-
- Announcing ncurses 5.4
+ Announcing ncurses 5.6
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
Release Notes
- This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and
- 5.3; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
- the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
- ncurses 5.3 release.
+ This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
+ through 5.5; very few applications will require recompilation,
+ depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
+ change-log since ncurses 5.5 release.
Interface changes:
- * add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character
- support.
- + pecho_wchar()
- + slk_wset()
- These are only available if the library is configured using the
- --enable-widec option.
- * write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
- getcurx(), etc.
- * simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
- * modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__()
- for g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses
- uses.
- * add key_defined() function, to tell which keycode a string is
- bound to.
+ * generate linkable stubs for some macros:
+ getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
+ getpary, getpary,
+ and (for libncursesw)
+ wgetbkgrnd
New features and improvements:
* library
- + implement logic in lib_mouse.c to handle position reports
- which are generated when XFree86 xterm is initialized with
- private modes 1002 or 1003. These are returned to the
- application as the REPORT_MOUSE_POSITION mask, which was not
- implemented.
- + modify soft-key initialization to use A_REVERSE if A_STANDOUT
- would not be shown when colors are used, i.e., if ncv#1 is
- set in the terminfo as is done in "screen".
- + add configure option for FreeBSD sysmouse, --with-sysmouse,
- and implement library support for that.
+ + support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions. This
+ uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for several
+ versions on different platforms.
+ + add use_legacy_coding() function to support lynx's
+ font-switching feature.
+ + add extension nofilter(), to cancel a prior filter() call.
+ + add/install a package config script, e.g., ncurses5-config or
+ ncursesw5-config, according to configuration options.
+ + provide ifdef for NCURSES_NOMACROS which suppresses most
+ macro definitions from curses.h, i.e., where a macro is
+ defined to override a function to improve performance.
+ + make ifdef's consistent in curses.h for the extended colors
+ so the header file can be used for the normal curses library.
+ The header file installed for extended colors is a variation
+ of the wide-character configuration.
+ + improve tgetstr() by making the return value point into the
+ user's buffer, if provided.
+ + add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with tparm() using
+ either varargs (the existing status), or using a
+ fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
+ + widen the test for xterm kmous a little to allow for other
+ strings than "\E[M", e.g., for xterm-sco functionality in
+ xterm.
+ + modify wgetnstr() to return KEY_RESIZE if a sigwinch occurs.
+ + move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
+ curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
+ those if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is defined without ensuring
+ that <wchar.h> is included.
+ + change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are
+ installed. Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries,
+ link the shared objects into the install directory. This
+ makes the --with-rpath option work except with $(DESTDIR).
+ + several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are only
+ available if the library is configured using
+ --enable-xmc-glitch.
+ + Add NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS and NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE
+ environment variables to allow runtime suppression of the
+ related hard-tabs and xmc-glitch features.
* programs:
- + tack:
- o allow it to run from fallback terminfo data.
- o reset colors after each color test, correct a place
- where exit_standout_mode was used instead of
- exit_attribute_mode.
- o improve bce test by making it set colors other than
- black on white.
- + tic:
- o handle a case where an entry has no description, and
- capabilities begin on the same line as the entry name.
- o allow a terminfo entry with a leading 2-character name.
- o improved warnings when suppressing items to fit in
- termcap's 1023-byte limit.
- o add check for multiple "tc=" clauses in a termcap.
- o correct logic for resolving "use=" clauses allow infocmp
- and tic to show cancelled capabilities.
- o check for incomplete line-drawing character mapping.
- o check for missing/empty/illegal terminfo name.
- + tput:
- o modify tput to use the same parameter analysis as
- tparm() does, to provide for user-defined strings, e.g.,
- for xterm title, a corresponding capability might be
- title=\E]2;%p1%s^G,
- + tset:
- o use the system's default values for CKILL and other
- default control characters.
- o correct interchanged defaults for kill and interrupt
- characters, which caused it to report unnecessarily.
+ + add new test programs: chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c, echochar.c,
+ foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting that existing
+ test programs also were modified to test additional
+ features).
+ + modify tack to test extended capability function-key strings.
+ + modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via cgetent()
+ functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
+ + improve infocmp/tic -f option formatting.
+ + add toe -a option, to show all databases. This uses new
+ private interfaces in the ncurses library for iterating
+ through the list of databases.
+ + modify MKfallback.sh to use tic -x when constructing fallback
+ tables to allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a
+ fallback entry.
+ * terminal database
+ + add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome
+ terminal (mgt)
+ + add nsterm-16color entry
+ + updated mlterm terminfo entry
+ + add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
+ + remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux
+ entry, since it does not really do this
+ + add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
+ + add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri
+ strings
+ + add hpterm-color terminfo entry
+ + add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which
+ are reported to implement this feature
+ + correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made
+ codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
Major bug fixes:
- * prevent recursion in wgetch() via wgetnstr() if the connection
- cannot be switched between cooked/raw modes because it is not a
- TTY.
- * correct a case in _nc_remove_string(), used by define_key(), to
- avoid infinite loop if the given string happens to be a substring
- of other strings which are assigned to keys.
- * modify logic of acsc to use the original character if no mapping
- is defined, rather than a null.
- * several improvements for handling multi-cell display of wide
- characters.
- + modify setcchar() to allow converting control characters to
- complex characters.
- + correct handling of multibyte characters in waddch_literal()
- which force wrapping because they are started too late on the
- line.
- + modify setcchar() to allow for wchar_t input strings that
- have more than one spacing character.
- * other fixes for wide-character support:
- + rewrote lib_acs.c to allow PutAttrChar() to decide how to
- render alternate-characters, i.e., to work with Linux console
- and UTF-8 locale.
- + implement a workaround so that line-drawing works with
- screen's crippled UTF-8 support (tested with 3.9.13). This
- only works with the wide-character support (--enable-widec);
- the normal library will simply suppress line-drawing when
- running in a UTF-8 locale in screen.
- + corrections to lib_get_wstr.c:
- o null-terminate buffer passed to setcchar(), which
- occasionally failed.
- o map special characters such as erase- and
- kill-characters into key-codes so those will work as
- expected even if they are not mentioned in the terminfo.
- * modify setupterm() to check if the terminfo and terminal-modes
- have already been read. This ensures that it does not reinvoke
- def_prog_mode() when an application calls more than one function,
- such as tgetent() and initscr().
- * fix form_driver() cases for REQ_CLR_EOF, REQ_CLR_EOL,
- REQ_DEL_CHAR, REQ_DEL_PREV and REQ_NEW_LINE, which did not ensure
- the cursor was at the editing position before making
- modifications.
- * correct keybound(), which reported definitions in the wrong table,
- i.e., the list of definitions which are disabled by keyok().
- * fixes related to safe_sprintf.c:
- + correct an allocation size in safe_sprintf.c for the "*"
- format code.
- + correct safe_sprintf.c to not return a null pointer if the
- format happens to be an empty string.
- + make return value from _nc_printf_string() consistent.
- Before, depending on whether --enable-safe-sprintf was used,
- it might not be cached for reallocating.
- * other low-level improvements to the optimization code include:
- + if the output is a socket or other non-tty device, use 1
- millisecond for the cost in mvcur; previously it was 9
- milliseconds because the baudrate was not known.
- + modify lib_getch.c to avoid recursion via wgetnstr() when the
- input is not a tty and consequently mode-changes do not work.
- + fix several places in tack/pad.c which tested and used the
- parameter- and parameterless strings inconsistently.
- + change several tputs() calls in scrolling code to use putp(),
- to enable padding which may be needed for some terminals.
- + improve mvcur() by checking if it is safe to move when video
- attributes are set (msgr), and if not, reset/restore
- attributes within that function rather than doing it
- separately in the GoTo() function in tty_update.c.
- + use tputs() rather than putp() in a few cases in tty_update.c
- since the corresponding delays are proportional to the number
- of lines affected: repeat_char, clr_eos,
- change_scroll_region.
- * correct line/column reference in adjust_window(), needed to make
- special windows such as curscr track properly when resizing.
- * fix a potential recursion between napms() and _nc_timed_wait()
- * rewrote lib_insch.c, combining it with lib_insstr.c so both handle
- tab and other control characters consistently.
- * do not try to open gpm mouse driver if standard output is not a
- tty; the gpm library does not make this check.
+ * correct a typo in configure --with-bool option for the case where
+ --without-cxx is used.
+ * move assignment from environment variable ESCDELAY from initscr()
+ down to newterm() so the environment variable affects timeouts for
+ terminals opened with newterm() as well.
+ * modify werase to clear multicolumn characters that extend into a
+ derived window.
+ * modify wchgat() to mark updated cells as changed so a refresh will
+ repaint those cells.
+ * correct logic in wadd_wch() and wecho_wch(), which did not guard
+ against passing the multi-column attribute into a call on
+ waddch(), e.g., using data returned by win_wch()
+ * fix redrawing of windows other than stdscr using wredrawln() by
+ touching the corresponding rows in curscr.
+ * reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to tgetent() by remembering
+ the last TERMINAL* value allocated to hold the corresponding data
+ and freeing that if the tgetent() result buffer is the same as the
+ previous call.
+ * modify read_termtype() so the term_names data is always allocated
+ as part of the str_table, a better fix for a memory leak.
+ * fix wins_nwstr(), which did not handle single-column non-8bit
+ codes.
+ * modify wbkgrnd() to avoid clearing the A_CHARTEXT attribute bits
+ since those record the state of multicolumn characters.
+ * improve SIGWINCH handling by postponing its effect during
+ newterm(), etc., when allocating screens.
+ * remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
+ mvwin().
+ * add checks in waddchnstr() and wadd_wchnstr() to stop copying when
+ a null character is found.
+ * add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
+ region before scrolling on a new line.
+ * add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as
+ test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with
+ A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision
+ of legacy coding.
Portability:
* configure script:
+ new options:
- --with-abi-version option.
- addresses platforms where packagers have diverged
- from ncurses ABI numbering.
-
- --with-manpage-format=catonly
- addresses behavior of BSDI, allow install of
- man+cat files on NetBSD, whose behavior has
- diverged by requiring both to be present.
-
- --with-manpage-aliases
- extends "--with-manpage-aliases" to provide the
- option of generating ".so" files rather than
- symbolic links for manpage aliases.
-
- --with-rel-version
- workaround to force libtool on Darwin generate the
- "same" library names as with the "--with-shared"
- option. The Darwin ld program does not work well
- with a zero as the minor-version value.
-
- --with-trace
- simplifies defining TRACE to incorporate trace() in
- libraries.
-
- + fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
- o allow BUILD_CC and related configure script variables to
- be overridden from the environment.
- o use AC_CHECK_TOOL to get proper values for AR and LD for
- cross compiling.
- o use $cross_compiling variable in configure script rather
- than comparing $host_alias and $target alias, since
- "host" is traditionally misused in autoconf to refer to
- the target platform.
- o modify run_tic.in to avoid using wrong shared libraries
- when cross-compiling.
- + fixes for Mac OS X:
- o fix a redefinition of $RANLIB in the configure script
- when libtool is used.
- o modify MKlib_gen.sh to avoid passing "#" tokens through
- the C preprocessor. This works around Mac OS X's
- preprocessor, which insists on adding a blank on each
- side of the token.
- + workarounds for broken tools:
- o add configure check for wchar_t and wint_t types, rather
- than rely on preprocessor definitions. Also work around
- for gcc fixinclude bug which creates a shadow copy of
- curses.h if it sees these symbols apparently typedef'd.
- o modify configure script to omit -Winline for gcc 3.3,
- since that feature is broken.
- o several script fixes to work around the ironically named
- POSIXLY_CORRECT feature of GNU sed 4.0.
- o modify configure script to avoid using "head -1", which
- does not work if POSIXLY_CORRECT (sic) is set.
- o update configure script to reflect fix for
- AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL, which is broken in autoconf
- 2.5x for Mac OS X 10.2.3.
- o repair check for missing C++ compiler, which is broken
- in autoconf 2.5x by hardcoding it to g++.
- + corrected ifdef's relating to configure check for wchar_t,
- etc.
- + remove configure script check to allow -Wconversion for older
- versions of gcc
- + modify configure script to accommodate libtool 1.5, as well
- as add an parameter to the "--with-libtool" option which can
- specify the pathname of libtool.
- + change several sed scripts to avoid using "\+" since it is
- not a BRE (basic regular expression). One instance caused
- terminfo.5 to be misformatted on FreeBSD.
- + use '%' as sed substitute delimiter in run_tic script to
- avoid problems with pathname delimiters such as ':' and '@'.
- + add -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=500 if needed when configuring with
- "--enable-widec", to get mbstate_t declaration on HPUX 11.11.
+ --with-hashed-db
+ Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo
+ data rather than storing each compiled entry in a
+ separate binary file within a directory tree.
+
+ --without-dlsym
+ Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
+
+ --with-valgrind
+ Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
+
+ --enable-wgetch-events
+ Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
+
+ --enable-signed-char
+ Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
+
+ + improved options:
+
+ --disable-largefile
+ make the option work both ways.
+
+ --with-gpm
+ The option now accepts a parameter, i.e., the name
+ of the dynamic GPM library to load via dlopen()
+
+ --disable-symlinks
+ The option now allows one to disable symlink() in
+ tic even when link() does not work.
+
+ * other configure/build issues:
+ + remove special case for Darwin in CF_XOPEN_SOURCE configure
+ macro.
+ + add configure check to ensure that SIGWINCH is defined on
+ platforms such as OS X which exclude that when _XOPEN_SOURCE,
+ etc., are defined
+ + use ld's -search_paths_first option on Darwin to work around
+ odd search rules on that platform.
+ + improve ifdef's for _POSIX_VDISABLE in tset to work with Mac
+ OS X.
+ + modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
+ used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
+ $(CFLAGS) variable is also used.
+ + use ${CC} rather than ${LD} in shared library rules for
+ IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure that initialization sections
+ are provided for extra linkage requirements, e.g., of C++
+ applications.
+ + improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
+ FreeBSD and NetBSD to make --with-shlib-version work.
+ + split up dependency of names.c and codes.c in
+ ncurses/Makefile to work with parallel make.
+ + modify MKlib_gen.sh to change preprocessor-expanded _Bool
+ back to bool.
+ + modify progs/Makefile.in to make tput init work properly with
+ cygwin, i.e., do not pass a .exe in the reference string used
+ in check_aliases.
* library:
- + adjust include-options in CF_ETIP_DEFINES to avoid missing
- ncurses_dll.h, fixing special definitions that may be needed
- for etip.h.
- + modify CF_LIB_SUFFIX for Itanium releases of HP-UX, which use
- a ".so" suffix.
- + improve ifdef's to guard against redefinition of wchar_t and
- wint_t in curses.h.
- + remove an #undef for KEY_EVENT from curses.tail used in the
- experimental NCURSES_WGETCH_EVENTS feature. The #undef
- confuses Debian dpkg's build script.
+ + ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that wcwidth() claims
+ are not one-column. This is a workaround for Solaris' broken
+ locale support.
+ + reduce name-pollution in term.h by removing #define's for
+ HAVE_xxx symbols.
+ + fix #ifdef in c++/internal.h for QNX 6.1
+ * test programs:
+ + modify test/configure script to allow building test programs
+ with PDCurses/X11.
+ + modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD
+ curses. Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a
+ subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4
+ additions. But it is enough for comparison.
+ + improved test/configure to build test/ncurses on HPUX 11
+ using the vendor curses.
+ + change configure script to produce test/Makefile from data
+ file.
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
their data.
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.
+ * 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.
minicom
terminal emulator
- [15]http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
+ [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
vile
vi-like-emacs
Who's Who and What's What
Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
- Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer
+ 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.
Other Related Resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike the
- older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
- file.
+ 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 [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
13. http://www.tin.org/
14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
- 15. http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
+ 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
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff