X-Git-Url: https://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=ANNOUNCE;h=bbeeb8922d4724c0b184b8de901cfb0d99577bb5;hp=e39a0bee28d8656945825566da2f96f66f8a3c81;hb=0c9774ef662e2137933ac0c79077eaa9c8981357;hpb=46722468f47c2b77b3987729b4bcf2321cccfd01 diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE index e39a0bee..bbeeb892 100644 --- a/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,5 +1,4 @@ - - Announcing ncurses 5.3 + Announcing ncurses 5.6 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, @@ -8,9 +7,8 @@ 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. + considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of Unix + releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses. 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 @@ -23,133 +21,211 @@ manual pages are provided for the library and tools. The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU - distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses. - It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses. + distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ . + It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . Release Notes - This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and - 5.2; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on - the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since - ncurses 5.2 release. + This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 + through 5.5; 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: - * change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which - usually is the same as the compiler's definition for bool. - * add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character - support. These are only available if the library is configured - using the --enable-widec option. Missing functions are - + pecho_wchar() - + slk_wset() - * add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the - assume_default_colors() extension. + * generate linkable stubs for some macros: + getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx, + getpary, getpary, + and (for libncursesw) + wgetbkgrnd New features and improvements: - * Improved support for termcap applications: - + add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions - that do not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated - termcaps. This makes hds200 fit. - + modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the - alternate character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the - copy of the termcap "me" string which it will return to - eliminate that part. In particular, 'screen' would lose track - of line-drawing characters. - + add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about - missing acsc string. This happens in configurations where raw - termcap information is processed; tic already does this and - other checks. - + add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are - commented out when translating to termcap. - + modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to - make it work properly for termcap applications (patch by - Andrey A Chernov). - * add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications - such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes - Debian #131263, cf: 20011215). - * correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is - compiled with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making - it slightly incompatible with itself. In either case, the - background color is the last field. + * 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: - * rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated - _nc_scroll_window(), to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is - larger than the size of the scrolling region, then the scrolling - region will be cleared. - * modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is - encountered. Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently - rather than mixing with write(). - * move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop - with callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise - initialized the tty modes before saving them. - * modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not - corrupt the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within - the resized window. - * altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window - cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent. - * correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in - tput, which did not exit with an error when told to put a string - not in the current terminfo entry. - * modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is - running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it - returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without - picking up extraneous trailing blanks. - * add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in - the overwrite logic. - * add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs. - * modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl() - mode is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual - terminal mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it - is useful to allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to - avoid staircasing effects after spawning a process which writes - messages (for lynx 2.8.4). + * 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: - + modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used - by default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in - attempt to work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL - notes. - + correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and - move it to the experimental section (cf: 20011208). - + modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, - or with fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and - toe. - + modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile. - In that case, do not use the build's tic to install the - terminfo database. - + modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that - are different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's - C++ compilers on Solaris and IRIX. - + add several configure script options to aid with - cross-compiling: --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, - --with-build-ldflags, and --with-build-libs. - + add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to - similar terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x - + add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in - transition to 5.3 change to ospeed type. + + 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: - + implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the - %n conversion to help parse the input data. - + various fixes to build/work with different implementations of - vsscanf(). - + add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on - platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., - Solaris. - + finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin. - + add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in - curses.h - * programs: - + modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic - links on platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS. - + modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that - linking aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not - succeed because the source and destination differ only by - case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0 on cygwin. - + modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for - basename of argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2 - which have case-independent filenames and/or program - suffixes, e.g., ".ext". + + 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. Features of Ncurses @@ -176,17 +252,15 @@ 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 - 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). + 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). * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. * Ada95 and C++ bindings. - * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 - console windows. + * 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 their data. @@ -197,7 +271,7 @@ 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 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm. + * 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 or System V's. @@ -268,71 +342,71 @@ cdk Curses Development Kit - [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk. - [4]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html + [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ + [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ ded directory-editor - [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded. + [5]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. + [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ lynx the character-screen WWW browser - [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release. + [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/ Midnight Commander file manager - [8]www.gnome.org/mc/. + [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ mutt mail utility - [9]http://www.mutt.org. + [9]http://www.mutt.org/ ncftp file-transfer utility - [10]http://www.ncftp.com. + [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/. + [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/ - tin - newsreader, supporting color, MIME - [12]http://www.tin.org. + pinfo + Lynx-like info browser. + [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/ - taper - tape archive utility - [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/. + tin + newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/ vh-1.6 Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File - [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html. + [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: minicom terminal emulator - [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html. + [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ vile vi-like-emacs - [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile. + [16]http://invisible-island.net/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 [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 + 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 Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses. - Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. + Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line: @@ -342,7 +416,7 @@ 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 [23]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses. + available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . Future Plans @@ -355,37 +429,35 @@ Future Plans Other Related Resources - The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format - terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond. - [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo. + The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format + terminal description file once maintained by [20]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 [25]Richard Shuford's archive. + covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive . References - 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses - 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses - 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html - 4. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html - 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html - 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html + 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. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20021012/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/ + 8. http://www.ibiblio.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://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html - 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com - 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html - 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com - 20. http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en - 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com - 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org - 23. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses - 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo - 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html + 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