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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.54 2010/01/09 16:48:05 tom Exp $
29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
35 + libtool does not work with GNAT.
37 + The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
38 develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
41 + Magic cookie support (for nonzero xmc values) does not work, since the logic
42 does not take into account refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not
43 adjust the current location when a cookie is emitted.
45 + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
46 screen between calls to refresh().
48 + SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
49 For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
50 activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
53 + The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
54 specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
55 terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
56 point. This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
58 + The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation. Some
59 C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
61 + vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not.
62 There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
64 + the configure --disable-ext-funcs option does not work for Ada95 tree.
66 + the --with-pthread configuration builds for Cygwin, but does not work
67 properly (test/worm.c shows all of the worms in the same location).
69 + the Ada95 tree requires a small fix to build on Cygwin, since the GNAT port
70 to that platform provides an incomplete Interrupts.Names package. For
71 instance (your gcc version may be different):
72 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/adainclude/a-intnam.ads
75 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
76 --- a-intnam.ads.orig 2003-10-21 13:41:51.000000000 +0000
77 +++ a-intnam.ads 2007-05-05 22:40:02.609375000 +0000
80 DUMMY_INTERRUPT_1 : constant Interrupt_ID := 1;
81 DUMMY_INTERRUPT_2 : constant Interrupt_ID := 2;
82 + SIGINT : constant Interrupt_ID := 2;
84 end Ada.Interrupts.Names;
85 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
87 + the --enable-rpath configure option builds for the corresponding platforms;
88 however combining it with --with-ticlib and --with-termlib does not always
89 produce libraries that can be run without setting environment variables.
90 Building those with libtool does not work either. (This is a problem with
93 Portability (or lack thereof):
95 + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
96 trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
97 termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
98 problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
99 are using one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like such as, NetBSD, or BSDI, or
100 systems using that convention. For details, see the analysis in the header
101 comment of ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
103 + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
104 interface for handling variadic argument lists (and are deprecated by X/Open
105 for that reason). Many newer systems do no have varargs.h, instead they have
106 only the newer X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these functions use
107 stdargs instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless you're building
108 ncurses on a System V old enough to only have varargs.h. (Solaris 2.5.1 used
109 the stdarg.h binding as well).
111 + If you're using a system old enough not to have a native vsscanf(3) in its
112 library, vwscanw() will not work. If you want to fix this, add an
113 implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
115 + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers.
117 + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
118 utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
123 + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
125 + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
126 for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
127 label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
128 lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
130 LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
132 1. Extended COSE conformance
134 There is an XPG4 standard released in 1996 which describes a superset
135 of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
136 We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
137 supporting internationalization.
141 Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
142 It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
143 a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
144 port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
145 result of this would be a DOS port.
149 It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
150 maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
151 automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
154 4. Unused capabilities
156 The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
158 A. Status-line capabilities:
160 Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
161 Numerics: width_status_line.
162 Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
164 System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
165 any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
166 shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
167 decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
170 B. Printer capabilities:
172 Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
173 row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
175 Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
176 max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
177 micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
178 output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
179 wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
180 String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
181 set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
182 ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
184 Curses doesn't use these.
186 C. Printer-control capabilities:
188 Boolean: prtr_silent.
189 Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
191 Curses doesn't use these.
195 Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
196 fixed_pause, wait_tone.
198 Curses doesn't use these.
200 E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
202 Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
203 Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
205 These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
206 window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
207 something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
209 F. Unused VDT capabilities:
211 Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
212 move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
213 needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
214 Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
215 Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
216 enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
217 display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
218 enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
219 scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
221 These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
223 i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
226 ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
227 Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.