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-<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">
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-<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 5.4;
-very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
-These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.4 release.
-<p>
-Interface changes:
-<ul>
- <li>terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
- "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
- <li>terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
- still use ncurses 4.2).
+<html>
+<head>
+ <meta name="generator" content=
+ "HTML Tidy for Linux/x86 (vers 6 November 2007), see www.w3.org">
+
+ <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
+ <link rev="made" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
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+
+<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>
+
+ <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>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>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>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>
+
+ <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>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>
+
+ <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>modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
- initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
- still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
- compilers.
+ <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>modify parameter type in c++ binding for insch() and mvwinsch() to
- be consistent with underlying ncurses library (was char, is chtype).
+ <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>change NCursesWindow::err_handler() to a virtual function.
+ <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>form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
- Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
- FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw,
- since that no longer points to an array of char. The
- set_field_buffer() and field_buffer() functions translate to/from
- the actual field data.
+ <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>add symbol to curses.h which can be used to suppress include of
- stdbool.h, e.g.,
- <pre>
- #define NCURSES_ENABLE_STDBOOL_H 0
- #include <curses.h>
- </pre>
+ <li>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
+ provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
+ interface.</li>
+ </ul>
- <li>change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure
- that libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason
- for this is that the corresponding data which belongs to the
- upper-level ncurses library has a different size in each model.
+ <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):</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>
- <li>winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
- wide-character configuration.
+ <dd>the character-screen WWW browser<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</a></dd>
- <li>assume_default_colors() no longer requires that
- use_default_colors() be called first.
+ <dt>Midnight Commander</dt>
- <li>data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
+ <dd>file manager<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://www.midnight-commander.org/">http://www.midnight-commander.org/</a></dd>
- <li>slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
- multicolumn characters.
+ <dt>mutt</dt>
- <li>start_color() now returns OK if colors have
- already been started.
- start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
+ <dd>mail utility<br>
+ <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></dd>
- <li>pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair()
- if it corresponds to the default-color.
+ <dt>ncftp</dt>
- <li>unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
- to an unsigned char.
+ <dd>file-transfer utility<br>
+ <a href="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</a></dd>
-</ul>
-New features and improvements:
-<ul>
- <li>library
- <ul>
- <li>environment variable NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS supports
- miscellaneous terminal emulators which ignore alternate
- character set escape sequences when in UTF-8 mode.
+ <dt>nvi</dt>
- <li>modify initialization of key lookup table so that if an extended
- capability (tic -x) string is defined, and its name begins with 'k',
- ncurses will automatically treat it as a key.
+ <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>
- <li>change GPM initialization, using dl library to load it
- dynamically at runtime.
+ <dt>pinfo</dt>
- <li>form, menu and panel libraries support debug-tracing.
+ <dd>Lynx-like info browser. <a href=
+ "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/</a></dd>
- </ul>
+ <dt>tin</dt>
- <li>add NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html by Pradeep Padala
- (see http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/).
+ <dd>newsreader, supporting color, MIME <a href=
+ "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></dd>
+ </dl>as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support
+ alone:
- <li>programs:
+ <dl>
+ <dt>minicom</dt>
- <li>infocmp:
- <ul>
- <li>The -i option now matches 8-bit controls against its table
- entries, e.g., so it can analyze the xterm-8bit entry.
+ <dd>terminal emulator<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></dd>
- <li>add "-x" option to infocmp like tic's "-x", for use in "-F"
- comparisons. This modifies infocmp to only report extended
- capabilities if the -x option is given, making this more
- consistent with tic. Some scripts may break, since infocmp
- previous gave this information without an option.
+ <dt>vile</dt>
- </ul>
+ <dd>vi-like-emacs<br>
+ <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></dd>
+ </dl>
- <li>tic:
+ <p>The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games).</p>
- <ul>
+ <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>.
- <li>modify termcap-parsing to retain 2-character aliases at the
- beginning of an entry if the "-x" option is used in tic.
-
- <li>filter out long extended names when translating to termcap
- format. Only two characters are permissible for termcap
- capability names.
-
- <li>correct translation of "%%" in terminfo format to termcap,
- e.g., using "tic -C".
-
- <li>modify the "-c -v" options to ignore delays when comparing
- strings. Also modify it to ignore a canceled sgr string,
- e.g., for terminals which cannot properly combine attributes
- in one control sequence.
-
- <li>add a check for improperly ended strings, i.e., where a
- following line begins in column 1.
-
- <li>add a check in tic for terminfo entries having an sgr0 but no
- sgr string. This confuses Tru64 and HPUX curses when combined
- with color, e.g., making them leave line-drawing characters in
- odd places.
-
- <li>add check (with debug configuration) that provides about the
- runtime changes that would be made to sgr0 for termcap
- applications.
-
- </ul>
-
- <li>tset:
-
- <ul>
-
- <li>add -c and -w options to allow user to suppress ncurses'
- resizing of the terminal emulator window in the special case
- where it is not able to detect the true size.
-
- </ul>
-
-</ul>
-Major bug fixes:
-<ul>
-
- <li>improve logic in tgetent() which adjusts the termcap "me" string
- to work with ISO-2022 string used in xterm-new.
- This is a feature that was incompletely implemented in ncurses 5.3.
- ncurses attempts to provide termcap clients with the portion of
- the sgr0 (termcap "me") string that does not reset line-drawing.
-
- <li>cells in the WINDOW which are continuations of a multicolumn
- character are encoded differently, making repainting more
- reliable.
-
- <li>amend change to setupterm() in ncurses 5.4 (20030405) which would
- reuse the value of cur_term if the same output was selected. This
- now reuses it only when setupterm() is called from tgetent(),
- which has no notion of separate SCREENs. Note that tgetent() must
- be called after initscr() or newterm() to use this feature.
+ <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>
- <li>make setcchar() now works when its wchar_t* parameter is
- pointing to a string which contains more data than can be converted.
+ <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
+ development and testing of this package.</p>
- <li>win_wchnstr() now works for more than one cell.
+ <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>
- <li>resizeterm() now processes all levels of window hierarchy.
+ <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
- <li>disable GPM mouse support when $TERM happens to be prefixed with
- "xterm". Gpm_Open() would otherwise assert that it can deal with
- mouse events in this case.
+ <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>
- <li>add SP->_screen_acs_map[], used to ensure that mapping of missing
- line-drawing characters is handled properly. For example, ACS_DARROW
- is absent from xterm-new, and it was coincidentally displayed the
- same as ACS_BTEE.
+ <h2>Future Plans</h2>
-</ul>
+ <ul>
+ <li>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
+ support.</li>
-Portability:
-<ul>
- <li>configure script:
- <ul>
- <li>new options:
- <dl>
- <dt>--enable-largefile
- <dd>set compiler and linker flags to use largefile support.
+ <li>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.</li>
+ </ul>We need people to help with these projects. If you are
+ interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list.
- <dt>--enable-ext-colors
- <dd>Allow encoding of 256 foreground
- and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
- xterm-88color terminfo entries.
- This requires ABI 6 because it changes the size of cchar_t.
+ <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.
- <dt>--enable-ext-mouse
- <dd>This defines NCURSES_MOUSE_VERSION 2, and modifies the encoding of
- mouse events to support wheel mice, which may transmit buttons
- 4 and 5. This works with xterm and similar terminal
- emulators.
- This requires ABI 6 because it changes the encoding of
- mouse events.
-
- <dt>--with-chtype
- <dd>overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of chtype
-
- <dt>--with-mmask-t
- <dd>overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of mmask_t
-
- <dt>--without-xterm-new
- <dd>Installs "xterm-old" as the "xterm" entry of the terminfo
- database.
-
- </dl>
-
- <li>The --with-termlib option now accepts a value which sets
- the name of the terminfo library. This would allow a packager to
- build libtinfow.so renamed to coincide with libtinfo.so
-
- <li>fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
-
- <ul>
- <li>suppress $suffix in misc/run_tic.sh when cross-compiling.
- This allows cross-compiles to use the host's tic program to
- handle the "make install.data" step.
-
- <li>correct BUILD_CPPFLAGS substitution in ncurses/Makefile.in, to allow
- cross-compiling from a separate directory tree.
-
- </ul>
-
- </ul>
-
- <li>library:
- <ul>
-
- <li>add ifdef's for _LP64 in curses.h to avoid using wasteful
- 64-bits for chtype and mmask_t, but add configure option
- --disable-lp64 in case anyone used that configuration.
-
- <li>modify C++ binding to use some C internal functions to make it
- compile properly on Solaris (and other platforms).
-
- <li>remove check in newwin() that prevents allocating windows that
- extend beyond the screen (Solaris does this).
-
- <li>check for <code>nl_langinfo(CODESET)</code>, use it if available.
- This replaces ad hoc tests of environment variables to
- check if the terminal is setup for UTF-8 encoding.
- Applications which do not call <code>setlocale()</code>
- should be corrected, to make them work properly with
- UTF-8 encoding.
- <br>
- <strong>In particular, applications which assume (and
- do not call <code>setlocale()</code>) that
- Latin-1 codes are printable will no longer work in
- a UTF-8 locale since the ad hoc check of environment
- variables to see if the locale was UTF-8 is not used
- when <code>nl_langinfo(CODESET)</code> is available.</strong>
-
- <li>use setlocale() to query the program's current locale rather
- than using getenv(). This supports applications which rely
- upon legacy treatment of 8-bit characters when the locale is
- not initialized.
-
- </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,
-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).
-<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 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 XFree86 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://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html</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>
- 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 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.<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:
--->
+ <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>
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