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<HEAD>
-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
+<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@ Pre-Release</TITLE>
<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
ncurses.<P>
-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!<P>
+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 and NetBSD as an external package.
+It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
+It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
the GNU distribution site
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>.
-It is also available at
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
+<br>It is also available at
+<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-We decided to release ncurses as a new whole number release (5.0) because it
-incorporates several interface changes, including some that would invalidate
-existing shared libraries. These are the highlights from the change-log
-since ncurses 4.2 release.
+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.
<p>
Interface changes:
<ul>
- <li>The principal source of changes to the interface comes from the
- release of X/Open Curses in 1997. Earlier versions of ncurses (4.0
- and before) were based on a draft version of the specification. The
- release version adds parameters to some functions to support the
- evolving internationalization of curses. These summarize the impact:
+ <li>change type for bool used in headers to <code>NCURSES_BOOL</code>,
+ which usually is the same as the compiler's definition for
+ <code>bool</code>.
+
+ <li>add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
+ These are only available if the library is configured using the
+ <kbd>--enable-widec</kbd> option. Missing functions are
+ <ul>
+ <li>pecho_wchar()
+ <li>slk_wset()
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>add environment variable <code>$NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS</code> to
+ modify the <code>assume_default_colors()</code> extension.
+
+</ul>
+New features and improvements:
<ul>
- <li>modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of
- X/Open Curses (affects ABI since developers have used attr_get).
+ <li>Improved support for termcap applications:
+ <ul>
+ <li>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.
- <li>corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
- attr_t.
+ <li>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.
- <li>the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
- parameter according to XSI.
+ <li>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.
- <li>correct macros for wattr_set, wattr_get, separate wattrset macro from
- these to preserve behavior that allows attributes to be combined with
- color pair numbers.
+ <li>add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are commented out
+ when translating to termcap.
- <li>reviewed/updated curses.h, term.h against X/Open Curses Issue 4
- Version 2. This includes making some parameters NCURSES_CONST
- rather than const, e.g., in termcap.h.
+ <li>modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to make it
+ work properly for termcap applications (patch by Andrey A Chernov).
- <li>reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document.
+ </ul>
- <li>add set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch to terminfo structure, as per
- XSI and Solaris 2.5.
-</ul>
- <li>The newest version of the X/Open Curses is implemented on Solaris
- and other vendor's systems. It adds new features to the terminfo
- descriptions:
-<ul>
- <li>implement tparm %l format.
+ <li>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).
- <li>implement tparm printf-style width and precision for %s, %d, %x, %o
- as per XSI.
+ <li>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.
</ul>
- <li>We made additional changes to reduce impact by future interface
- changes:
+Major bug fixes:
<ul>
- <li>rename key_names[] array to _nc_key_names since it is not part of
- the curses interface.
+ <li>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.
- <li>move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
-</ul>
- <li>modify configure script to embed ABI in shared libraries for HP-UX
- 10.x (detailed request by Tim Mooney).
+ <li>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().
+
+ <li>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.
+
+ <li>modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not corrupt
+ the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within the resized
+ window.
+
+ <li>altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
+ cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
+
+ <li>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.
- <li>modify configuration of shared libraries on Digital Unix so that
- versioning is embedded in the library, rather than implied by
- links (patch by Tim Mooney).
+ <li>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.
+
+ <li>add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
+ the overwrite logic.
+
+ <li>add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
+
+ <li>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).
</ul>
-New features:
+
+Portability:
<ul>
- <li>enable sigwinch handler by default.
+ <li>configure script:
+ <ul>
+ <li>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.
- <li>turn on hashmap scrolling code by default
+ <li>correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and move it
+ to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
- <li>improved support for termcap applications
-<ul>
- <li>modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to terminfo
- names.
+ <li>modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, or with
+ fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and toe.
- <li>provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from terminfo
- data and using it as the padding character in tputs.
+ <li>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.
- <li>provide support for termcap ospeed variable by copying it from the
- internal cur_term member, and using ospeed as the baudrate
- reference for the delay_output and tputs functions.
+ <li>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.
- <li>change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more than 2
- characters.
+ <li>add several configure script options to aid with cross-compiling:
+ --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, --with-build-ldflags, and
+ --with-build-libs.
- <li>add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially
- allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap.
-</ul>
- <li>add mouse support to ncurses menus.
+ <li>add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to similar
+ terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
- <li>add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX
+ <li>add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in transition
+ to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
+ </ul>
- <li>modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants
+ <li>library:
+ <ul>
+ <li>implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the %n
+ conversion to help parse the input data.
- <li>add configure option --enable-no-padding, to allow environment
- variable $NCURSES_NO_PADDING to eliminate non-mandatory padding,
- thereby making terminal emulators (e.g., for vt100) a little more
- efficient.
+ <li>various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
+ vsscanf().
- <li>modify lib_color.c to eliminate dependency on orig_colors and
- orig_pair, since SVr4 curses does not require these either, but
- uses them when they are available.
+ <li>add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
+ platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., Solaris.
- <li>add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo
- if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and
- tabs).
+ <li>finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
- <li>modify tic to compile into %'char' form in preference to %{number},
- since that is a little more efficient.
-</ul>
-Major bug fixes:
-<ul>
- <li>modify lib_tstp.c to block SIGTTOU when handling SIGTSTP, fixes a
- problem where ncurses applications which were run via a shell script
- would hang when given a ^Z. Also, check if the terminal's process
- group is consistent, i.e., a shell has not taken ownership of it,
- before deciding to save the current terminal settings in the SIGTSTP
- handler.
-
- <li>suppress sc/rc capabilities from terminal description if they appear
- in smcup/rmcup. This affects only scrolling optimization, to fix a
- problem reported by several people with xterm's alternate screen,
- though the problem is more general.
-
- <li>modify relative_move and tputs to avoid an interaction with the
- BSD-style padding. The relative_move function could produce a string
- to replace on the screen which began with a numeric character, which
- was then interpreted by tputs as padding.
-
- <li>modify setupterm so that cancelled strings are treated the same as
- absent strings, cancelled and absent booleans false (does not affect
- tic, infocmp).
-
- <li>modify lib_vidattr.c to allow for terminal types (e.g., xterm-color)
- which may reset all attributes in the 'op' capability, so that colors
- are set before turning on bold and other attributes, but still after
- turning attributes off.
-
- <li>use 'access()' to check if ncurses library should be permitted to
- open or modify files with fopen/open/link/unlink/remove calls, in
- case the calling application is running in setuid mode.
-
- <li>correction to doupdate, for case where terminal does not support
- insert/delete character. The logic did not check that there was a
- difference in alignment of changes to old/new screens before
- repainting the whole non-blank portion of the line. Modified to fall
- through into logic that reduces by the portion which does not differ.
+ <li>add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in curses.h
+ </ul>
+
+ <li>programs:
+ <ul>
+ <li>modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic links on
+ platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
+
+ <li>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.
+
+ <li>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".
+ </ul>
</ul>
<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
<DL>
<DT> cdk
<DD> Curses Development Kit
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">Curses Development Kit</a>
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html">http://invisible-island.net/cdk</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
<DT> ded
<DD> directory-editor
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html">http://invisible-island.net/ded</A>.
<DT> dialog
<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html">http://invisible-island.net/dialog</A>.
<DT> lynx
<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
-<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
+<DT> Midnight Commander
<DD> file manager
+<br>
+<A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
<DT> mutt
<DD> mail utility
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>.
<DT> ncftp
<DD> file-transfer utility
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com">http://www.ncftp.com</A>.
<DT> nvi
<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>.
<DT> tin
<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff">ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>.
<DT> taper
<DD> tape archive utility
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/">http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/</A>.
<DT> vh-1.6
<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>.
</DL>
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
<DL>
<DT> minicom
<DD> terminal emulator
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>.
<DT> vile
<DD> vi-like-emacs
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile</A>.
+<br>
+<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html">http://invisible-island.net/vile</A>.
</DL>
<P>
HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
Ongoing work is being done by
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A>
+<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
and
-<A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A>
+<A HREF="http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
+<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at
testing of this package.<P>
Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
+<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>.
<H2>Future Plans</H2>
<UL>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff