-
- Announcing ncurses 5.3
+ Announcing ncurses 5.8
The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
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
- ncurses.
+ 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
manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
- distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
- It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses.
+ distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
+ It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
Release Notes
- This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and
- 5.2; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
- the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
- ncurses 5.2 release.
-
- Interface changes:
- * change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which
- usually is the same as the compiler's definition for bool.
- * add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character
- support. These are only available if the library is configured
- using the --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
- + pecho_wchar()
- + slk_wset()
- * add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
- assume_default_colors() extension.
-
- New features and improvements:
- * Improved support for termcap applications:
- + add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions
- that do not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated
- termcaps. This makes hds200 fit.
- + modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the
- alternate character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the
- copy of the termcap "me" string which it will return to
- eliminate that part. In particular, 'screen' would lose track
- of line-drawing characters.
- + add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about
- missing acsc string. This happens in configurations where raw
- termcap information is processed; tic already does this and
- other checks.
- + add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are
- commented out when translating to termcap.
- + modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to
- make it work properly for termcap applications (patch by
- Andrey A Chernov).
- * add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications
- such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes
- Debian #131263, cf: 20011215).
- * correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is
- compiled with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making
- it slightly incompatible with itself. In either case, the
- background color is the last field.
-
- Major bug fixes:
- * rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated
- _nc_scroll_window(), to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is
- larger than the size of the scrolling region, then the scrolling
- region will be cleared.
- * modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is
- encountered. Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently
- rather than mixing with write().
- * move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop
- with callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise
- initialized the tty modes before saving them.
- * modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not
- corrupt the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within
- the resized window.
- * altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
- cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
- * correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in
- tput, which did not exit with an error when told to put a string
- not in the current terminfo entry.
- * modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is
- running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it
- returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without
- picking up extraneous trailing blanks.
- * add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
- the overwrite logic.
- * add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
- * modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl()
- mode is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual
- terminal mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it
- is useful to allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to
- avoid staircasing effects after spawning a process which writes
- messages (for lynx 2.8.4).
-
- Portability:
+ 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:
+ o add U8 feature to denote entries for terminal emulators
+ which do not support VT100 SI/SO when processing UTF-8
+ encoding
+ o 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
+ + improvements based on new checks in tic:
+ +
+ o fill in no-parameter forms of cursor-movement where a
+ parameterized form is available
+ o fill in missing cursor controls where the form of the
+ controls is ANSI
+ o add parameterized cursor-controls to linux-basic
+ o modify nsterm, xnuppc and tek4115 to make sgr/sgr0
+ consistent
+ o change several terminfo entries to make consistent use
+ of ANSI clear-all-tabs
+ + extend ansi.sys pfkey capability from kf1-kf10 to kf1-kf48,
+ moving function key definitions from emx-base for
+ consistency.
+ + correct missing final 'p' in pfkey capability of
+ ansi.sys-old.
+ + rename atari and st52 terminfo entries to atari-old,
+ st52-old, use newer entries from FreeMiNT.
+ + 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 interix smso terminfo capability by using reverse
+ rather than bold.
+ + correct initc capability of linux-c-nc end-of-range, make
+ similar change for dg+ccc and dgunix+ccc.
+ + update minix terminfo entry.
+ + updated nsterm* entries.
+ + remove unnecessary kcan assignment to ^C from putty.
+ + suppress ncv in screen and konsole-base entries, allowing
+ underline.
+ + change ncv and op capabilities in sun-color terminfo entry to
+ match Sun's entry for this.
+ + fix typo in rmso for tek4106 entry.
+ + improve acsc string for vt52, show arrow keys.
+ + 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.
+
+Major bug fixes
+
+ * ncurses library
+ + wide character support
+ o modify length returned by getcchar to count the trailing
+ null which is documented in X/Open.
+ o fix an infinite recursion when adding a legacy-coding
+ 8-bit value using insch.
+ o 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.
+ o 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.
+ o fixes in wins_nwstr and related functions to ensure that
+ special characters, i.e., control characters are handled
+ properly with the wide-character configuration.
+ o 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.
+ + mouse
+ o 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.
+ o add check in mouse-driver to disable connection if GPM
+ returns a zero, indicating that the connection is
+ closed.
+ o 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.
+ + miscellaneous
+ o improve handling of color-pairs embedded in attributes
+ for the extended-colors configuration.
+ o add check for failure to open hashed-database needed for
+ db4.6.
+ o modify use of $CC environment variable which is defined
+ by X/Open as a curses feature, to ignore it if it is not
+ a single character.
+ o modify declaration of cur_term when broken-linker is
+ used, but enable-reentrant is not, to match pre-5.7.
+ o correct limit-checks in derwin.
+ o remove old check in mvderwin which prevented moving a
+ derived window whose origin happened to coincide with
+ its parent's origin.
+ o correct limit-checks in newwin, to ensure that windows
+ have nonzero size.
+ o modify set_curterm to make broken-linker configuration
+ work with changes from 20090228.
+ o modify wgetch to ensure it checks SIGWINCH when it gets
+ an error in non-blocking mode.
+ o correct limit-check in wredrawln, accounting for
+ begy/begx values.
+ o fix a null-pointer check in _nc_format_slks in
+ lib_slk.c, from 20070704 changes.
+ o correct translation of "^" in _nc_infotocap, used to
+ transform terminfo to termcap strings.
+ o modify _nc_wgetch to check for a -1 in the fifo, e.g.,
+ after a SIGWINCH, and discard that value, to avoid
+ confusing application.
+ * other libraries
+ + correct transfer of multicolumn characters in multirow
+ field_buffer, which stopped at the end of the first row due
+ to filling of unused entries in a cchar_t array with nulls.
+ + correct buffer-size after internal resizing of wide-character
+ set_field_buffer, broken in 20081018 changes.
+ + correct layout of working window used to extract data in
+ wide-character configured by set_field_buffer
+
+Portability
+
* configure script:
- + modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used
- by default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in
- attempt to work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL
- notes.
- + correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and
- move it to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
- + modify configure script to allow building with termcap only,
- or with fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and
- toe.
- + modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile.
- In that case, do not use the build's tic to install the
- terminfo database.
- + modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that
- are different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's
- C++ compilers on Solaris and IRIX.
- + add several configure script options to aid with
- cross-compiling: --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags,
- --with-build-ldflags, and --with-build-libs.
- + add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to
- similar terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
- + add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in
- transition to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
- * library:
- + implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the
- %n conversion to help parse the input data.
- + various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
- vsscanf().
- + add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
- platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g.,
- Solaris.
- + finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
- + add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in
- curses.h
- * programs:
- + modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic
- links on platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
- + modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that
- linking aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not
- succeed because the source and destination differ only by
- case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0 on cygwin.
- + modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for
- basename of argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2
- which have case-independent filenames and/or program
- suffixes, e.g., ".ext".
+ + new options:
+
+ --disable-libtool-version
+ 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.
+
+ --disable-rpath-hack
+ disable a feature which adds rpath options for
+ libraries in unusual places.
+
+ --enable-interop
+ integrate changes for generic/interop support to
+ form-library.
+
+ --enable-pc-files
+ generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and
+ install them in pkg-config's library directory.
+
+ --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:
+ o correct logic for --with-database, which was coded as an
+ enable-type switch.
+ o omit the opaque-functions from lib_gen.o when
+ --disable-ext-funcs is used.
+ * packaging:
+ + *-config scripts:
+ o modify adacurses-config to look for ".ali" files in the
+ adalib directory.
+ o correct install for the Ada95 tree, which omitted
+ libAdaCurses.a used in adacurses-config.
+ o change install for adacurses-config to provide
+ additional flavors such as adacursesw-config, for
+ ncursesw.
+ o modify scripts to generate ncurses*-config and pc-files
+ to add dependency for tinfo library.
+ o use ncurses*-config scripts if available for
+ test/configure.
+ o correct name for termlib in ncurses*-config, e.g., if it
+ is renamed to provide a single file for ncurses/ncursesw
+ libraries.
+ o generate manpages for the *-config scripts, adapted from
+ help2man.
+ o modify install-rule for manpages so that *-config
+ manpages will install when building with --srcdir.
+ o build-fixes for OpenSolaris aka Solaris 11, for
+ wide-character configuration as well as for rpath
+ feature in *-config scripts.
+ o use $includedir symbol in misc/ncurses-config.in, add
+ --includedir option.
+ o improve install-rules for pc-files.
+ o create the pkg-config library directory if needed.
+ o fix typo "==" where "=" is needed in ncurses-config.in
+ and gen-pkgconfig.in files.
+ o 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.
+ o modify handling of $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR to use only the
+ first item in a possibly colon-separated list.
+ + other packaging issues
+ o add make-tar.sh scripts to Ada95 and test subdirectories
+ to help with making those separately distributable.
+ o add Ada95/configure script, to use in tar-file created
+ by Ada95/make-tar.sh.
+ o 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 [3]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 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).
+ 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 OS/2
- console windows.
+ * 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
+ * The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
- * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
+ * 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.
+ * 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.
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.
+ 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
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk.
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ [4]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ [5]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded.
+ [6]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog.
+ [7]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
+ [8]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
Midnight Commander
file manager
- [8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
+ [9]http://www.midnight-commander.org/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org.
+ [10]http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com.
+ [11]http://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
later.
- [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/.
+ [12]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
- tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- [12]http://www.tin.org.
+ pinfo
+ Lynx-like info browser.
+ [13]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
- taper
- tape archive utility
- [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
-
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
+ tin
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME [14]http://www.tin.org/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
terminal emulator
- [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
+ [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
vile
vi-like-emacs
- [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile.
+ [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile/
The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
(including a few games).
Who's Who and What's What
- The original developers of ncurses are [17]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [18]Eric
- S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and
- [20]Jürgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
+ Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
+ Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen Pfeifer
+ wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done
+ by [17]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
- Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
+ Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
and testing of this package.
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at [23]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses.
+ available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
Future Plans
Other Related Resources
- The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
- [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
+ The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
+ terminal description file once maintained by [20]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 [25]Richard Shuford's archive.
+ covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
References
- 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
- 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html
- 4. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html
- 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20021012/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/
- 9. http://www.mutt.org/
- 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- 12. http://www.tin.org/
- 13. http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/
- 14. http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
- 15. http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html
- 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html
- 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
- 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
- 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
- 20. http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en
- 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
- 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 23. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses
- 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
- 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
+ 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
+ 3. http://invisible-island.net/cindent/cindent.html
+ 4. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ 5. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+ 6. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ 7. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ 8. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ 9. http://www.midnight-commander.org/
+ 10. http://www.mutt.org/
+ 11. http://www.ncftp.com/
+ 12. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
+ 13. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
+ 14. http://www.tin.org/
+ 15. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+ 17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
+ 18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+ 19. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
+ 20. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
+ 21. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal