1 -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.45 2005/08/20 20:53:04 tom Exp $
3 SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
7 + libtool does not work with GNAT.
9 + The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
10 develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
13 + Magic cookie support does not work, since the logic does not take into
14 account refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not adjust the current
15 location when a cookie is emitted.
17 + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
18 screen between calls to refresh().
20 + SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
21 For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
22 activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
25 + The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
26 specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
27 terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
28 point. This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
30 + The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation. Some
31 C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
33 + The resizeterm() function does not handle ripped-off lines such as that done
34 for the slk_XXX functions.
36 Portability (or lack thereof):
38 + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
39 trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
40 termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
41 problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
42 are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
43 BSDI. For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
44 ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
46 + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
47 interface for handling variadic argument lists. Linux doesn't have
48 varargs.h, it has the newer X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these
49 functions use stdargs instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless
50 you're building ncurses on a System V old enough to only have varargs.h.
51 (Solaris 2.5.1 uses the stdarg.h binding as well).
53 + If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
54 a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work. You lose. (It
55 should work on any System V, however). If you want to fix this, add an
56 implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
58 + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers, mainly with
59 configure script problems with vsscanf().
61 + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
62 utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
67 + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
69 + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
70 for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
71 label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
72 lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
74 LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
76 1. Extended COSE conformance
78 There is an XPG4 standard recently released which describes a superset
79 of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
80 We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
81 supporting internationalization.
85 Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
86 It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
87 a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
88 port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
89 result of this would be a DOS port.
93 It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
94 maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
95 automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
98 4. Unused capabilities
100 The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
102 A. Status-line capabilities:
104 Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
105 Numerics: width_status_line.
106 Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
108 System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
109 any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
110 shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
111 decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
114 B. Printer capabilities:
116 Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
117 row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
119 Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
120 max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
121 micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
122 output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
123 wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
124 String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
125 set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
126 ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
128 Curses doesn't use these.
130 C. Printer-control capabilities:
132 Boolean: prtr_silent.
133 Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
135 Curses doesn't use these.
139 Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
140 fixed_pause, wait_tone.
142 Curses doesn't use these.
144 E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
146 Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
147 Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
149 These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
150 window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
151 something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
153 F. Unused VDT capabilities:
155 Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
156 move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
157 needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
158 Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
159 Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
160 enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
161 display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
162 enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
163 scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
165 These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
167 i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
170 ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
171 Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.