() now works when its wchar_t* parameter is
+ pointing to a string which contains more data than can be converted.
+
+
win_wchnstr() now works for more than one cell.
+
+
resizeterm() now processes all levels of window hierarchy.
+
+
disable GPM mouse support when $TERM happens to be prefixed with
+ "xterm". Gpm_Open() would otherwise assert that it can deal with
+ mouse events in this case.
+
+
add SP->_screen_acs_map[], used to ensure that mapping of missing
+ line-drawing characters is handled properly. For example, ACS_DARROW
+ is absent from xterm-new, and it was coincidentally displayed the
+ same as ACS_BTEE.
+
+
+
+Portability:
+
+
configure script:
+
+
new options:
+
+
--enable-largefile
+
set compiler and linker flags to use largefile support.
+
+
--enable-ext-colors
+
Allow encoding of 256 foreground
+ and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
+ xterm-88color terminfo entries.
+ This requires ABI 6 because it changes the size of cchar_t.
+
+
--enable-ext-mouse
+
This defines NCURSES_MOUSE_VERSION 2, and modifies the encoding of
+ mouse events to support wheel mice, which may transmit buttons
+ 4 and 5. This works with xterm and similar terminal
+ emulators.
+ This requires ABI 6 because it changes the encoding of
+ mouse events.
+
+
--with-chtype
+
overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of chtype
+
+
--with-mmask-t
+
overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of mmask_t
+
+
--without-xterm-new
+
Installs "xterm-old" as the "xterm" entry of the terminfo
+ database.
+
+
+
+
The --with-termlib option now accepts a value which sets
+ the name of the terminfo library. This would allow a packager to
+ build libtinfow.so renamed to coincide with libtinfo.so
+
+
fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
+
+
+
suppress $suffix in misc/run_tic.sh when cross-compiling.
+ This allows cross-compiles to use the host's tic program to
+ handle the "make install.data" step.
+
+
correct BUILD_CPPFLAGS substitution in ncurses/Makefile.in, to allow
+ cross-compiling from a separate directory tree.
+
+
+
+
+
+
library:
+
+
+
add ifdef's for _LP64 in curses.h to avoid using wasteful
+ 64-bits for chtype and mmask_t, but add configure option
+ --disable-lp64 in case anyone used that configuration.
+
+
modify C++ binding to use some C internal functions to make it
+ compile properly on Solaris (and other platforms).
+
+
remove check in newwin() that prevents allocating windows that
+ extend beyond the screen (Solaris does this).
+
+
check for nl_langinfo(CODESET), use it if available.
+ This replaces ad hoc tests of environment variables to
+ check if the terminal is setup for UTF-8 encoding.
+ Applications which do not call setlocale()
+ should be corrected, to make them work properly with
+ UTF-8 encoding.
+
+ In particular, applications which assume (and
+ do not call setlocale()) that
+ Latin-1 codes are printable will no longer work in
+ a UTF-8 locale since the ad hoc check of environment
+ variables to see if the locale was UTF-8 is not used
+ when nl_langinfo(CODESET) is available.
+
+
use setlocale() to query the program's current locale rather
+ than using getenv(). This supports applications which rely
+ upon legacy treatment of 8-bit characters when the locale is
+ not initialized.
+
+
Features of Ncurses
@@ -294,39 +424,61 @@ including (versions starting with those noted):
-The original developers of ncurses are Zeyd Ben-Halim and
-Eric S. Raymond.
+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
-Thomas Dickey
-and
-Jürgen Pfeifer.
-Thomas Dickey
-acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
-copyright on ncurses.
+Thomas Dickey.
+Thomas Dickey
+acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
+which holds the copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at
bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
@@ -359,7 +511,7 @@ This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
testing of this package.
@@ -371,14 +523,16 @@ on them, please join the ncurses list.
Other Related Resources
-The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
-terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
-http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
+The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
+terminal description file maintained by
+Eric Raymond .
+Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided
+in the same file.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
not covered in the terminfo file at
Richard Shuford's
-archive.
+archive .