X-Git-Url: https://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=ANNOUNCE;h=5ef8f3c2f963c630fadb54c58d3fdbce3be2437e;hp=3383dedd993ffd346059f69868e163dbfb7a4ed4;hb=b1f61d9f3aa244512045a6b02e759825d7049d34;hpb=661078ddbde3ce0f3b06e95642fbb9b5fef7dca1 diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE index 3383dedd..5ef8f3c2 100644 --- a/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,33 +1,133 @@ - Announcing ncurses 4.2 - - 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. - + Announcing ncurses 5.1 + + 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. + 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. - - 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! - + + The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily + to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 + Warp! + 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. - + The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU - distribution site [1]ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu. It is also - available at [2]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses. - - Features of ncurses - + distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses. + It is also available at [2]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses. + + Release Notes + + This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0; + very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the + platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses + 5.0 release. + + Interface changes: + * made the extended terminal capabilities + (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature (though the + configure script can disable it, it is built by default). + * removed the trace() function and related trace support from the + production library. This is the only interface change that may + cause problems with existing applications linked to shared + libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number. + * explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were + implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly + initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems + linking on some platforms. + * modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict + with C++ STL. + + New features: + * added a new extension, assume_default_colors() to provide better + control over the use of default colors. This is the principal + visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding versions. The + new extension allows an application to specify what colors pair 0 + uses. + NOTE: Pair 0 defaults to white on black unless you have invoked + use_default_colors() or set it via assume_default_colors(). An + application that calls start_colors() without setting the + background color will consistently have a black background no + matter what color your terminal's background actually is. + * made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and have + been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning. + This builds on the extension use_extended_names() by adding + "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src + + modified tic so that if extended names (i.e., + configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then tic -x will + also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the + terminfo source. + + added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to + applicable terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check + for a small improvement in setting default colors. + + add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out + capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g., + captoinfo and infotocap. + * implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm: + + if the configure --enable-widec option is given, append 'w' + to names of the generated libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so) to + avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries. + + add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental + wide-character support. If any of the environment variables + LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this + driver will be used to translate the output to UTF-8. + + modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text. + * modify raw() and noraw() to clear/restore IEXTEN flag which + affects stty lnext on systems such as FreeBSD + * reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to + run in xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped + test for $DISPLAY in favor of the terminfo capability kmous=\E[M + or if $TERM environment variable contains "xterm". + * added configure option --with-manpage-symlinks, which provides for + fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links for the + aliases. + * changed unctrl() to render C1 characters (128-159) as ~@, ~A, etc. + * add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for + $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm. + * made the infocmp -F option less verbose. + * dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current). + + Major bug fixes: + * modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated + fallback.c type for Booleans agrees with term.h + * documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2 + and 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL. + * corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A + negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call + to wait indefinitely. + * made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in + delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo + to specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud + rate could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding + characters. + * modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right + corner, rather than displaying only the first character written + until the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can + update the lower-right corner, and behave this way. + * modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for + carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella). + * corrected offsets used for subwindows in wresize() + * modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined + to a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++ + compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option + * corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM + mouse support when poll() is used rather than select(). + * made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion, + improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details. + + Features of Ncurses + The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses: - * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, @@ -45,23 +145,21 @@ * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports. - + The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: - * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN - curses specification, XSI Curses (that is, it implements all BASE + 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). - * Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost + * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. - * (PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM - characters 0-32 through the highlight A_ALTCHARSET. * Ada95 and C++ bindings. - * Support for mouse event reporting under xterm. + * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 + console windows. * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving their data. @@ -129,111 +227,138 @@ * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface. - + State of the Package - + 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. - + The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications - including: - + including (versions starting with those noted): + + cdk + Curses Development Kit + [3]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html + [4]http://dickey.his.com/cdk. + ded - directory-editor [3]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded. - + directory-editor + [5]http://dickey.his.com/ded. + dialog the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the - basis for similar applications on Linux. - - lynx-2.7 + basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux. + [6]http://dickey.his.com/dialog. + + lynx the character-screen WWW browser - + [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release. + Midnight Commander 4.1 file manager - - mutt 0.88 + [8]www.gnome.org/mc/. + + mutt mail utility - - ncftp 2.0 + [9]http://www.mutt.org. + + ncftp file-transfer utility - + [10]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/. + + tin + newsreader, supporting color, MIME + [12]http://www.tin.org. + taper tape archive utility - + [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/. + vh-1.6 Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File - + [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html. + as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: - - minicom-1.75 + + minicom terminal emulator - - tin-unoff - tin 1.4 newsreader, supporting color, MIME - [4]ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff. - + [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html. + vile - vi-like-emacs [5]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile. - + vi-like-emacs + [16]http://dickey.his.com/vile. + The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including a few games). - + Who's Who and What's What - The original developers of ncurses are [6]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [7]Eric - S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [8]Thomas Dickey and - [9]Jürgen Pfeifer. [10]Florian La Roche acts as the maintainer for the + The original developers of ncurses are [17]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [18]Eric + S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and + [20]Jürgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses. - Contact the current maintainers at [11]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. - + Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. + To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line: subscribe @ This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and testing of this package. - + Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made - available at [12]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses. - + available at [23]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses. + Future Plans * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. - + We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list. - + Other Related Resources The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond. - [13]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo. - + [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo. + You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not - covered in the terminfo file at [14]Richard Shuford's archive. + covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive. References - 1. ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu - 2. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses - 3. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded - 4. ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff - 5. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile - 6. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com - 7. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html - 8. mailto:dickey@clark.net - 9. mailto:Juergen.Pfeifer@T-Online.de - 10. mailto:florian@gnu.org - 11. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org - 12. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses - 13. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo - 14. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html + 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses + 2. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses + 3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html + 4. http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html + 5. http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html + 6. http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html + 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ + 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.1-20000704/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/ + 9. http://www.mutt.org/ + 10. http://www.ncftp.com/ + 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/ + 12. http://www.tin.org/ + 13. http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/ + 14. http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html + 15. http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html + 16. http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html + 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com + 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html + 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com + 20. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net + 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com + 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org + 23. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses + 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo + 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html