- Announcing ncurses 4.2
-
- The ncurses (new curses) library is a freeware emulation of System V
- Release 4.0 curses. 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.
-
+ Announcing ncurses 5.1
+
+ 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 is encouraging the keepers of
Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
ncurses.
-
- The ncurses code was developed under Linux. It should port easily to
- any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!
-
+
+ The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. 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.
-
+
The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
- distribution site [1]ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu. It is also
- available at [2]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
-
- Features of ncurses
-
+ distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
+ It is also available at [2]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
+
+ Release Notes
+
+ This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0;
+ very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the
+ platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses
+ 5.0 release.
+
+ Interface changes:
+ * made the extended terminal capabilities
+ (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature (though the
+ configure script can disable it, it is built by default).
+ * removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
+ production library. This is the only interface change that may
+ cause problems with existing applications linked to shared
+ libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number.
+ * explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were
+ implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly
+ initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems
+ linking on some platforms.
+ * modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
+ with C++ STL.
+
+ New features:
+ * added a new extension, assume_default_colors() to provide better
+ control over the use of default colors. This is the principal
+ visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding versions. The
+ new extension allows an application to specify what colors pair 0
+ uses.
+ NOTE: Pair 0 defaults to white on black unless you have invoked
+ use_default_colors() or set it via assume_default_colors(). An
+ application that calls start_colors() without setting the
+ background color will consistently have a black background no
+ matter what color your terminal's background actually is.
+ * made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and have
+ been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning.
+ This builds on the extension use_extended_names() by adding
+ "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src
+ + modified tic so that if extended names (i.e.,
+ configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then tic -x will
+ also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the
+ terminfo source.
+ + added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to
+ applicable terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check
+ for a small improvement in setting default colors.
+ + add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out
+ capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g.,
+ captoinfo and infotocap.
+ * implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm:
+ + if the configure --enable-widec option is given, append 'w'
+ to names of the generated libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so) to
+ avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries.
+ + add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental
+ wide-character support. If any of the environment variables
+ LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this
+ driver will be used to translate the output to UTF-8.
+ + modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text.
+ * modify raw() and noraw() to clear/restore IEXTEN flag which
+ affects stty lnext on systems such as FreeBSD
+ * reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to
+ run in xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped
+ test for $DISPLAY in favor of the terminfo capability kmous=\E[M
+ or if $TERM environment variable contains "xterm".
+ * added configure option --with-manpage-symlinks, which provides for
+ fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links for the
+ aliases.
+ * changed unctrl() to render C1 characters (128-159) as ~@, ~A, etc.
+ * add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for
+ $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm.
+ * made the infocmp -F option less verbose.
+ * dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current).
+
+ Major bug fixes:
+ * modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated
+ fallback.c type for Booleans agrees with term.h
+ * documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2
+ and 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL.
+ * corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A
+ negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call
+ to wait indefinitely.
+ * made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in
+ delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo
+ to specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud
+ rate could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding
+ characters.
+ * modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right
+ corner, rather than displaying only the first character written
+ until the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can
+ update the lower-right corner, and behave this way.
+ * modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for
+ carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella).
+ * corrected offsets used for subwindows in wresize()
+ * modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined
+ to a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++
+ compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option
+ * corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM
+ mouse support when poll() is used rather than select().
+ * made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion,
+ improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details.
+
+ 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,
* 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
+ 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 SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
+ * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
capability.
- * (PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM
- characters 0-32 through the highlight A_ALTCHARSET.
* Ada95 and C++ bindings.
- * Support for mouse event reporting under xterm.
+ * 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.
* 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:
-
+ including (versions starting with those noted):
+
+ cdk
+ Curses Development Kit
+ [3]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ [4]http://dickey.his.com/cdk.
+
ded
- directory-editor [3]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded.
-
+ directory-editor
+ [5]http://dickey.his.com/ded.
+
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
- basis for similar applications on Linux.
-
- lynx-2.7
+ basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
+ [6]http://dickey.his.com/dialog.
+
+ lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
-
+ [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
+
Midnight Commander 4.1
file manager
-
- mutt 0.88
+ [8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
+
+ mutt
mail utility
-
- ncftp 2.0
+ [9]http://www.mutt.org.
+
+ ncftp
file-transfer utility
-
+ [10]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/.
+
+ tin
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME
+ [12]http://www.tin.org.
+
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.
+
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
-
- minicom-1.75
+
+ minicom
terminal emulator
-
- tin-unoff
- tin 1.4 newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- [4]ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff.
-
+ [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
+
vile
- vi-like-emacs [5]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile.
-
+ vi-like-emacs
+ [16]http://dickey.his.com/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 [6]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [7]Eric
- S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [8]Thomas Dickey and
- [9]Jürgen Pfeifer. [10]Florian La Roche acts as the maintainer for the
+ 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
Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
- Contact the current maintainers at [11]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
-
+ Contact the current maintainers at [22]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.
-
+
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at [12]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
-
+ available at [23]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
+
Future Plans
* 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 includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
- [13]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
-
+ [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
+
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
- covered in the terminfo file at [14]Richard Shuford's archive.
+ covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive.
References
- 1. ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu
- 2. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
- 3. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded
- 4. ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff
- 5. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile
- 6. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
- 7. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
- 8. mailto:dickey@clark.net
- 9. mailto:Juergen.Pfeifer@T-Online.de
- 10. mailto:florian@gnu.org
- 11. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 12. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
- 13. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
- 14. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
+ 2. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
+ 3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
+ 4. http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html
+ 5. http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html
+ 6. http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html
+ 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.1-20000704/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://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html
+ 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
+ 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
+ 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
+ 20. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
+ 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
+ 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+ 23. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
+ 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
+ 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff