-
-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.
-
-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.
-
-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),
-and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
-the library and tools.
-
-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:
-
-
terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
- "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
-
-
terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
- still use ncurses 4.2).
-
-
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.
-
-
modify parameter type in c++ binding for insch() and mvwinsch() to
- be consistent with underlying ncurses library (was char, is chtype).
-
-
change NCursesWindow::err_handler() to a virtual function.
-
-
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 symbol to curses.h which can be used to suppress include of
- stdbool.h, e.g.,
-
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.
-
-
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.
+
+
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.
+
+
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), and a termcap conversion tool
+ captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for the library and
+ tools.
This release is designed to be upward
+ compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.7; very few applications
+ will require recompilation, depending on the platform. These are
+ the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.7 release.
+
+
Interface changes
+
+
+
turn on _XOPEN_CURSES definition in
+ curses.h.
+
+
change _nc_has_mouse to
+ has_mouse, reflect its use in C++ and Ada95.
+
+
add is_pad and is_subwin
+ functions for opaque access to the WINDOW structure.
+
+
add tiparm, based on review of X/Open Curses
+ Issue 7.
+
+
+
New features and improvements
+
+
Library Improvements
+
+
+
add a terminal driver for Windows console, which supports a
+ MinGW port to Windows.
+
+
add extended functions which specify the
+ SCREEN pointer for several curses functions which
+ use the global SP.
+
+
improve the NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS feature by
+ adding a check for an extended terminfo capability
+ U8.
+
+
improve performance of tigetstr, etc., by
+ using hashing code from tic.
+
+
add WACS_xxx definitions to wide-character
+ configuration for thick- and double-lines.
+
+
modify init_pair to allow caller to create extra color
+ pairs beyond the color_pairs limit, which use default
+ colors.
+
+
+
Improvements to Programs
+
+
+
add tabs program.
+
+
modify tic's -I/-C dump to reformat acsc strings into
+ canonical form (sorted, unique mapping).
+
+
add checks in tic for inconsistent cursor-movement
+ controls, and for inconsistent printer-controls.
+
+
add special case to _nc_infotocap (used by tic
+ and infocmp) to recognize the
+ setaf/setab strings from
+ xterm+256color and xterm+88color, and
+ provide a reduced version which works with termcap.
+
+
+
Terminal Database
+
+
+
added entries:
+
+
+
bterm terminfo entry, based on bogl
+ 0.1.18
+
+
cons25-debian entry
+
+
eterm-color entry
+
+
linux-16color
+
+
mlterm+256color entry, for mlterm
+ 3.0.0
+
+
several screen-bce.xxx entries
+
+
screen.Eterm terminfo entry
+
+
vwmterm entry
+
+
xterm-utf8 entry as a demo of the
+ U8 feature
+
+
+
+
updated/improved entries:
+
+
+
use extended capabilities:
+
-
environment variable NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS supports
- miscellaneous terminal emulators which ignore alternate
- character set escape sequences when in UTF-8 mode.
+
add U8 feature to denote entries for
+ terminal emulators which do not support VT100 SI/SO
+ when processing UTF-8 encoding
+
+
add XT capability to entries for
+ terminals that support both xterm-style mouse- and
+ title-controls, for screen which
+ special-cases TERM beginning with xterm or
+ rxvt
+
+
-
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.
+
improvements based on new checks in tic:
-
change GPM initialization, using dl library to load it
- dynamically at runtime.
+
+
+
fill in no-parameter forms of cursor-movement where
+ a parameterized form is available
+
+
fill in missing cursor controls where the form of
+ the controls is ANSI
+
+
add parameterized cursor-controls to
+ linux-basic
-
form, menu and panel libraries support debug-tracing.
+
modify nsterm,xnuppc and
+ tek4115 to make
+ sgr/sgr0 consistent
+
change several terminfo entries to make consistent
+ use of ANSI clear-all-tabs
+
-
add NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html by Pradeep Padala
- (see http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/).
+
extend ansi.syspfkey
+ capability from kf1-kf10 to kf1-kf48, moving function key
+ definitions from emx-base for
+ consistency.
-
programs:
+
correct missing final 'p' in pfkey
+ capability of ansi.sys-old.
-
infocmp:
-
-
The -i option now matches 8-bit controls against its table
- entries, e.g., so it can analyze the xterm-8bit entry.
+
rename atari and st52
+ terminfo entries to atari-old, st52-old, use newer entries
+ from FreeMiNT.
-
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.
+
repurpose gnome terminfo entries as
+ vte, retaining gnome variants for
+ compatibility, but generally deprecating those since the
+ VTE library is what actually defines the behavior of
+ "gnome", etc., since 2003.
-
+
improve interixsmso terminfo
+ capability by using reverse rather than bold.
-
tic:
+
correct initc capability of
+ linux-c-nc end-of-range, make similar change
+ for dg+ccc and dgunix+ccc.
-
+
update minix terminfo entry.
-
modify termcap-parsing to retain 2-character aliases at the
- beginning of an entry if the "-x" option is used in tic.
+
updated nsterm* entries.
-
filter out long extended names when translating to termcap
- format. Only two characters are permissible for termcap
- capability names.
+
remove unnecessary kcan assignment to
+ ^C from putty.
-
correct translation of "%%" in terminfo format to termcap,
- e.g., using "tic -C".
+
suppress ncv in screen and
+ konsole-base entries, allowing underline.
-
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.
+
change ncv and op capabilities in
+ sun-color terminfo entry to match Sun's entry
+ for this.
-
add a check for improperly ended strings, i.e., where a
- following line begins in column 1.
+
fix typo in rmso for tek4106
+ entry.
-
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.
+
improve acsc string for vt52,
+ show arrow keys.
-
add check (with debug configuration) that provides about the
- runtime changes that would be made to sgr0 for termcap
- applications.
+
add hard-reset for rs2 to
+ wsvt25 to help ensure that reset ends the
+ alternate character set.
-
+
add ccc and initc
+ capabilities to xterm-16color.
+
+
+
-
tset:
+
Major bug fixes
-
+
+
ncurses library
-
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.
+
+
wide character support
-
+
+
modify length returned by getcchar to
+ count the trailing null which is documented in
+ X/Open.
+
+
fix an infinite recursion when adding a
+ legacy-coding 8-bit value using
+ insch.
+
+
improve a workaround in adding wide-characters,
+ when a control character is found. The library uses
+ unctrl to obtain a printable version of
+ the control character, but was not passing color or
+ video attributes.
+
+
modify waddch_literal, updating
+ line-pointer after a multicolumn character is found to
+ not fit on the current row, and wrapping is done. Since
+ the line-pointer was not updated, the wrapped
+ multicolumn character was written to the beginning of
+ the current row.
+
+
fixes in wins_nwstr and related
+ functions to ensure that special characters, i.e.,
+ control characters are handled properly with the
+ wide-character configuration.
+
+
correct internal _nc_insert_ch to use
+ _nc_insert_wch when inserting wide
+ characters, since the wins_wch function
+ that it used did not update the cursor position.
+
+
-
-Major bug fixes:
-
+
mouse
-
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.
+
+
add check if Gpm_Open returns a -2,
+ e.g., for "xterm". This is normally suppressed but can
+ be overridden using $NCURSES_GPM_TERMS.
+ Ensure that Gpm_Close is called in this
+ case.
+
+
add check in mouse-driver to disable connection if
+ GPM returns a zero, indicating that the connection is
+ closed.
+
+
modify getmouse to act as its
+ documentation implied, returning on each call the
+ preceding event until none are left. When no more
+ events remain, it will return ERR.
+
+
-
cells in the WINDOW which are continuations of a multicolumn
- character are encoded differently, making repainting more
- reliable.
+
miscellaneous
-
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.
+
+
improve handling of color-pairs embedded in
+ attributes for the extended-colors configuration.
-
make setcchar() now works when its wchar_t* parameter is
- pointing to a string which contains more data than can be converted.
+
add check for failure to open hashed-database
+ needed for db4.6.
-
win_wchnstr() now works for more than one cell.
+
modify use of $CC environment variable
+ which is defined by X/Open as a curses feature, to
+ ignore it if it is not a single character.
-
resizeterm() now processes all levels of window hierarchy.
+
modify declaration of cur_term when
+ broken-linker is used, but enable-reentrant is not, to
+ match pre-5.7.
-
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.
+
correct limit-checks in derwin.
-
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.
+
remove old check in mvderwin which
+ prevented moving a derived window whose origin happened
+ to coincide with its parent's origin.
-
+
correct limit-checks in newwin, to
+ ensure that windows have nonzero size.
-Portability:
-
-
configure script:
-
-
new options:
-
-
--enable-largefile
-
set compiler and linker flags to use largefile support.
+
modify set_curterm to make
+ broken-linker configuration work with changes from
+ 20090228.
+
+
modify wgetch to ensure it checks
+ SIGWINCH when it gets an error in
+ non-blocking mode.
+
+
correct limit-check in wredrawln,
+ accounting for begy/begx
+ values.
+
+
fix a null-pointer check in
+ _nc_format_slks in lib_slk.c, from
+ 20070704 changes.
+
+
correct translation of "^" in
+ _nc_infotocap, used to transform terminfo
+ to termcap strings.
+
+
modify _nc_wgetch to check for a -1 in
+ the fifo, e.g., after a SIGWINCH, and
+ discard that value, to avoid confusing
+ application.
+
+
+
+
+
+
other libraries
+
+
+
correct transfer of multicolumn characters in multirow
+ field_buffer, which stopped at the end of the
+ first row due to filling of unused entries in a cchar_t
+ array with nulls.
+
+
correct buffer-size after internal resizing of
+ wide-character set_field_buffer, broken in
+ 20081018 changes.
+
+
correct layout of working window used to extract data
+ in wide-character configured by
+ set_field_buffer
+
+
+
+
+
Portability
+
+
+
configure script:
-
--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.
+
+
new options:
-
--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.
+
+
--disable-libtool-version
-
--with-chtype
-
overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of chtype
+
use the "-version-number" feature which was added
+ in libtool 1.5. The default value for the option uses
+ the newer feature, which makes libraries generated
+ using libtool compatible with the standard builds of
+ ncurses.
-
--with-mmask-t
-
overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of mmask_t
+
--disable-rpath-hack
-
--without-xterm-new
-
Installs "xterm-old" as the "xterm" entry of the terminfo
- database.
+
disable a feature which adds rpath options for
+ libraries in unusual places.
-
+
--enable-interop
-
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
+
integrate changes for generic/interop support to
+ form-library.
-
fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
+
--enable-pc-files
-
-
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.
+
generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and
+ install them in pkg-config's library
+ directory.
-
correct BUILD_CPPFLAGS substitution in ncurses/Makefile.in, to allow
- cross-compiling from a separate directory tree.
+
--enable-pthreads-eintr
-
+
control whether to allow EINTR to
+ interrupt a read operation in wgetch. This
+ applies only to the pthread configuration
+
--enable-sp-funcs
+
+
compile-in support for extended functions which
+ accept a SCREEN pointer, reducing the need
+ for juggling the global SP value with
+ set_term and delscreen.
+
+
--enable-term-driver
+
+
compile with terminal-driver. That is used in the
+ MinGW port, and (being somewhat more complicated) is an
+ experimental alternative to the conventional termlib
+ internals. Currently, it requires the sp-funcs feature
+ to be enabled.
+
+
--with-ncurses-wrap-prefix
+
+
allows setting the prefix for functions used to
+ wrap global variables to something other than
+ "_nc_".
+
+
--with-pkg-config=[DIR]
+
+
check for pkg-config, optionally
+ specifying its path.
+
+
--without-manpages
+
+
tells the configure script to suppress the install
+ of ncurses' manpages.
+
+
--without-tests
+
+
suppress building test programs.
+
+
+
+
improved options:
+
+
+
correct logic for --with-database,
+ which was coded as an enable-type switch.
+
+
omit the opaque-functions from
+ lib_gen.o when
+ --disable-ext-funcs is used.
+
+
+
+
+
packaging:
+
+
+
*-config scripts:
-
library:
+
modify adacurses-config to look for
+ ".ali" files in the adalib directory.
+
+
correct install for the Ada95 tree, which omitted
+ libAdaCurses.a used in
+ adacurses-config.
+
+
change install for adacurses-config to
+ provide additional flavors such as
+ adacursesw-config, for ncursesw.
+
+
modify scripts to generate
+ ncurses*-config and pc-files to add
+ dependency for tinfo 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.
+
use ncurses*-config scripts if
+ available for test/configure.
+
correct name for termlib in
+ ncurses*-config, e.g., if it is renamed to
+ provide a single file for ncurses/ncursesw
+ libraries.
+
+
generate manpages for the *-config scripts, adapted
+ from help2man.
+
+
modify install-rule for manpages so that *-config
+ manpages will install when building with
+ --srcdir.
+
+
build-fixes for OpenSolaris aka Solaris 11, for
+ wide-character configuration as well as for rpath
+ feature in *-config scripts.
+
+
use $includedir symbol in
+ misc/ncurses-config.in, add
+ --includedir option.
+
+
improve install-rules for pc-files.
+
+
create the pkg-config library
+ directory if needed.
+
+
fix typo "==" where "="
+ is needed in ncurses-config.in and
+ gen-pkgconfig.in files.
+
+
modify gen-pkgconfig.in to eliminate a
+ dependency on rpath when deciding whether to add
+ $LIBS to --libs output; that
+ should be shown for the ncurses and tinfo libraries
+ without taking rpath into account.
+
+
modify handling of $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
+ to use only the first item in a possibly
+ colon-separated list.
-
-
-
Features of Ncurses
-
-The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
-
-
-
All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
-
Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
-forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
-and function keys.
-
An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
-a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
-
An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
-a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
-
An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
-data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
-
Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
-are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
-
The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
-entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo
-versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.
-
-The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
-
-
-
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,
-but not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly
-concerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many
-function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all
-calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
-
Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
-of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
-
Ada95 and C++ bindings.
-
Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows.
-
Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
-
The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
-their data.
-
The function use_default_colors() allows you to
-use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
-achieving the effect of transparent colors.
-
The functions keyok()
-and define_key() 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.
-
Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
-
Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
-cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
-or System V's.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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).
-
The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
-ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
-AT&T extension sets.
-
A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
-
The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
-entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
-if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
-This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
-without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
-
You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
-descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
-generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
-
In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
-other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
-compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
-$HOME/.terminfo directory.
-
A script (capconvert) 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.
-
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.
-
The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to
-see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
-
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
-#undef.
-
An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
-a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
-
-
-
State of the Package
-
-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.
-
-The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
-including (versions starting with those noted):
-
-
-The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
-a few games).
-
-
Who's Who and What's What
-
-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.
-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.
-
-
-To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
-bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
-
+
+
+
other packaging issues
+
+
+
add make-tar.sh scripts to Ada95 and
+ test subdirectories to help with making those
+ separately distributable.
+
+
add Ada95/configure script, to use in
+ tar-file created by
+ Ada95/make-tar.sh.
+
+
remove tar-copy.sh and related
+ configure/Makefile chunks, since the Ada95
+ binding is now installed using rules in
+ Ada95/src.
+
+
+
+
+
+
cross-compiling:
+
+
+
improve configure checks for location of tic and
+ infocmp programs used for installing database and for
+ generating fallback data, e.g., for cross-compiling.
+
+
modify #define's for build-compiler to suppress cchar_t
+ symbol from compile of make_hash and
+ make_keys, improving cross-compilation of
+ ncursesw.
+
+
simplify include-dependencies of make_hash
+ and make_keys, to reduce the need for setting
+ BUILD_CPPFLAGS in cross-compiling when the build- and
+ target-machines differ.
+
+
correct cross-compiling configure check for
+ CF_MKSTEMP macro, by adding a check cache
+ variable set by AC_CHECK_FUNC.
+
+
+
+
library dependencies:
+
+
+
revise wadd_wch and
+ wecho_wchar to eliminate dependency on
+ unctrl.
+
+
adjust configure script so that "t" is not added to
+ library suffix when weak-symbols are used, allowing the
+ pthread configuration to more closely match the non-thread
+ naming.
+
+
+
+
building the Ada95 tree:
+
+
+
changes to use gnatmake project files in the Ada95
+ tree.
+
+
add/use configure check to turn on project rules for
+ Ada95/src.
+
+
old gnatmake (3.15) does not produce libraries using
+ project-file; work around by adding script to generate
+ alternate makefile.
+
+
add configure --with-ada-sharedlib option, for the
+ test_make rule.
+
+
move Ada95-related logic into aclocal.m4, since
+ additional checks will be needed to distinguish old/new
+ implementations of gnat.
+
+
add test_make / test_clean / test_install rules in
+ Ada95/src
+
+
change install-path for adainclude directory to
+ /usr/share/ada (was /usr/lib/ada).
+
+
+
+
other configure/build issues:
+
+
+
make CCHARW_MAX value configurable, noting
+ that changing this would change the size of
+ cchar_t, and would be ABI-incompatible.
+
+
improve comparison of program-names when checking for
+ linked flavors such as "reset" by ignoring the executable
+ suffix.
+
+
drop mkdirs.sh, use
+ "mkdir -p".
+
+
drop misc/ncu-indent and
+ misc/jpf-indent; they are provided by an
+ external package cindent.
+
+
change makefiles to use $ARFLAGS rather
+ than $AR_OPTS, provide a configure check to
+ detect whether a "-" is needed before "ar" options.
+
+
modify CF_DISABLE_LEAKS configure macro so
+ that the --enable-leaks option is not the same as
+ --disable-leaks.
+
+
improve configure script macros
+ CF_HEADER_PATH and
+ CF_LIBRARY_PATH by adding CFLAGS,
+ CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS,
+ LIBS values to the search-lists.
+
+
improve configure macros CF_GCC_VERSION
+ and CF_GCC_WARNINGS to work with gcc 4.x's c89
+ alias, which gives warning messages for cases where older
+ versions would produce an error.
+
+
modify CF_WITH_LIBTOOL configure check to
+ allow unreleased libtool version numbers (e.g. which
+ include alphabetic chars, as well as digits, after the
+ final '.').
+
+
improve use of symbolic links in makefiles by using
+ "-f" option if it is supported, to eliminate
+ temporary removal of the target
+
+
add a configure-time check to pick a suitable value for
+ CC_SHARED_OPTS for Solaris.
+
+
add -shared option to MK_SHARED_LIB when
+ -Bsharable is used, for *BSD's, without which "main" might
+ be one of the shared library's dependencies.
+
+
modify configure script to allow building shared
+ libraries with gcc on AIX 5 or 6.
+
+
suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker
+ flags for gcc on Solaris 10, since gcc is confused by
+ absence of static libc, and does not switch back to dynamic
+ mode before finishing the libraries.
+
+
suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker
+ flags for gcc on Darwin.
+
+
modify misc/run_tic.in to create parent
+ directory, in case this is a new install of hashed
+ database.
+
+
modify configure check for tic program, used for
+ fallbacks, to a warning if not found. This makes it simpler
+ to use additonal scripts to bootstrap the fallbacks code
+ using tic from the build tree.
+
+
+
+
test programs:
+
+
+
add test/demo_terminfo, for comparison with
+ demo_termcap.
+
+
improve test/ncurses.c 'F' test, show combining
+ characters in color.
+
+
fix logic for 'V' in test/ncurses.c tests f/F.
+
+
improve test/ncurses.c 'a test to put mouse droppings
+ in the proper window.
+
+
modify ncurses 'F' test to demo wborder_set with
+ colored lines.
+
+
modify ncurses 'f' test to demo wborder with colored
+ lines.
+
+
improve test/ncurses.c 'a' test, using unctrl more
+ consistently to display meta-characters.
+
+
correct use of key_name in test/ncurses.c
+ 'A' test, which only displays wide-characters, not
+ key-codes since 20070612.
+
+
add test/clip_printw.c to illustrate how to use printw
+ without wrapping.
+
+
modify test-programs, e.g,. test/view.c, to address
+ subtle differences between Tru64/Solaris and HPUX/AIX
+ getcchar return values.
+
+
add some test programs (and make these use the same
+ special keys by sharing linedata.h functions):
+ test/test_addstr.c test/test_addwstr.c test/test_addchstr.c
+ test/test_add_wchstr.c
+
+
add test/xterm-256color.dat
+
+
modify test programs to allow them to be built with
+ NetBSD curses.
+
+
fixes for test programs to build/work on HPUX and AIX,
+ etc.
+
+
+
+
+
Features of Ncurses
The ncurses package is fully
+ compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
+
+
+
All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
+ documented).
+
+
Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard
+ mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
+ automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.
+
+
An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack
+ of windows with backing store, is included.
+
+
An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a
+ uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is
+ included.
+
+
An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data
+ collection through on-screen forms, is included.
+
+
Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
+ implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
+ SVr4 curses uses.
+
+
The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
+ entries for use with less capable
+ curses/terminfo versions such
+ as the HP/UX and AIX ports.
+
The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over
+ SVr4:
+
+
+
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).
+
+
Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the
+ rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if your terminal has
+ an insert-character capability.
+
+
Ada95 and C++ bindings.
+
+
Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
+ FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.
+
+
Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
+ package.
+
+
The function wresize allows you to resize
+ windows, preserving their data.
+
+
The function use_default_colors allows you to
+ use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
+ achieving the effect of transparent colors.
+
+
The functions keyok and
+ define_key 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.
+
+
Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when
+ configured using the --enable-ext-colors
+ option.
+
+
Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm
+ and modern xterm.
+
+
Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
+ features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
+ than either BSD's or System V's.
+
+
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.
+
+
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.
+
+
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).
+
+
The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
+ ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
+ AT&T extension sets.
+
+
A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
+
+
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.
+
+
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.)
+
+
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.
+
+
A script (capconvert) 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.
+
+
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.
+
+
The table-of-entries utility toe makes it
+ easy for users to see exactly what terminal types are available
+ on the system.
+
+
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 #undef.
+
+
An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
+ provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
+ interface.
+
+
+
State of the Package
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.
+
+
The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including (versions starting with those noted):
The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games).
+
+
Who's Who and What's What
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.
+ 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.
+
+
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
+ bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
+
subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
-
-
-This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
-testing of this package.
Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
-
Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
-
-We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
-on them, please join the ncurses list.
-
-
Other Related Resources
-
-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 .
-
-
-
+
+
+
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
+ development and testing of this package.
Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
+ support.
+
+
Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
+
We need people to help with these projects. If you are
+ interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list.
+
+
Other Related Resources
The distribution provides a newer
+ version of the terminfo-format terminal description file once
+ maintained by Eric
+ Raymond . 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.
+
+
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
+ not covered in the terminfo file at
+ Richard Shuford's archive .