X-Git-Url: https://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=ANNOUNCE;h=11933c5f6d55f4f21e79e0829da3c801365977ce;hp=bbeeb8922d4724c0b184b8de901cfb0d99577bb5;hb=761e4f0825b330e970558e82a4bd638383914429;hpb=027ae42953e3186daed8f3882da73de48291b606;ds=inline diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE index bbeeb892..11933c5f 100644 --- a/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ - Announcing ncurses 5.6 + Announcing ncurses 5.9 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, @@ -27,205 +27,30 @@ Release Notes This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 - through 5.5; very few applications will require recompilation, + through 5.8; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the - change-log since ncurses 5.5 release. - - Interface changes: - * generate linkable stubs for some macros: - getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx, - getpary, getpary, - and (for libncursesw) - wgetbkgrnd - - New features and improvements: - * library - + support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions. This - uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for several - versions on different platforms. - + add use_legacy_coding() function to support lynx's - font-switching feature. - + add extension nofilter(), to cancel a prior filter() call. - + add/install a package config script, e.g., ncurses5-config or - ncursesw5-config, according to configuration options. - + provide ifdef for NCURSES_NOMACROS which suppresses most - macro definitions from curses.h, i.e., where a macro is - defined to override a function to improve performance. - + make ifdef's consistent in curses.h 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. - + improve tgetstr() by making the return value point into the - user's buffer, if provided. - + add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with tparm() using - either varargs (the existing status), or using a - fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open). - + widen the test for xterm kmous a little to allow for other - strings than "\E[M", e.g., for xterm-sco functionality in - xterm. - + modify wgetnstr() to return KEY_RESIZE if a sigwinch occurs. - + move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from - curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to - those if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is defined without ensuring - that is included. - + 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 --with-rpath option work except with $(DESTDIR). - + several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are only - available if the library is configured using - --enable-xmc-glitch. - + Add NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS and NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE - environment variables to allow runtime suppression of the - related hard-tabs and xmc-glitch features. - * programs: - + 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). - + modify tack to test extended capability function-key strings. - + modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via cgetent() - functions, or as a text file if those are not available. - + improve infocmp/tic -f option formatting. - + add toe -a option, to show all databases. This uses new - private interfaces in the ncurses library for iterating - through the list of databases. - + modify MKfallback.sh to use tic -x when constructing fallback - tables to allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a - fallback entry. - * terminal database - + add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome - terminal (mgt) - + add nsterm-16color entry - + updated mlterm terminfo entry - + add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry - + remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux - entry, since it does not really do this - + add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension - + add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri - strings - + add hpterm-color terminfo entry - + add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which - are reported to implement this feature - + correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made - codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style. - - Major bug fixes: - * correct a typo in configure --with-bool option for the case where - --without-cxx is used. - * move assignment from environment variable ESCDELAY from initscr() - down to newterm() so the environment variable affects timeouts for - terminals opened with newterm() as well. - * modify werase to clear multicolumn characters that extend into a - derived window. - * modify wchgat() to mark updated cells as changed so a refresh will - repaint those cells. - * correct logic in wadd_wch() and wecho_wch(), which did not guard - against passing the multi-column attribute into a call on - waddch(), e.g., using data returned by win_wch() - * fix redrawing of windows other than stdscr using wredrawln() by - touching the corresponding rows in curscr. - * reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to tgetent() by remembering - the last TERMINAL* value allocated to hold the corresponding data - and freeing that if the tgetent() result buffer is the same as the - previous call. - * modify read_termtype() so the term_names data is always allocated - as part of the str_table, a better fix for a memory leak. - * fix wins_nwstr(), which did not handle single-column non-8bit - codes. - * modify wbkgrnd() to avoid clearing the A_CHARTEXT attribute bits - since those record the state of multicolumn characters. - * improve SIGWINCH handling by postponing its effect during - newterm(), etc., when allocating screens. - * remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in - mvwin(). - * add checks in waddchnstr() and wadd_wchnstr() to stop copying when - a null character is found. - * add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling - region before scrolling on a new line. - * 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. - - Portability: - * configure script: - + new options: - - --with-hashed-db - Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo - data rather than storing each compiled entry in a - separate binary file within a directory tree. - - --without-dlsym - Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically. - - --with-valgrind - Simplify building for testing with valgrind. - - --enable-wgetch-events - Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. - - --enable-signed-char - Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char". - - + improved options: - - --disable-largefile - make the option work both ways. - - --with-gpm - The option now accepts a parameter, i.e., the name - of the dynamic GPM library to load via dlopen() - - --disable-symlinks - The option now allows one to disable symlink() in - tic even when link() does not work. - - * other configure/build issues: - + remove special case for Darwin in CF_XOPEN_SOURCE configure - macro. - + add configure check to ensure that SIGWINCH is defined on - platforms such as OS X which exclude that when _XOPEN_SOURCE, - etc., are defined - + use ld's -search_paths_first option on Darwin to work around - odd search rules on that platform. - + improve ifdef's for _POSIX_VDISABLE in tset to work with Mac - OS X. - + modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is - used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the - $(CFLAGS) variable is also used. - + use ${CC} rather than ${LD} in shared library rules for - IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure that initialization sections - are provided for extra linkage requirements, e.g., of C++ - applications. - + improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux, - FreeBSD and NetBSD to make --with-shlib-version work. - + split up dependency of names.c and codes.c in - ncurses/Makefile to work with parallel make. - + modify MKlib_gen.sh to change preprocessor-expanded _Bool - back to bool. - + modify progs/Makefile.in to make tput init work properly with - cygwin, i.e., do not pass a .exe in the reference string used - in check_aliases. - * library: - + ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that wcwidth() claims - are not one-column. This is a workaround for Solaris' broken - locale support. - + reduce name-pollution in term.h by removing #define's for - HAVE_xxx symbols. - + fix #ifdef in c++/internal.h for QNX 6.1 - * test programs: - + modify test/configure script to allow building test programs - with PDCurses/X11. - + 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. - + improved test/configure to build test/ncurses on HPUX 11 - using the vendor curses. - + change configure script to produce test/Makefile from data - file. + change-log since ncurses 5.8 release. + + This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent + problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release. + + It also improves the Ada95 binding: + * fixes a longstanding portability problem with its use of the + [3]set_field_type function. Because that function uses + variable-length argument lists, its interface with gnat does not + work with certain platforms. + * 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. + 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 + [4]here. + * additional improvements were made for portability of the ncurses + examples, adding rpm- and dpkg-scripts for test-builds. See + [5]this page for snapshots and other information. Features of Ncurses @@ -262,15 +87,17 @@ * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows. * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. - * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving + * The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving their data. - * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's + * The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of transparent colors. - * The functions keyok() and define_key() 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. + * The functions keyok and define_key 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. + * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when + configured using the --enable-ext-colors option. * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm. * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's @@ -279,7 +106,7 @@ 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. + powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch routine. * 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 @@ -342,59 +169,55 @@ cdk Curses Development Kit - [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ - [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ + [6]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ + [7]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ ded directory-editor - [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded/ + [8]http://invisible-island.net/ded/ dialog the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux. - [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ + [9]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ lynx the character-screen WWW browser - [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/ + [10]http://lynx.isc.org/release/ Midnight Commander file manager - [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ + [11]http://www.midnight-commander.org/ mutt mail utility - [9]http://www.mutt.org/ + [12]http://www.mutt.org/ ncftp file-transfer utility - [10]http://www.ncftp.com/ + [13]http://www.ncftp.com/ nvi New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later. - [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/ + [14]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi pinfo Lynx-like info browser. - [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/ + [15]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ tin - newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/ - - vh-1.6 - Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File - [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html + newsreader, supporting color, MIME [16]http://www.tin.org/ as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: minicom terminal emulator - [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ + [17]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ vile vi-like-emacs - [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile/ + [18]http://invisible-island.net/vile/ The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including a few games). @@ -404,9 +227,9 @@ Who's Who and What's What Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done - by [17]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the + by [19]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses. - Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. + Contact the current maintainers at [20]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line: @@ -416,7 +239,7 @@ Who's Who and What's What and testing of this package. Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made - available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . + available at [21]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . Future Plans @@ -430,34 +253,36 @@ Future Plans Other Related Resources The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format - terminal description file once maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike + terminal description file once maintained by [22]Eric Raymond . 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. You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not - covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive . + covered in the terminfo file at [23]Richard Shuford's archive . References 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ - 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ - 4. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ - 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ - 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ - 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ - 8. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ - 9. http://www.mutt.org/ - 10. http://www.ncftp.com/ - 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/ - 12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/ - 13. http://www.tin.org/ - 14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html - 15. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ - 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/ - 17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net - 18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org - 19. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ - 20. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/ - 21. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html + 3. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x + 4. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html + 5. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html + 6. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ + 7. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ + 8. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ + 9. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ + 10. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ + 11. http://www.midnight-commander.org/ + 12. http://www.mutt.org/ + 13. http://www.ncftp.com/ + 14. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi + 15. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ + 16. http://www.tin.org/ + 17. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ + 18. http://invisible-island.net/vile/ + 19. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net + 20. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org + 21. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ + 22. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/ + 23. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal