-differ from termcap's, \fBtputs("50");\fR will put out a literal \*(``50\*('' rather
-than busy-waiting for 50 milliseconds.
-Cope with it.
+differ from termcap's,
+users can be surprised:
+.bP
+\fBtputs("50")\fR in a terminfo system will put out a literal \*(``50\*(''
+rather than busy-waiting for 50 milliseconds.
+.bP
+However, if ncurses is configured to support termcap,
+it may also have been configured to support the BSD-style padding.
+.IP
+In that case, \fBtputs\fP inspects strings passed to it,
+looking for digits at the beginning of the string.
+.IP
+\fBtputs("50")\fR in a termcap system may wait for 50 milliseconds
+rather than put out a literal \*(``50\*(''