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-<HTML>
-<HEAD>
-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
-<link rev=made href="mailto:dickey@clark.net">
-</HEAD>
-<BODY>
-<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1>
+<html>
+<head>
+ <meta name="generator" content=
+ "HTML Tidy for Linux/x86 (vers 6 November 2007), see www.w3.org">
-The ncurses (new curses) library is a freeware emulation of System V
-Release 4.0 curses. It uses terminfo format, supports pads and color
-and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
-and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses. <P>
+ <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>
-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. <P>
+<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.
-The ncurses code was developed under Linux. It should port easily to
-any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp! <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>
-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 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 ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at:
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
-and
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses">ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses</A>.
-It is also carried on the GNU distribution site at <A HREF="ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu">ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu</A>.
-
-<H1>Features of ncurses</H1>
+ <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 package is fully compatible with SVr4 curses: <P>
-
-<UL>
-<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). <P>
-
-<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
-forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
-and function keys. <P>
-
-<LI>An emulation of the System V Release 4 panels library, supporting
-a stack of windows with backing store, is included. <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>
-<LI>An emulation of the System V Release 4 menus library, supporting
-a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included. <P>
+ It is also available at <a href=
+ "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p>
-<LI>An emulation of the System V Release 4 form library, supporting
-data collection through on-screen forms, is included. <P>
-
-<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
-are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses. <P>
-
-<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: <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,
-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). <P>
-
-<LI>Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
-of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. <P>
-
-<LI>(PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM characters
-0-32 through the highlight A_ALTCHARSET. <P>
-
-<LI>Support for mouse event reporting under xterm.<P>
-
-<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
-their data.
-
-<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
-cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
-or System V's. <P>
-
-<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. <P>
-
-<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). <P>
-
-<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. <P>
-
-<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. <P>
-
-<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
-entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
-if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
-This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
-without giving up access to the system terminfo directory. <P>
-
-<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
-descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
-generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.) <P>
-
-<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
-other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
-compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
-$HOME/.terminfo directory. <P>
-
-<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. <P>
-
-<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. <P>
-
-<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. <P>
-
-<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>. <P>
-
-<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: <P>
-<DL>
-<DT> ded
-<DD> directory-editor
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded</A>.
-<DT> dialog
-<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
-for similar applications on Linux.
-<DT> lynx-2.7
-<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
-<DT> ncftp 2.0
-<DD> file-transfer utility
-<DT> nvi
-<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
-<DT> taper
-<DD> tape archive utility
-<DT> vh-1.6
-<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
-</DL>
-as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
-<DL>
-<DT> minicom-1.75
-<DD> terminal emulator
-<DT> tin-unoff
-<DD> tin (unofficial) 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>.
-<DT> vile
-<DD> vi-like-emacs
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/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>
-
-The original maintainer of ncurses is <A
-HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A>. Unfortunately,
-he can only work on the package part time. As a result, since 1.8.1,
-much of the enhancement work and documentation has been done
-by <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
-The current primary maintainers are
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A>
-and
-<A HREF="mailto:Juergen.Pfeifer@T-Online.de">Juergen Pfeifer</A>.
-<P>
-
-There is an ncurses mailing list. It is a majordomo list; to join, write
-to <CODE>ncurses-request@mailgate.bsdi.com</CODE> with a message containing the line:
-<PRE>
+ <h1>Release Notes</h1>This release is designed to be upward
+ compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.7; very few applications
+ will require recompilation, depending on the platform. These are
+ the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.7 release.
+
+ <h2>Interface changes</h2>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>turn on <code>_XOPEN_CURSES</code> definition in
+ <code>curses.h</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>change <code>_nc_has_mouse</code> to
+ <code>has_mouse</code>, reflect its use in C++ and Ada95.</li>
+
+ <li>add <code>is_pad</code> and <code>is_subwin</code>
+ functions for opaque access to the WINDOW structure.</li>
+
+ <li>add <code>tiparm</code>, based on review of X/Open Curses
+ Issue 7.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2>New features and improvements</h2>
+
+ <h3>Library Improvements</h3>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>add a terminal driver for Windows console, which supports a
+ MinGW port to Windows.</li>
+
+ <li>add extended functions which specify the
+ <code>SCREEN</code> pointer for several curses functions which
+ use the global <code>SP</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>improve the <code>NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS</code> feature by
+ adding a check for an extended terminfo capability
+ <code>U8</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>improve performance of <code>tigetstr</code>, etc., by
+ using hashing code from tic.</li>
+
+ <li>add WACS_<em>xxx</em> definitions to wide-character
+ configuration for thick- and double-lines.</li>
+
+ <li>modify init_pair to allow caller to create extra color
+ pairs beyond the color_pairs limit, which use default
+ colors.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3>Improvements to Programs</h3>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>add <code>tabs</code> program.</li>
+
+ <li>modify tic's -I/-C dump to reformat acsc strings into
+ canonical form (sorted, unique mapping).</li>
+
+ <li>add checks in tic for inconsistent cursor-movement
+ controls, and for inconsistent printer-controls.</li>
+
+ <li>add special case to <code>_nc_infotocap</code> (used by tic
+ and infocmp) to recognize the
+ <code>setaf</code>/<code>setab</code> strings from
+ <code>xterm+256color</code> and <code>xterm+88color,</code> and
+ provide a reduced version which works with termcap.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3>Terminal Database</h3>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>added entries:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><code>bterm</code> terminfo entry, based on bogl
+ 0.1.18</li>
+
+ <li><code>cons25-debian</code> entry</li>
+
+ <li><code>eterm-color</code> entry</li>
+
+ <li><code>linux-16color</code></li>
+
+ <li><code>mlterm+256color</code> entry, for mlterm
+ 3.0.0</li>
+
+ <li>several screen-bce.<em>xxx</em> entries</li>
+
+ <li><code>screen.Eterm</code> terminfo entry</li>
+
+ <li><code>vwmterm</code> entry</li>
+
+ <li><code>xterm-utf8</code> entry as a demo of the
+ <code>U8</code> feature</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>updated/improved entries:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>use extended capabilities:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>add <code>U8</code> feature to denote entries for
+ terminal emulators which do not support VT100 SI/SO
+ when processing UTF-8 encoding</li>
+
+ <li>add <code>XT</code> capability to entries for
+ terminals that support both xterm-style mouse- and
+ title-controls, for <code>screen</code> which
+ special-cases TERM beginning with <code>xterm</code> or
+ <code>rxvt</code></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>improvements based on new checks in tic:</li>
+
+ <li style="list-style: none; display: inline">
+ <ul>
+ <li>fill in no-parameter forms of cursor-movement where
+ a parameterized form is available</li>
+
+ <li>fill in missing cursor controls where the form of
+ the controls is ANSI</li>
+
+ <li>add parameterized cursor-controls to
+ linux-basic</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>nsterm,</code> <code>xnuppc</code> and
+ <code>tek4115</code> to make
+ <code>sgr</code>/<code>sgr0</code> consistent</li>
+
+ <li>change several terminfo entries to make consistent
+ use of ANSI clear-all-tabs</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>extend <code>ansi.sys</code> <code>pfkey</code>
+ capability from kf1-kf10 to kf1-kf48, moving function key
+ definitions from <code>emx-base</code> for
+ consistency.</li>
+
+ <li>correct missing final 'p' in <code>pfkey</code>
+ capability of <code>ansi.sys-old</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>rename <code>atari</code> and <code>st52</code>
+ terminfo entries to atari-old, st52-old, use newer entries
+ from FreeMiNT.</li>
+
+ <li>repurpose <code>gnome</code> terminfo entries as
+ <code>vte</code>, retaining <code>gnome</code> variants for
+ compatibility, but generally deprecating those since the
+ VTE library is what actually defines the behavior of
+ "gnome", etc., since 2003.</li>
+
+ <li>improve <code>interix</code> <code>smso</code> terminfo
+ capability by using reverse rather than bold.</li>
+
+ <li>correct <code>initc</code> capability of
+ <code>linux-c-nc</code> end-of-range, make similar change
+ for <code>dg+ccc</code> and <code>dgunix+ccc</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>update <code>minix</code> terminfo entry.</li>
+
+ <li>updated <code>nsterm*</code> entries.</li>
+
+ <li>remove unnecessary <code>kcan</code> assignment to
+ <code>^C</code> from <code>putty</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>suppress <code>ncv</code> in <code>screen</code> and
+ <code>konsole-base</code> entries, allowing underline.</li>
+
+ <li>change ncv and op capabilities in
+ <code>sun-color</code> terminfo entry to match Sun's entry
+ for this.</li>
+
+ <li>fix typo in <code>rmso</code> for <code>tek4106</code>
+ entry.</li>
+
+ <li>improve <code>acsc</code> string for <code>vt52</code>,
+ show arrow keys.</li>
+
+ <li>add hard-reset for <code>rs2</code> to
+ <code>wsvt25</code> to help ensure that reset ends the
+ alternate character set.</li>
+
+ <li>add <code>ccc</code> and <code>initc</code>
+ capabilities to <code>xterm-16color</code>.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2>Major bug fixes</h2>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>ncurses library
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>wide character support
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>modify length returned by <code>getcchar</code> to
+ count the trailing null which is documented in
+ X/Open.</li>
+
+ <li>fix an infinite recursion when adding a
+ legacy-coding 8-bit value using
+ <code>insch</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>improve a workaround in adding wide-characters,
+ when a control character is found. The library uses
+ <code>unctrl</code> to obtain a printable version of
+ the control character, but was not passing color or
+ video attributes.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>waddch_literal</code>, updating
+ line-pointer after a multicolumn character is found to
+ not fit on the current row, and wrapping is done. Since
+ the line-pointer was not updated, the wrapped
+ multicolumn character was written to the beginning of
+ the current row.</li>
+
+ <li>fixes in <code>wins_nwstr</code> and related
+ functions to ensure that special characters, i.e.,
+ control characters are handled properly with the
+ wide-character configuration.</li>
+
+ <li>correct internal <code>_nc_insert_ch</code> to use
+ <code>_nc_insert_wch</code> when inserting wide
+ characters, since the <code>wins_wch</code> function
+ that it used did not update the cursor position.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>mouse
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>add check if <code>Gpm_Open</code> returns a -2,
+ e.g., for "xterm". This is normally suppressed but can
+ be overridden using <code>$NCURSES_GPM_TERMS</code>.
+ Ensure that <code>Gpm_Close</code> is called in this
+ case.</li>
+
+ <li>add check in mouse-driver to disable connection if
+ GPM returns a zero, indicating that the connection is
+ closed.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>getmouse</code> to act as its
+ documentation implied, returning on each call the
+ preceding event until none are left. When no more
+ events remain, it will return <code>ERR</code>.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>miscellaneous
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>improve handling of color-pairs embedded in
+ attributes for the extended-colors configuration.</li>
+
+ <li>add check for failure to open hashed-database
+ needed for db4.6.</li>
+
+ <li>modify use of <code>$CC</code> environment variable
+ which is defined by X/Open as a curses feature, to
+ ignore it if it is not a single character.</li>
+
+ <li>modify declaration of <code>cur_term</code> when
+ broken-linker is used, but enable-reentrant is not, to
+ match pre-5.7.</li>
+
+ <li>correct limit-checks in <code>derwin</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>remove old check in <code>mvderwin</code> which
+ prevented moving a derived window whose origin happened
+ to coincide with its parent's origin.</li>
+
+ <li>correct limit-checks in <code>newwin</code>, to
+ ensure that windows have nonzero size.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>set_curterm</code> to make
+ broken-linker configuration work with changes from
+ 20090228.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>wgetch</code> to ensure it checks
+ <code>SIGWINCH</code> when it gets an error in
+ non-blocking mode.</li>
+
+ <li>correct limit-check in <code>wredrawln</code>,
+ accounting for <code>begy</code>/<code>begx</code>
+ values.</li>
+
+ <li>fix a null-pointer check in
+ <code>_nc_format_slks</code> in lib_slk.c, from
+ 20070704 changes.</li>
+
+ <li>correct translation of "^" in
+ <code>_nc_infotocap</code>, used to transform terminfo
+ to termcap strings.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>_nc_wgetch</code> to check for a -1 in
+ the fifo, e.g., after a <code>SIGWINCH</code>, and
+ discard that value, to avoid confusing
+ application.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>other libraries
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>correct transfer of multicolumn characters in multirow
+ <code>field_buffer</code>, which stopped at the end of the
+ first row due to filling of unused entries in a cchar_t
+ array with nulls.</li>
+
+ <li>correct buffer-size after internal resizing of
+ wide-character <code>set_field_buffer</code>, broken in
+ 20081018 changes.</li>
+
+ <li>correct layout of working window used to extract data
+ in wide-character configured by
+ <code>set_field_buffer</code></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2>Portability</h2>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>configure script:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>new options:
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt>--disable-libtool-version</dt>
+
+ <dd>use the "-version-number" feature which was added
+ in libtool 1.5. The default value for the option uses
+ the newer feature, which makes libraries generated
+ using libtool compatible with the standard builds of
+ ncurses.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--disable-rpath-hack</dt>
+
+ <dd>disable a feature which adds rpath options for
+ libraries in unusual places.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--enable-interop</dt>
+
+ <dd>integrate changes for generic/interop support to
+ form-library.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--enable-pc-files</dt>
+
+ <dd>generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and
+ install them in <code>pkg-config</code>'s library
+ directory.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--enable-pthreads-eintr</dt>
+
+ <dd>control whether to allow <code>EINTR</code> to
+ interrupt a read operation in <code>wgetch</code>. This
+ applies only to the pthread configuration</dd>
+
+ <dt>--enable-sp-funcs</dt>
+
+ <dd>compile-in support for extended functions which
+ accept a <code>SCREEN</code> pointer, reducing the need
+ for juggling the global <code>SP</code> value with
+ <code>set_term</code> and <code>delscreen</code>.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--enable-term-driver</dt>
+
+ <dd>compile with terminal-driver. That is used in the
+ MinGW port, and (being somewhat more complicated) is an
+ experimental alternative to the conventional termlib
+ internals. Currently, it requires the sp-funcs feature
+ to be enabled.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--with-ncurses-wrap-prefix</dt>
+
+ <dd>allows setting the prefix for functions used to
+ wrap global variables to something other than
+ "<code>_nc_</code>".</dd>
+
+ <dt>--with-pkg-config=[DIR]</dt>
+
+ <dd>check for <code>pkg-config</code>, optionally
+ specifying its path.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--without-manpages</dt>
+
+ <dd>tells the configure script to suppress the install
+ of ncurses' manpages.</dd>
+
+ <dt>--without-tests</dt>
+
+ <dd>suppress building test programs.</dd>
+ </dl>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>improved options:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>correct logic for <code>--with-database</code>,
+ which was coded as an enable-type switch.</li>
+
+ <li>omit the opaque-functions from
+ <code>lib_gen.o</code> when
+ <code>--disable-ext-funcs</code> is used.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>packaging:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>*-config scripts:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>modify <code>adacurses-config</code> to look for
+ ".ali" files in the adalib directory.</li>
+
+ <li>correct install for the Ada95 tree, which omitted
+ <code>libAdaCurses.a</code> used in
+ <code>adacurses-config</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>change install for <code>adacurses-config</code> to
+ provide additional flavors such as
+ <code>adacursesw-config</code>, for ncursesw.</li>
+
+ <li>modify scripts to generate
+ <code>ncurses*-config</code> and pc-files to add
+ dependency for tinfo library.</li>
+
+ <li>use <code>ncurses*-config</code> scripts if
+ available for test/configure.</li>
+
+ <li>correct name for termlib in
+ <code>ncurses*-config</code>, e.g., if it is renamed to
+ provide a single file for ncurses/ncursesw
+ libraries.</li>
+
+ <li>generate manpages for the *-config scripts, adapted
+ from <code>help2man</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>modify install-rule for manpages so that *-config
+ manpages will install when building with
+ <code>--srcdir</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>build-fixes for OpenSolaris aka Solaris 11, for
+ wide-character configuration as well as for rpath
+ feature in *-config scripts.</li>
+
+ <li>use <code>$includedir</code> symbol in
+ <code>misc/ncurses-config.in</code>, add
+ <code>--includedir</code> option.</li>
+
+ <li>improve install-rules for pc-files.</li>
+
+ <li>create the <code>pkg-config</code> library
+ directory if needed.</li>
+
+ <li>fix typo "<code>==</code>" where "<code>=</code>"
+ is needed in <code>ncurses-config.in</code> and
+ <code>gen-pkgconfig.in</code> files.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>gen-pkgconfig.in</code> to eliminate a
+ dependency on rpath when deciding whether to add
+ <code>$LIBS</code> to <code>--libs</code> output; that
+ should be shown for the ncurses and tinfo libraries
+ without taking rpath into account.</li>
+
+ <li>modify handling of <code>$PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR</code>
+ to use only the first item in a possibly
+ colon-separated list.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>other packaging issues
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>add <code>make-tar.sh</code> scripts to Ada95 and
+ test subdirectories to help with making those
+ separately distributable.</li>
+
+ <li>add <code>Ada95/configure</code> script, to use in
+ tar-file created by
+ <code>Ada95/make-tar.sh</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>remove <code>tar-copy.sh</code> and related
+ <code>configure/Makefile</code> chunks, since the Ada95
+ binding is now installed using rules in
+ <code>Ada95/src</code>.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>cross-compiling:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>improve configure checks for location of tic and
+ infocmp programs used for installing database and for
+ generating fallback data, e.g., for cross-compiling.</li>
+
+ <li>modify #define's for build-compiler to suppress cchar_t
+ symbol from compile of <code>make_hash</code> and
+ <code>make_keys</code>, improving cross-compilation of
+ ncursesw.</li>
+
+ <li>simplify include-dependencies of <code>make_hash</code>
+ and <code>make_keys</code>, to reduce the need for setting
+ BUILD_CPPFLAGS in cross-compiling when the build- and
+ target-machines differ.</li>
+
+ <li>correct cross-compiling configure check for
+ <code>CF_MKSTEMP</code> macro, by adding a check cache
+ variable set by <code>AC_CHECK_FUNC</code>.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>library dependencies:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>revise <code>wadd_wch</code> and
+ <code>wecho_wchar</code> to eliminate dependency on
+ <code>unctrl</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>adjust configure script so that "t" is not added to
+ library suffix when weak-symbols are used, allowing the
+ pthread configuration to more closely match the non-thread
+ naming.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>building the Ada95 tree:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>changes to use gnatmake project files in the Ada95
+ tree.</li>
+
+ <li>add/use configure check to turn on project rules for
+ <code>Ada95/src</code>.</li>
+
+ <li>old gnatmake (3.15) does not produce libraries using
+ project-file; work around by adding script to generate
+ alternate makefile.</li>
+
+ <li>add configure --with-ada-sharedlib option, for the
+ test_make rule.</li>
+
+ <li>move Ada95-related logic into aclocal.m4, since
+ additional checks will be needed to distinguish old/new
+ implementations of gnat.</li>
+
+ <li>add test_make / test_clean / test_install rules in
+ Ada95/src</li>
+
+ <li>change install-path for adainclude directory to
+ /usr/share/ada (was /usr/lib/ada).</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>other configure/build issues:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>make <code>CCHARW_MAX</code> value configurable, noting
+ that changing this would change the size of
+ <code>cchar_t</code>, and would be ABI-incompatible.</li>
+
+ <li>improve comparison of program-names when checking for
+ linked flavors such as "reset" by ignoring the executable
+ suffix.</li>
+
+ <li>drop <code>mkdirs.sh</code>, use
+ "<code>mkdir -p</code>".</li>
+
+ <li>drop <code>misc/ncu-indent</code> and
+ <code>misc/jpf-indent</code>; they are provided by an
+ external package <a href=
+ "http://invisible-island.net/cindent/cindent.html">cindent</a>.</li>
+
+ <li>change makefiles to use <code>$ARFLAGS</code> rather
+ than <code>$AR_OPTS</code>, provide a configure check to
+ detect whether a "-" is needed before "ar" options.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>CF_DISABLE_LEAKS</code> configure macro so
+ that the --enable-leaks option is not the same as
+ --disable-leaks.</li>
+
+ <li>improve configure script macros
+ <code>CF_HEADER_PATH</code> and
+ <code>CF_LIBRARY_PATH</code> by adding <code>CFLAGS</code>,
+ <code>CPPFLAGS</code> and <code>LDFLAGS</code>,
+ <code>LIBS</code> values to the search-lists.</li>
+
+ <li>improve configure macros <code>CF_GCC_VERSION</code>
+ and <code>CF_GCC_WARNINGS</code> to work with gcc 4.x's c89
+ alias, which gives warning messages for cases where older
+ versions would produce an error.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>CF_WITH_LIBTOOL</code> configure check to
+ allow unreleased libtool version numbers (e.g. which
+ include alphabetic chars, as well as digits, after the
+ final '.').</li>
+
+ <li>improve use of symbolic links in makefiles by using
+ "<code>-f</code>" option if it is supported, to eliminate
+ temporary removal of the target</li>
+
+ <li>add a configure-time check to pick a suitable value for
+ <code>CC_SHARED_OPTS</code> for Solaris.</li>
+
+ <li>add -shared option to <code>MK_SHARED_LIB</code> when
+ -Bsharable is used, for *BSD's, without which "main" might
+ be one of the shared library's dependencies.</li>
+
+ <li>modify configure script to allow building shared
+ libraries with gcc on AIX 5 or 6.</li>
+
+ <li>suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker
+ flags for gcc on Solaris 10, since gcc is confused by
+ absence of static libc, and does not switch back to dynamic
+ mode before finishing the libraries.</li>
+
+ <li>suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker
+ flags for gcc on Darwin.</li>
+
+ <li>modify <code>misc/run_tic.in</code> to create parent
+ directory, in case this is a new install of hashed
+ database.</li>
+
+ <li>modify configure check for tic program, used for
+ fallbacks, to a warning if not found. This makes it simpler
+ to use additonal scripts to bootstrap the fallbacks code
+ using tic from the build tree.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>test programs:
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>add test/demo_terminfo, for comparison with
+ demo_termcap.</li>
+
+ <li>improve test/ncurses.c 'F' test, show combining
+ characters in color.</li>
+
+ <li>fix logic for 'V' in test/ncurses.c tests f/F.</li>
+
+ <li>improve test/ncurses.c 'a test to put mouse droppings
+ in the proper window.</li>
+
+ <li>modify ncurses 'F' test to demo wborder_set with
+ colored lines.</li>
+
+ <li>modify ncurses 'f' test to demo wborder with colored
+ lines.</li>
+
+ <li>improve test/ncurses.c 'a' test, using unctrl more
+ consistently to display meta-characters.</li>
+
+ <li>correct use of <code>key_name</code> in test/ncurses.c
+ 'A' test, which only displays wide-characters, not
+ key-codes since 20070612.</li>
+
+ <li>add test/clip_printw.c to illustrate how to use printw
+ without wrapping.</li>
+
+ <li>modify test-programs, e.g,. test/view.c, to address
+ subtle differences between Tru64/Solaris and HPUX/AIX
+ getcchar return values.</li>
+
+ <li>add some test programs (and make these use the same
+ special keys by sharing <code>linedata.h</code> functions):
+ test/test_addstr.c test/test_addwstr.c test/test_addchstr.c
+ test/test_add_wchstr.c</li>
+
+ <li>add test/xterm-256color.dat</li>
+
+ <li>modify test programs to allow them to be built with
+ NetBSD curses.</li>
+
+ <li>fixes for test programs to build/work on HPUX and AIX,
+ etc.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </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>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>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>
+
+ <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>as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support
+ alone:
+
+ <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>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:</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://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>.
-
-<H2>Future Plans</H2>
-<UL>
-<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
-<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. <P>
-<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>The terminfo/termcap Database</H2>
-
-The distribution includes and uses a copy of the terminfo-format
-terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
-
-You can download either the
-<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/terminfo/termtypes.tc.gz">termcap</A>
-or
-<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/terminfo/termtypes.ti.gz">terminfo</A>
-versions of the terminal-type
-database from Eric's ncurses page,
-<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html">http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html</A>. <P>
-
-<H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
-
-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>
+
+ <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>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://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
+ Richard Shuford's archive</a> .</p>
+</body>
+</html>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff