1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 -- Copyright 2020 Thomas E. Dickey --
3 -- Copyright 1998-2010,2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. --
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28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29 -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.58 2020/02/02 23:34:34 tom Exp $
30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
32 SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
36 + libtool does not work with GNAT.
38 + The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
39 develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
42 + Magic cookie support (for nonzero xmc values) does not work, since the logic
43 does not take into account refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not
44 adjust the current location when a cookie is emitted.
46 + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
47 screen between calls to refresh().
49 + SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
50 For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
51 activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
54 + The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
55 specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
56 terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
57 point. This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
59 + The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation. Some
60 C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
62 + vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not.
63 There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
65 + the configure --disable-ext-funcs option does not work for Ada95 tree.
67 + the --with-pthread configuration builds for Cygwin, but does not work
68 properly (test/worm.c shows all of the worms in the same location).
70 + the --enable-rpath configure option builds for the corresponding platforms;
71 however combining it with --with-ticlib and --with-termlib does not always
72 produce libraries that can be run without setting environment variables.
73 Building those with libtool does not work either. (This is a problem with
76 + more work is needed to make the MinGW port support ordinary terminals.
78 Portability (or lack thereof):
80 + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
81 trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
82 termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
83 problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
84 are using one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like such as, NetBSD, or BSDI, or
85 systems using that convention. For details, see the analysis in the header
86 comment of ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
88 + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
89 interface for handling variadic argument lists (and are deprecated by X/Open
90 for that reason). Many newer systems do no have varargs.h, instead they have
91 only the newer X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these functions use
92 stdargs instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless you're building
93 ncurses on a System V old enough to only have varargs.h. (Solaris 2.5.1 used
94 the stdarg.h binding as well).
96 + If you're using a system old enough not to have a native vsscanf(3) in its
97 library, vwscanw() will not work. If you want to fix this, add an
98 implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
100 + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers.
102 + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
103 utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
108 + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
110 + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
111 for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
112 label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
113 lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
115 LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
117 1. Extended COSE conformance
119 There is an XPG4 standard released in 1996 which describes a superset
120 of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
121 We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
122 supporting internationalization.
126 Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
127 It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
128 a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
129 port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
130 result of this would be a DOS port.
134 It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
135 maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
136 automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
139 4. Unused capabilities
141 The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
143 A. Status-line capabilities:
145 Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
146 Numerics: width_status_line.
147 Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
149 System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
150 any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
151 shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
152 decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
155 B. Printer capabilities:
157 Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
158 row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
160 Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
161 max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
162 micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
163 output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
164 wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
165 String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
166 set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
167 ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
169 Curses doesn't use these.
171 C. Printer-control capabilities:
173 Boolean: prtr_silent.
174 Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
176 Curses doesn't use these.
180 Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
181 fixed_pause, wait_tone.
183 Curses doesn't use these.
185 E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
187 Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
188 Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
190 These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
191 window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
192 something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
194 F. Unused VDT capabilities:
196 Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
197 move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
198 needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
199 Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
200 Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
201 enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
202 display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
203 enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
204 scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
206 These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
208 i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
211 ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
212 Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.