-<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//EN">
<!--
- $Id: announce.html.in,v 1.64 2006/12/17 23:31:26 tom Exp $
+ $Id: announce.html.in,v 1.89 2013/05/18 10:12:25 tom Exp $
****************************************************************************
- * Copyright (c) 1998-2005,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+ * Copyright (c) 1998-2011,2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
* *
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
* copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
-->
-<HTML>
-<HEAD>
-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
-<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
-<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
-</HEAD>
-<BODY>
-
-<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1>
-
-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.<P>
-
-In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
-considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of
-Unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to
-ncurses.<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),
-and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
-the library and tools.<P>
-
-The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
-the GNU distribution site
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/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>
-
-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.
-<p>
-Interface changes:
-<ul>
- <li>generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- <br>
- getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
- getpary, getpary,
- <br>
- and (for libncursesw)
- <br>
- wgetbkgrnd
-
-</ul>
-New features and improvements:
-<ul>
- <li>library
- <ul>
- <li>support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions.
- This uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for
- several versions on different platforms.
-
- <li>add <code>use_legacy_coding()</code> function to support
- lynx's font-switching feature.
-
- <li>add extension <code>nofilter()</code>, to cancel a prior
- <code>filter()</code> call.
-
- <li>add/install a package config script, e.g.,
- <code>ncurses5-config</code> or
- <code>ncursesw5-config</code>, according to
- configuration options.
-
- <li>provide ifdef for <code>NCURSES_NOMACROS</code> which
- suppresses most macro definitions from curses.h, i.e.,
- where a macro is defined to override a function to improve
- performance.
-
- <li>make ifdef's consistent in <code>curses.h</code> 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.
-
- <li>improve <code>tgetstr()</code> by making the return value
- point into the user's buffer, if provided.
-
- <li>add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with
- <code>tparm()</code> using either varargs (the existing
- status), or using a fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
-
- <li>widen the test for xterm <code>kmous</code> a little to
- <code>allow</code> for other
- strings than "\E[M", e.g., for <code>xterm-sco</code>
- functionality in xterm.
-
- <li>modify <code>wgetnstr()</code> to return
- <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> if a sigwinch occurs.
-
- <li>move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
- curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
- those if <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED</code> is defined
- without ensuring that <wchar.h> is included.
-
- <li>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 <code>--with-rpath</code> option work except with
- <code>$(DESTDIR)</code>.
-
- <li>several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are
- only available if the library is configured using
- <code>--enable-xmc-glitch</code>.
-
- <li>Add <code>NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS</code> and
- <code>NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE</code> environment variables
- to allow runtime suppression of the related hard-tabs and
- xmc-glitch features.
- </ul>
-
- <li>programs:
- <ul>
- <li>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).
-
- <li>modify tack to test extended capability function-key
- strings.
-
- <li>modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via <code>cgetent()</code>
- functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
-
- <li>improve infocmp/tic <code>-f</code> option formatting.
-
- <li>add <code>toe -a</code> option, to show all databases.
- This uses new private interfaces in the ncurses library for
- iterating through the list of databases.
-
- <li>modify <code>MKfallback.sh</code> to use
- <code>tic -x</code> when constructing fallback tables to
- allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a fallback entry.
- </ul>
-
- <li>terminal database
- <ul>
- <li>add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome terminal (mgt)
- <li>add nsterm-16color entry
- <li>updated mlterm terminfo entry
- <li>add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
- <li>remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux entry, since it does not really do this
- <li>add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
- <li>add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri strings
- <li>add hpterm-color terminfo entry
- <li>add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which are reported to implement this feature
- <li>correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
- </ul>
-</ul>
-Major bug fixes:
-<ul>
- <li>correct a typo in configure <code>--with-bool</code> option for the
- case where <code>--without-cxx</code> is used.
-
- <li>move assignment from environment variable <code>ESCDELAY</code>
- from <code>initscr()</code> down to <code>newterm()</code> so the
- environment variable affects timeouts for terminals opened with
- newterm() as well.
-
- <li>modify <code>werase</code> to clear multicolumn characters that
- extend into a derived window.
-
- <li>modify <code>wchgat()</code> to mark updated cells as changed so a
- refresh will repaint those cells.
-
- <li>correct logic in <code>wadd_wch()</code> and
- <code>wecho_wch()</code>, which did not guard against passing the
- multi-column attribute into a call on <code>waddch()</code>, e.g.,
- using data returned by <code>win_wch()</code>
-
- <li>fix redrawing of windows other than <code>stdscr</code> using
- <code>wredrawln()</code> by touching the corresponding rows in
- <code>curscr</code>.
-
- <li>reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to <code>tgetent()</code> by
- remembering the last <code>TERMINAL*</code> value allocated to hold
- the corresponding data and freeing that if the
- <code>tgetent()</code> result buffer is the same as the previous
- call.
-
- <li>modify <code>read_termtype()</code> so the <code>term_names</code>
- data is always allocated as part of the <code>str_table</code>, a
- better fix for a memory leak.
-
- <li>fix <code>wins_nwstr(),</code> which did not handle single-column
- non-8bit codes.
-
- <li>modify <code>wbkgrnd()</code> to avoid clearing the
- <code>A_CHARTEXT</code> attribute bits since those record the state
- of multicolumn characters.
-
- <li>improve <code>SIGWINCH</code> handling by postponing its effect
- during <code>newterm()</code>, etc., when allocating screens.
-
- <li>remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
- <code>mvwin()</code>.
-
- <li>add checks in <code>waddchnstr()</code> and
- <code>wadd_wchnstr()</code> to stop copying when a null character
- is found.
-
- <li>add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
- region before scrolling on a new line.
-
- <li>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.
-</ul>
-
-Portability:
-<ul>
- <li>configure script:
- <ul>
- <li>new options:
- <dl>
-
- <dt>--with-hashed-db
- <dd>Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
- each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
- tree.
-
- <dt>--without-dlsym
- <dd>Do not use <code>dlsym()</code> to load GPM dynamically.
-
- <dt>--with-valgrind
- <dd>Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
-
- <dt>--enable-wgetch-events
- <dd>Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
-
- <dt>--enable-signed-char
- <dd>Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
-
- </dl>
-
- <li>improved options:
- <dl>
-
- <dt>--disable-largefile
- <dd>make the option work both ways.
-
- <dt>--with-gpm
- <dd>The option now accepts a parameter,
- i.e., the name of the dynamic GPM library to load via
- <code>dlopen()</code>
-
- <dt>--disable-symlinks
- <dd>The option now allows one to
- disable <code>symlink()</code> in <code>tic</code> even when
- <code>link()</code> does not work.
-
- </dl>
-
- </ul>
-
- <li>other configure/build issues: <ul> <li>remove special case for
- Darwin in <code>CF_XOPEN_SOURCE</code> configure macro.
-
- <li>add configure check to ensure that <code>SIGWINCH</code> is
- defined on platforms such as OS X which exclude that when
- <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE,</code> etc., are defined
-
- <li>use ld's <code>-search_paths_first</code> option on Darwin
- to work around odd search rules on that platform.
-
- <li>improve ifdef's for <code>_POSIX_VDISABLE</code> in tset to
- work with Mac OS X.
-
- <li>modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
- used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
- <code>$(CFLAGS)</code> variable is also used.
-
- <li>use <code>${CC}</code> rather than <code>${LD}</code> in
- shared library rules for IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure
- that initialization sections are provided for extra linkage
- requirements, e.g., of C++ applications.
-
- <li>improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
- FreeBSD and NetBSD to make
- <code>--with-shlib-version</code> work.
-
- <li>split up dependency of <code>names.c</code> and
- <code>codes.c</code> in <code>ncurses/Makefile</code> to
- work with parallel make.
-
- <li>modify <code>MKlib_gen.sh</code> to change
- preprocessor-expanded <code>_Bool</code> back to <code>bool</code>.
-
- <li>modify <code>progs/Makefile.in</code> to make
- <code>tput init</code> work properly with cygwin,
- i.e., do not pass a <code>.exe</code> in the reference
- string used in check_aliases.
- </ul>
-
- <li>library:
- <ul>
- <li>ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that
- <code>wcwidth()</code> claims are not one-column. This is
- a workaround for Solaris' broken locale support.
-
- <li>reduce name-pollution in <code>term.h</code> by removing
- <code>#define</code>'s for HAVE_xxx symbols.
-
- <li>fix <code>#ifdef</code> in <code>c++/internal.h</code> for
- QNX 6.1
- </ul>
-
- <li>test programs: <ul> <li>modify <code>test/configure</code> script
- to allow building test programs with PDCurses/X11.
-
- <li>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.
-
- <li>improved <code>test/configure</code> to build test/ncurses
- on HPUX 11 using the vendor curses.
-
- <li>change configure script to produce
- <code>test/Makefile</code> from data file.
- </ul>
-</ul>
-
-<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
-
-The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
-
-<UL>
-<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
-<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
-forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
-and function keys.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
-a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
-a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
-data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
-<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
-are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
-<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
-entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
-versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL>
-
-The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
-
-<UL>
-<LI>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,
-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).
-<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
-of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
-<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
-<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm
-and FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.
-<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
-<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
-their data.
-<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to
-use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
-achieving the effect of transparent colors.
-<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE>
-and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> 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.
-<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
-<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
-cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
-or System V's.
-<LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code 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.
-<LI>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 beginning and
-after the end would step on a non-space character. It will
-automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
-possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
-of the screen.
-<LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
-fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
-when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
-for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode).
-<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
-ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
-AT&T extension sets.
-<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
-<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
-entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
-if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
-This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
-without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
-<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
-descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
-generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
-<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
-other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
-compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
-$HOME/.terminfo directory.
-<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
-transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a
-TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
-and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.
-<LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
-when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither
-fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
-but it's there.
-<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
-see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
-<LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
-point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
-prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
-<CODE>#undef</CODE>.
-<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
-a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
-</UL>
-
-<H1>State of the Package</H1>
-
-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.<P>
-
-The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
-including (versions starting with those noted):
-<DL>
-<DT> cdk
-<DD> Curses Development Kit
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A>
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a>
-<DT> ded
-<DD> directory-editor
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/">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/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</A>
-<DT> lynx
-<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</A>
-<DT> Midnight Commander
-<DD> file manager
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">http://www.ibiblio.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>
-<br>
-<DT> pinfo
-<DD> Lynx-like info browser.
-<A HREF="http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/</A>
-<DT> tin
-<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
-<A HREF="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</A>
-<DT> vh-1.6
-<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.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://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">
-http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</A>
-<DT> vile
-<DD> vi-like-emacs
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</A>
-</DL>
-<P>
-
-The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
-a few games).
-
-<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
-
-Zeyd Ben-Halim
-started it from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis.
-Eric S. Raymond
-continued development.
-Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
-Ongoing work is being done by
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</A>.
-Thomas Dickey
-acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
-which holds the copyright on ncurses.
-Contact the current maintainers at
-<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>.
-<P>
-
-To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
-<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line:
-<PRE>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
+
+<html>
+<head>
+ <meta name="generator" content=
+ "HTML Tidy for Linux (vers 25 March 2009), see www.w3.org">
+
+ <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
+ <link rev="made" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
+ "text/html; charset=us-ascii">
+</head>
+
+<body>
+ <h1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
+
+ <p>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.</p>
+
+ <p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
+ that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
+ keepers of Unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to
+ switch over to ncurses.</p>
+
+ <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>
+
+ <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), and a termcap conversion tool
+ captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for the library and
+ tools.</p>
+
+ <p>The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the
+ GNU distribution site <a href=
+ "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .<br>
+
+ It is also available at <a href=
+ "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p>
+
+ <h1>Release Notes</h1>
+
+ <p>This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses
+ 5.0 through 5.8; very few applications will require
+ recompilation, depending on the platform. These are the
+ highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.8 release.</p>
+
+ <p>This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent
+ problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release.</p>
+
+ <p>It also improves the Ada95 binding:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>fixes a longstanding portability problem with its use of
+ the <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x">set_field_type</a>
+ function. Because that function uses variable-length argument
+ lists, its interface with gnat does not work with certain
+ platforms.</li>
+
+ <li>improves configurability and portability, particularly when
+ built separately from the main ncurses tree. The 5.8 release
+ introduced scripts which can be used to construct separate
+ tarballs for the Ada95 and ncurses examples.
+
+ <p>Those were a proof of concept. For the 5.9 release, those
+ scripts are augmented with rpm- and dpkg-scripts used in test
+ builds against a variety of gnat- and system ncurses versions
+ as old as gnat 3.15 and ncurses 5.4 (see snapshots and
+ systems tested <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html">here</a>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>additional improvements were made for portability of the
+ ncurses examples, adding rpm- and dpkg-scripts for test-builds.
+ See <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">this
+ page</a> for snapshots and other information.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h1>Features of Ncurses</h1>
+
+ <p>The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V
+ Release 4) curses:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
+ documented).</li>
+
+ <li>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard
+ mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
+ automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.</li>
+
+ <li>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack
+ of windows with backing store, is included.</li>
+
+ <li>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a
+ uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is
+ included.</li>
+
+ <li>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data
+ collection through on-screen forms, is included.</li>
+
+ <li>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
+ implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
+ SVr4 curses uses.</li>
+
+ <li>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
+ entries for use with less capable
+ <strong>curses</strong>/<strong>terminfo</strong> versions such
+ as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over
+ SVr4:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>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, 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).</li>
+
+ <li>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the
+ rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if your terminal has
+ an insert-character capability.</li>
+
+ <li>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</li>
+
+ <li>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
+ FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</li>
+
+ <li>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
+ package.</li>
+
+ <li>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
+ windows, preserving their data.</li>
+
+ <li>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
+ use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
+ achieving the effect of transparent colors.</li>
+
+ <li>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
+ <code>define_key</code> 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.</li>
+
+ <li>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when
+ configured using the <code>--enable-ext-colors</code>
+ option.</li>
+
+ <li>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
+ and <em>modern xterm</em>.</li>
+
+ <li>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
+ features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
+ than either BSD's or System V's.</li>
+
+ <li>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
+ 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 <code>quickch</code>
+ routine.</li>
+
+ <li>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
+ beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
+ character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
+ when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
+ without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</li>
+
+ <li>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
+ pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
+ those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file
+ is accessible (this may be useful for support of
+ screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
+ mode).</li>
+
+ <li>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
+ ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
+ AT&T extension sets.</li>
+
+ <li>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.</li>
+
+ <li>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read
+ terminfo entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile
+ to that directory if it exists and the user has no write access
+ to the system directory. This feature makes it easier for users
+ to have personal terminfo entries without giving up access to
+ the system terminfo directory.</li>
+
+ <li>You may specify a path of directories to search for
+ compiled descriptions with the environment variable
+ TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
+ TERMINFO under stock System V.)</li>
+
+ <li>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
+ just to other entries in the same source file (as in System V)
+ but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
+ directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</li>
+
+ <li>A script (<strong>capconvert</strong>) is provided to help
+ BSD users transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the
+ information in a TERMCAP environment variable and/or a
+ ~/.termcap local entries file and converts it to an equivalent
+ local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.</li>
+
+ <li>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled
+ in when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This
+ feature is neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it
+ unless you have to, but it's there.</li>
+
+ <li>The table-of-entries utility <strong>toe</strong> makes it
+ easy for users to see exactly what terminal types are available
+ on the system.</li>
+
+ <li>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
+ entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
+ (and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
+ disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
+ provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
+ interface.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h1>State of the Package</h1>
+
+ <p>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.</p>
+
+ <p>The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including (versions starting with those noted):</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt>cdk</dt>
+
+ <dd>Curses Development Kit<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
+
+ <a href=
+ "http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>ded</dt>
+
+ <dd>directory-editor<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>dialog</dt>
+
+ <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/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>lynx</dt>
+
+ <dd>the character-screen WWW browser<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>Midnight Commander</dt>
+
+ <dd>file manager<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://www.midnight-commander.org/">http://www.midnight-commander.org/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>mutt</dt>
+
+ <dd>mail utility<br>
+ <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>ncftp</dt>
+
+ <dd>file-transfer utility<br>
+ <a href="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>nvi</dt>
+
+ <dd>New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7
+ and later.<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi</a><br>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt>pinfo</dt>
+
+ <dd>Lynx-like info browser. <a href=
+ "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>tin</dt>
+
+ <dd>newsreader, supporting color, MIME <a href=
+ "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support
+ alone:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt>minicom</dt>
+
+ <dd>terminal emulator<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></dd>
+
+ <dt>vile</dt>
+
+ <dd>vi-like-emacs<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games).</p>
+
+ <h2>Who's Who and What's What</h2>
+
+ <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses,
+ written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
+ Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
+ Ongoing work is being done by <a href=
+ "mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</a>. Thomas
+ Dickey acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
+ which holds the copyright on ncurses. Contact the current
+ maintainers at <a href=
+ "mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>.</p>
+
+ <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
+ <code>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</code> containing the line:</p>
+ <pre>
subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
-</PRE>
-
-This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
-testing of this package.<P>
-
-Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A> .
-
-<H2>Future Plans</H2>
-<UL>
-<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
-<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
-</UL>
-We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
-on them, please join the ncurses list.
-
-<H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
-
-The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
-terminal description file once maintained by
-<A HREF="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric Raymond</A> .
-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.<P>
-
-You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
-not covered in the terminfo file at
-<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
-archive</A> .
-</BODY>
-</HTML>
-<!--
-# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
-# Local Variables:
-# mode:html
-# case-fold-search:nil
-# fill-column:70
-# End:
--->
+</pre>
+
+ <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
+ development and testing of this package.</p>
+
+ <p>Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release
+ are made available at <a href=
+ "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p>
+
+ <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
+ (also <a href=
+ "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
+
+ <h2>Future Plans</h2>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
+ support.</li>
+
+ <li>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>We need people to help with these projects. If you are
+ interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list.</p>
+
+ <h2>Other Related Resources</h2>
+
+ <p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
+ terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
+ <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
+ Raymond</a> . 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.</p>
+
+ <p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
+ not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
+ "http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
+ Richard Shuford's archive</a> .</p>
+</body>
+</html>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff