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| <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title> |
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| <h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> (new curses) library |
| is a free software emulation of curses in System V Release 4.0 |
| (SVr4), 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 SVr4-curses |
| enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses is better known today |
| as X/Open Curses.</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 <em class="small-caps">unix</em> releases such as |
| BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em>.</p> |
| |
| <p>Since 1995, <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> has been |
| ported to many systems:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel |
| (aside from some embedded applications).</li> |
| |
| <li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD |
| and OSX.</li> |
| |
| <li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The |
| first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li> |
| |
| <li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em> |
| curses) on all of the vendor <em class="small-caps">unix</em> |
| systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO, Solaris, Tru64.</li> |
| |
| <li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming |
| <em class="small-caps">unix</em>.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities, |
| including</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a>, |
| a termcap conversion tool</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html">clear</a>, |
| utility for clearing the screen</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp</a>, |
| the terminfo decompiler</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html">tabs</a>, |
| set tabs on a terminal</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html">tic</a>, |
| the terminfo compiler</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html">toe</a>, |
| list (table of) terminfo entries</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html">tput</a>, |
| utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell |
| scripts</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html">tset</a>, |
| to initialize the terminal</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p> |
| |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> distribution is |
| available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution site</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><a href= |
| "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .</p> |
| </blockquote>It is also available at |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><a href= |
| "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release |
| Notes</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>These notes are for <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> |
| @VERSION@, released <strong>August 8, 2015</strong>.</p> |
| |
| <p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with |
| <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> 5.0 through 5.9; providing a |
| new application binary interface (ABI). Although the source can |
| still be configured to support the <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> 5 ABI, the intent of the release is to |
| provide extensions which are generally useful, but |
| binary-incompatible with <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> |
| 5:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>Extend the <code>cchar_t</code> structure to allow more |
| than 16 colors to be encoded.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th |
| mouse button. That allows one to use <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> with a wheel mouse with xterm or |
| similar X terminal emulators.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, |
| including</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>fixes made based on the Clang and Coverity static |
| analyzers.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>memory leak fixes using Valgrind</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>The release notes mention some bug-fixes, but are focused on |
| new features and improvements to existing features log since |
| <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> 5.9 release.</p> |
| |
| <p>While the intent of the release is to provide a new stable |
| ABI, there are other development activities which are summarized |
| below.</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>The original release plan, e.g., for "5.10" was to improve |
| the MinGW port. Ultimately that was completed (wide-character |
| support, mouse, etc), but was deferred to focus on termcap |
| support and performance issues. Also, pinpointing the |
| problems with <code>Console2</code> took a while.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>A review of termcap compatibility in 2011 led to several |
| minor fixes in the library and improvements to utilities. To |
| do this properly, a review of the various extent termcap |
| implementations was needed.</p> |
| |
| <p>The <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html">termcap |
| library checker (tctest)</a> (not part of <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em>) was one result. A followup review |
| of performance using <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a> |
| in 2014 led to additional improvements.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Output buffering provided a further, but worthwhile |
| distraction. A bug report in 2012 regarding the use of signal |
| handlers in <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em>) pointed out |
| <a href= |
| "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2012-07/msg00029.html"> |
| a problem</a> with the use of unsafe functions for handling |
| <code>SIGTSTP</code>. Other signals could be addressed with |
| workarounds; repairing <code>SIGTSTP</code> required a |
| different approach. The solution required changing internal |
| behavior of the library: how it handles output buffering.</p> |
| |
| <p>Now <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> buffers its own |
| output, independently of the standard output. A few |
| applications relied upon the library's direct reuse of the |
| standard output buffering; however that is |
| <em>unspecified</em> behavior and has never been a |
| recommended practice. Identifying these applications as well |
| as refining the change to permit low-level applications to |
| work consistently took time.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Since the introduction of the experimental support for 256 |
| colors early in <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20050101">2005</a> |
| (released in <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.5.html">ncurses |
| 5.5</a>), there has been increased user interest. Almost all |
| packagers continue providing the ncurses ABI 5 which cannot |
| support 256 colors.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Symbol versioning, or the lack of it in ncurses, is the |
| main reason why packagers would be reluctant to add a new |
| ncurses ABI.</p> |
| |
| <p>This release provides the new ABI along with |
| script-generated lists of versioned symbols which can be used |
| for both ABI 5 and 6 (with distinct names to keep the two |
| separate). This took time to development, as reported in |
| <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol |
| versioning in <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em></a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library |
| improvements</a></h3> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-lib-setbuf" id="h3-lib-setbuf">Output |
| buffering</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>X/Open curses provides more than one initialization |
| function:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-initscr"> |
| initscr</a> (the simplest) accepts no parameters.</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-newterm"> |
| newterm</a> accepts parameters for the stream input and |
| output</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization"> |
| setupterm</a> (the low-level function) accepts a parameter for |
| the <em>file descriptor</em> of the output.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>They are documented in X/Open <em>as if</em> |
| <code>initscr</code> calls <code>newterm</code> using |
| <code>stdout</code> for output stream, and in turn |
| <code>newterm</code> calls <code>setupterm</code> using |
| <code>fileno(stdout)</code> for the file descriptor. As long as |
| an implementation acts <em>as if</em> it does this, it conforms. |
| In practice, implementations do what is implied. This creates a |
| problem: the low-level <code>setupterm</code> function's file |
| descriptor is unbuffered, while <code>newterm</code> implies |
| buffered output. X/Open Curses says that all output is done |
| through the file descriptor, and does not say how the output |
| stream is actually used.</p> |
| |
| <p>Initially, <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> used the file |
| descriptor (obtained from the output stream passed to |
| <code>newterm</code>) for changing the terminal modes, and relied |
| upon the output parameter of <code>newterm</code> for buffered |
| output. Later (to avoid using unsafe buffered I/O in signal |
| handlers), <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> was modified to |
| use the file descriptor (unbuffered output) when cleaning up on |
| receipt of a signal. Otherwise (when not handling a signal), it |
| continued to use the buffered output.</p> |
| |
| <p>That approach worked reasonably well and as a side effect, |
| using the same buffered output as an application might use for |
| <code>printf</code> meant that no flushing was needed when |
| switching between normal- and screen-modes.</p> |
| |
| <p>There were a couple of problems:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>to get good performance, curses (not only <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em>, but SVr4 curses in general) set an |
| output buffer using <code>setbuf</code> or similar function. |
| There is no standard (or portable) way to turn that output |
| buffer off, and revert to line-buffering. The <code><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-NCURSES_NO_SETBUF"> |
| NCURSES_NO_SETBUF</a></code> environment variable did make it |
| optional.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>to handle <code>SIGTSTP</code> (the “stop” |
| signal), <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> relied upon |
| unsafe functions. That is, due to the complexity of the |
| feature, it relied upon reusing existing functions which |
| should not have been called via the signal handler.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Conveniently, solving the second problem (by making <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> do its <em>own</em> output buffering) |
| also fixed the first one. But there were special cases to |
| resolve: <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html"><em> |
| low-level</em></a> functions such as mvcur, putp, vidattr |
| explicitly use the standard output. Those functions were reused |
| internally, and required modification to distinguish whether they |
| were used by the high-level or low-level interfaces.</p> |
| |
| <p>Finally, there may still be a few programs which should be |
| modified to improve their portability, e.g., adding an</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre class="code-block"> |
| fflush(stdout); |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>when switching from “<a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-reset_prog_mode_-reset_shell_mode">shell</a>” |
| mode to “<a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-reset_prog_mode_-reset_shell_mode">program</a>” |
| (curses) mode. Those are fairly rare because most programmers |
| have learned not to mix <code>printf</code> and <code><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_printw.3x.html">printw</a></code>.</p> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-lib-versioning" id="h3-lib-versioning">Symbol |
| versioning</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>This release introduces symbol-versioning to <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> because without it, the change of ABI |
| would be less successful. A lengthy discussion will be presented |
| in <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol |
| versioning in <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em></a>. These |
| notes summarize what has changed, and what can be done with the |
| new release.</p> |
| |
| <p>Symbol-versioning allows the developers of a library to mark |
| each public symbol (both data and functions) with an identifier |
| denoting the library name and the version for which it was built. |
| By doing this, users of the library have a way to help ensure |
| that applications do not accidentally load an incompatible |
| library. In addition, private symbols can be hidden entirely.</p> |
| |
| <p>This release provides sample files for the four principal |
| configurations of <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> libraries: |
| <code>ncurses</code>, <code>ncursesw</code>, |
| <code>ncursest</code> and <code>ncursestw</code>. Each sample is |
| given in two forms:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <dl> |
| <dt>“<code>.map</code>”</dt> |
| |
| <dd>These list all public symbols, together with version |
| names.</dd> |
| |
| <dt>“<code>.sym</code>”</dt> |
| |
| <dd>These list all public symbols, without version |
| names.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>The sample files are <em>generated</em> by scripts which take |
| into account a few special cases such as <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">tack</a> to omit |
| many of the <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> private symbols |
| (beginning with “<code>_nc_</code>”). Here are |
| counts of globals versus locals:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <table border="1" summary="Total global and local symbols"> |
| <tr> |
| <th>Config</th> |
| |
| <th>Symbols</th> |
| |
| <th>Globals</th> |
| |
| <th>Locals</th> |
| |
| <th>"_nc_"</th> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>ncurses</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">976</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">796</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">180</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">332</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>ncursesw</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">1089</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">905</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">184</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">343</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>ncursest</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">979</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">804</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">175</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">358</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>ncursestw</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">1098</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">914</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">184</td> |
| |
| <td align="right">372</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>Although only four sample configurations are presented, each |
| is formed by merging symbols from several combinations of |
| configure-script options, taking into account advice from |
| downstream packagers. Because they are formed by merging, the |
| sample files may list a symbol which is not in a given package. |
| That is expected. The samples have been tested and are working |
| with systems (such as Fedora, FreeBSD and Debian) which fully |
| support this feature. There are other systems which do |
| <em>not</em> support the feature, and a few (such as Solaris) |
| which provide incomplete support.</p> |
| |
| <p>The version-naming convention used allows these sample files |
| to build distinct libraries for ABI 5 and 6. Version names |
| consist of</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>configuration name, e.g., |
| “<code>NCURSESW</code>” for the wide-character |
| libraries</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>ABI version (if not 5)</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>library name for two special cases which have the same |
| interface across configurations: |
| “<code>TINFO</code>” and |
| “<code>TIC</code>”</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>release version</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>patch date (for the release version)</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>For example, running <code>nm -D</code> on the libraries in |
| the ncurses6 test package shows these symbol-versions:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre class="code-block"> |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.0.19991023 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.1.20000708 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.5.20051010 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.7.20081102 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.9.20150530 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.0.19991023 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.1.20000708 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.2.20001021 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.3.20021019 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.4.20040208 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.5.20051010 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.6.20061217 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.7.20081102 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.8.20110226 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.9.20150530 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.1.20000708 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.3.20021019 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.4.20040208 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.5.20051010 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.6.20061217 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.7.20081102 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.8.20110226 |
| 0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.9.20150530 |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>As a special case, this release (which makes the final change |
| for ABI 5) is marked with release version 5.9 and patch date |
| 20150530.</p> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-lib-other" id= |
| "h3-lib-other">Miscellaneous</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>The new release has several improvements for performance and |
| building. For instance:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>several files in ncurses- and progs-directories were |
| modified to allow <code>const</code> data used in internal |
| tables to be put by the linker into the readonly text |
| segment.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>various improvements were made to building the Ada95 |
| binding, both in simplifying the generated files as well as |
| improving the way it uses <code>gnatmake</code></p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>There are also new features in the libraries:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>added <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_tioctl"> |
| use_tioctl</a> function</li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_opaque.3x.html"> |
| wgetdelay</a> to retrieve _delay member of WINDOW if it |
| happens to be opaque, e.g., in the pthread configuration.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY"> |
| A_ITALIC</a> extension.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added form library extension <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_field_opts.3x.html"> |
| O_DYNAMIC_JUSTIFY</a> option which can be used to override |
| the different treatment of justification for static versus |
| dynamic fields .</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>rewrote <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-putwin_getwin"> |
| putwin</a> and <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-putwin_getwin"> |
| getwin</a>, making an extended version which is capable of |
| reading screen-dumps between the wide/normal <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> configurations. These are text |
| files, except for a <em>magic</em> code at the beginning:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre class="code-block"> |
| 0 string \210\210 Screen-dump (ncurses) |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>several changes to mouse support include:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>added decoder for xterm SGR 1006 mouse mode.</li> |
| |
| <li>added experimental support for |
| “<code>%u</code>” format to terminfo.</li> |
| |
| <li>improved behavior of wheel-mice for xterm protocol: |
| noting that there are only button-presses for buttons |
| “4” and “5”, so there is no need to |
| wait to combine events into double-clicks .</li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>There are a few new configure options dealing with library |
| customization:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>add “<code>--enable-ext-putwin</code>” |
| configure option to turn on the extended putwin/getwin. By |
| default, this is enabled for ABI 6 and disabled with ABI |
| 5.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add “<code>--enable-string-hacks</code>” |
| option to control whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. |
| Because <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> already does the |
| requisite buffer-limit checks, this feature is mainly of |
| interest to quiet compiler-warnings on a few systems.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add configure option |
| “<code>--with-tparm-arg</code>” to allow <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output"> |
| tparm</a>'s parameters to be something more likely to be the |
| same size as a pointer, e.g., <code>intptr_t</code> (again, |
| the default is set for ABI 6).</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program |
| improvements</a></h3> |
| |
| <h4><a name="h4-utilities" id="h4-utilities">Utilities</a></h4> |
| |
| <p>Most of the termcap-related changes based on development of |
| <a href="http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html">tctest |
| (termcap library checker)</a> are implemented in the tic and |
| infocmp programs rather than affecting the library. As noted in |
| the <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html#my-better-translation"> |
| discussion</a> of <code>tctest</code>, <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em>'s ability to translate between terminfo |
| and termcap formats has been improved at different times, but |
| subject to feedback from "real" termcap users. There are very few |
| of those. Nowadays, virtually all <em>termcap</em> users are |
| using <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> (or NetBSD, with its |
| own terminfo library) and their programs are actually using |
| terminfo rather than termcap data.</p> |
| |
| <p>Still, there are a few. A comment about the translation of the |
| ASCII <code>NUL</code> character prompted a review:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>Both terminfo and termcap store string capabilities as |
| <code>NUL</code>-terminated strings.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>In terminfo, a <code>\0</code> in a terminal description |
| is stored as <code>\200</code>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>There are no (known) terminals which would behave |
| differently when sent <code>\0</code> or |
| <code>\200</code>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>When translating to terminfo format (or displaying a |
| printable version of an entry using infocmp), <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> shows <code>\200</code> as |
| <code>\0</code>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>It has done this since 1998 (quoting from the NEWS |
| file):</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre class="code-block"> |
| <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t980103">980103</a> |
| ... |
| + modify _nc_tic_expand() to generate \0 rather than \200. |
| ... |
| + correct translation of terminfo "^@", to \200, like \0. |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>However, the <code>_nc_tic_expand</code> function (which |
| optionally produces terminfo or termcap format) did not |
| address this special case for termcap. Even the later 4.4BSD |
| <a href= |
| "https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/lib/libc/gen/getcap.c?revision=244092&view=markup#l784"> |
| cgetstr</a> interprets a <code>\0</code> literally, ending |
| <em>that</em> string (rather than using the terminfo |
| improvement).</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>As a result of the review, several improvements were made to |
| <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> translation to/from termcap |
| format — and improving the checks made in tic for |
| consistency of entries. Most of these are not of general |
| interest, except for two new command-line options for tic and |
| infocmp:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>the “<code>-0</code>” option generates |
| termcap/terminfo source on a single line.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the “<code>-K</code>” option provides stricter |
| BSD-compatibility for termcap output.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Other user-visible improvements and new features include:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>added “<code>-D</code>” option to tic and |
| infocmp, to show the database locations that it could |
| use.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added “<code>-s</code>” option to toe, to sort |
| its output.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>extended “<code>-c</code>” and |
| “<code>-n</code>” options of infocmp to allow |
| comparing more than two entries.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified toe's report when “<code>-a</code>” |
| and “<code>-s</code>” options are combined, to |
| add a column showing which entries belong to a given |
| database.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified the clear program to take into account the |
| “<code>E3</code>” extended capability to clear |
| the terminal's scrollback buffer.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4> |
| |
| <p>Along with the library and utilities, many improvements were |
| made to the <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. |
| Some were made to allow building (and comparison-testing) against |
| NetBSD curses and PDCurses. Both lack some of the X/Open Curses |
| features, necessitating customization. But this activity was |
| useful because it showed some remaining performance issues (which |
| have been resolved in this release).</p> |
| |
| <p>These changes were made to verify compatibility or compare |
| performance of <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em>:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>made workarounds for compiling test-programs with NetBSD |
| curses, though it lacks some common functions such as |
| <a href="http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_env"> |
| use_env</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added dots_termcap test-program</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added dots_curses test-program, for comparison with the |
| low-level examples.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added test_setupterm test-proram to demonstrate |
| normal/error returns from the setupterm and restartterm |
| functions.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added “<code>-d</code>”, |
| “<code>-e</code>” and |
| “<code>-q</code>” options to the demo_terminfo |
| and demo_termcap test-programs.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added “<code>-y</code>” option to demo_termcap |
| and test/demo_terminfo test-programs to demonstrate behavior |
| with/without extended capabilities.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified demo_termcap and demo_terminfo test-programs to |
| make their options more directly comparable, and add |
| “<code>-i</code>” option to specify a terminal |
| description filename to parse for names to lookup.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>rewrote the tests for <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h3-derwin"> |
| mvderwin</a> and test for recursive <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h3-mvwin"> |
| mvwin</a> in the movewindow test-program.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>These changes were made to help with the MinGW port:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>added test-screens to the ncurses test-program to show |
| 256-characters at a time, to help with MinGW port.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified the view test-program to load UTF-8 when built |
| with MinGW by using regular win32 API because the MinGW |
| functions mblen and mbtowc do not work.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added “<code>-s</code>” option to the view |
| test-program to allow it to start in single-step mode, |
| reducing size of trace files when it is used for debugging |
| MinGW changes.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>These changes were made to verify new extensions in <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em>:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>added <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_driver.3x.html#h3-form_driver_w"> |
| form_driver_w</a> entrypoint to wide-character forms library, |
| as well as form_driver_w test-program.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified ncurses test-program's b/B tests to display lines |
| only for the attributes which a given terminal supports, to |
| make room for an italics test.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified ncurses test-program, adding |
| “<code>-E</code>” and |
| “<code>-T</code>” options to demonstrate use_env |
| versus use_tioctl.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified ncurses test-program's c/C tests to cycle through |
| subsets of the total number of colors, to better illustrate |
| 8/16/88/256-colors by providing directly comparable |
| screens.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified the ncurses test-program to also show position |
| reports in 'a' test.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>These changes were made to make the examples more useful:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>added scripts for building dpkg and rpm test-packages</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified the hanoi test-program to show the minimum number |
| of moves possible for the given number of tiles.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified the knight test-program to show the number of |
| choices possible for each position in automove option, e.g., |
| to allow user to follow Warnsdorff's rule to solve the |
| puzzle.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal |
| database</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>This release provides improvements to tic's |
| “<code>-c</code>” checking option, which was used for |
| example to</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>make <code>sgr</code> in several entries agree with other |
| caps.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>correct padding in some entries where earlier versions had |
| miscounted the number of octal digits.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_M_L_T_E_R_M"> |
| mlterm</a> is now aliased to mlterm3</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm"> |
| nsterm</a> is now derived from nsterm-256color</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty-sco"> |
| putty-sco</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken"> |
| teken</a> is FreeBSD's "xterm" console.</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_T_E_R_M_I_N_A_T_O_R"> |
| terminator</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_T_E_R_M_I_N_O_L_O_G_Y"> |
| terminology</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux"> |
| tmux</a> is derived from screen.</li> |
| |
| <li>several screen.XXX entries support the respective |
| variations for 256 colors.</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_S_I_M_P_L_E_T_E_R_M"> |
| simpleterm</a> is now 0.5</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte"> |
| vte</a> is aliased to vte-2012</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt520ansi"> |
| vt520ansi</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal |
| capabilities):</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p><code>E3</code>, used in linux, putty and xterm-basic is |
| tested in the <a href= |
| "http://aerie.jexium-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html">clear</a> |
| program to erase a terminal's scrollback.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p><code>TS</code> is used in the <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl"> |
| xterm+sl</a> building block to help deprecate the misuse of |
| <code>tsl</code> for xterm's title-string.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p><code>XT</code> is used in some terminfo entries to |
| improve usefulness for other applications than screen, which |
| would like to pretend that xterm's title is a |
| status-line.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p><code>xm</code> is used in examples <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-1005"> |
| xterm-1005</a> and <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-1006"> |
| xterm-1006</a> to illustrate a way to make mouse handling |
| more general</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>A few terminals support italics and/or dim capabilities. In |
| particular, screen does not. Documented that, and accommodated |
| the terminals where this feature works with the |
| <code>A_ITALIC</code> extension.</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>konsole, mlterm3 (italics)</li> |
| |
| <li>nsterm (dim)</li> |
| |
| <li>screen (dim)</li> |
| |
| <li>vte (dim, italics)</li> |
| |
| <li>xterm (dim, italics)</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-documentation" id= |
| "h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>As usual, this release</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>attempts to improve the description of features which |
| users have found confusing</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were |
| described in the <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file |
| but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>In addition, the mechanism for producing HTML versions of the |
| documentation has been improved:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>use an improved version of <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/scripts/man2html.html">man2html</a> |
| to generate html manpages.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>regenerated <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html"> |
| NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html</a> to fix some of the broken |
| html emitted by docbook.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting |
| bug-fixes</a></h3> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>Ada95 binding:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>modify makefile rules to ensure that the PIC option is |
| not used when building a static library</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>make Ada95 build-fix for big-endian architectures such |
| as sparc. This undoes one of the fixes from <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20110319"> |
| 20110319</a>, which added an |
| “<code>Unused</code>” member to |
| representation clauses, replacing that with pragmas to |
| suppress warnings about unused bits.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Color and attributes:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>parenthesize parameter of <code>COLOR_PAIR</code> and |
| <code>PAIR_NUMBER</code> in curses.h in case it happens |
| to be a comma-expression.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>improve <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20021221"> |
| 20021221</a> workaround for broken acs, handling a case |
| where that ACS_<em>xxx</em> character is not in the |
| <code>acsc</code> string but there is a known |
| wide-character which can be used.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modify <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-Routine-Descriptions"> |
| init_pair</a> to accept -1's for color value after |
| <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/default_colors.3x.html"> |
| assume_default_colors</a> has been called.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add a check in <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-Routine-Descriptions"> |
| start_color</a> to limit color-pairs to 256 when extended |
| colors are not supported.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Resizing the screen:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>propagate error-returns from wresize, i.e., the |
| internal increase_size and decrease_size functions |
| through <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html"> |
| resize_term</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add check for zero/negative dimensions for |
| <code>resizeterm</code> and <code>resize_term</code>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modify <code>resizeterm</code> to always push a |
| <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> onto the fifo, even if screensize |
| is unchanged. Modify library to push a |
| <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> if there was a SIGWINCH, even if |
| it does not call <code>resizeterm</code>). These changes |
| eliminate the case where a SIGWINCH is received, but ERR |
| is returned from <code>wgetch</code> or |
| <code>wgetnstr</code> because the screen dimensions did |
| not change.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Low-level interfaces</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>fix an old bug in the termcap emulation; |
| “<code>%i</code>” was ignored in |
| <code>tparm</code> because the parameters to be |
| incremented were already on the internal stack.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>change “<code>%l</code>” behavior in tparm |
| to push the string length onto the stack rather than |
| saving the formatted length into the output buffer.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modify name-comparison for tgetstr, etc., to |
| accommodate legacy applications as well as to improve |
| compatbility with BSD 4.2 termcap implementations (see |
| note for <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t980725">980725</a>).</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li>High-level interfaces |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>modify internal recursion in <code>wgetch</code> which |
| handles cooked mode to check if the call to |
| <code>wgetnstr</code> returned an error. This can happen |
| when both <code>nocbreak</code> and <code>nodelay</code> |
| are set, for instance (see note for <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t960418">960418</a>).</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add a check in internal function |
| <code>waddch_nosync</code> to ensure that tab characters |
| are treated as control characters; some broken locales |
| claim they are printable.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modify menu library to ensure that a menu's top-row is |
| adjusted as needed to ensure that the current item is on |
| the screen</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>fix special case where double-width character |
| overwrites a single- width character in the first |
| column.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-config-config" id= |
| "h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3> |
| |
| <h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major |
| changes</a></h4> |
| |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> 6.0 configure script |
| makes changes to the <em>default</em> value of several configure |
| options, depending on the <code>--with-abi-version</code> option |
| (i.e., whether its value is “5” or |
| “6”):</p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt><code>--enable-const</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Feature introduced in <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t970405">970405</a> |
| supports the use of <code>const</code> where X/Open Curses |
| should have, but did not. NetBSD curses does something |
| similar with <code>const</code>.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--enable-ext-colors</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Extends the <code>cchar_t</code> structure to allow more |
| than 16 colors to be encoded. This applies only to the |
| wide-character (<code>--enable-widec</code>) |
| configuration.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--enable-ext-mouse</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Modifies the encoding of mouse state to make room for a |
| 5th mouse button. That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel |
| mouse with xterm or similar X terminal emulators.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--enable-ext-putwin</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Modifies the file-format written by <code>putwin</code> to |
| use printable text rather than binary files, allowing |
| <code>getwin</code> to read screen dumps written by |
| differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended |
| <code>getwin</code> can still read binary screen dumps from |
| the <em>same</em> configuration of ncurses. This does not |
| change the ABI (the binary interface seen by calling |
| applications).</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--enable-interop</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Modifies the <code>FIELDTYPE</code> structure used for the |
| form library to make it more generic.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--enable-lp64</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Allows an application to define <code>_LP64</code> to |
| declare <code>chtype</code> and <code>mmask_t</code> as |
| simply “<code>unsigned</code>” rather than the |
| configured types using the <code>--with-chtype</code> and |
| <code>--with-mmask_t</code> options.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--enable-sp-funcs</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a |
| SCREEN pointer, reducing the need for juggling the global SP |
| value with <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-set_term"> |
| set_term</a> and <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-delscreen"> |
| delscreen</a>.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-chtype=uint32_t</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Makes <code>chtype</code> explicitly a 32-bit unsigned |
| value.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-mmask_t=uint32_t</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Makes <code>mmask_t</code> explicitly a 32-bit unsigned |
| value.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-tparm-arg=intptr_t</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>X/Open Curses declares <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output"> |
| tparm</a> using <code>long</code> for each of the parameters |
| aside from the formatting string, presuming that |
| <code>long</code> and <code>char*</code> are the same size. |
| This configure option uses <code>intptr_t</code> which |
| provides a better guarantee of the sizes.</p> |
| </dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p>The configure script no longer checks for antique compilers; |
| <code>c89</code> is assumed as a minimum. There are a few |
| features from later revisions which are used when available. The |
| configure script makes checks to turn on useful warnings from |
| clang, gcc and icc. You should be able to build <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> 6.0 with any of the current (or not so |
| current) C compilers available in 2015.</p> |
| |
| <p>The configure script, by the way, makes changes which do not |
| work with systems whose <code>/bin/sh</code> is non-POSIX. This |
| mainly affects Solaris (the other vendor <em class= |
| "small-caps">unix</em> systems have followed the POSIX guidelines |
| for the past twenty years). If you must build on Solaris, its |
| <a href= |
| "http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/html/817-0552/fhkpy.html">xpg4</a> |
| binaries suffice, e.g.,</p> |
| |
| <blockquote class="code-block"> |
| <!--{{atr2html--> |
| |
| <p style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 10pt;"> |
| <font color="#800000">#!/bin/sh</font><br> |
| <font color="#008080">WHAT</font>=<strong><em><font color= |
| "#800000">`</font></em></strong>hostname|sed -e <font color="#800080">'s/\..*//'</font><strong><em><font color="#800000">`</font></em></strong><br> |
| |
| <font color="#008080">OUT</font>=configure.out<br> |
| <strong><font color= |
| "#000080">cat</font></strong> >><font color= |
| "#008080">$OUT</font> <font color= |
| "#800080"><<EOF/</font><font color="#800080"><br> |
| ** </font><strong><em><font color= |
| "#800000">`</font></em></strong>date<strong><em><font color= |
| "#800000">`</font></em></strong><font color="#800080"><br> |
| ** node: </font><font color= |
| "#008080">$WHAT</font><font color="#800080"><br> |
| ** user: </font><strong><em><font color= |
| "#800000">`</font></em></strong>id<strong><em><font color= |
| "#800000">`</font></em></strong><font color="#800080"><br> |
| ** conf: $*<br> |
| EOF/</font><br> |
| <br> |
| <font color="#008080">SHELL</font>=/bin/sh<br> |
| <strong><font color= |
| "#000080">if</font></strong> <strong><font color= |
| "#000080">test</font></strong> -f /usr/xpg4/bin/sh<br> |
| |
| <strong><font color="#000080">then</font></strong><br> |
| <font color= |
| "#008080">CONFIG_SHELL</font>=/usr/xpg4/bin/sh<br> |
| <strong><font color="#000080">export</font></strong> CONFIG_SHELL<br> |
| |
| <font color= |
| "#008080">SHELL</font>=<font color= |
| "#008080">$CONFIG_SHELL</font><br> |
| <strong><font color="#000080">fi</font></strong><br> |
| <br> |
| rm -f config.status config.cache<br> |
| <font color="#008080">TOP</font>=<font color= |
| "#008080">$HOME</font>/<font color="#008080">$WHAT</font><br> |
| <font color= |
| "#008080">$SHELL</font> ./configure --verbose \<br> |
| |
| --disable-echo \<br> |
| |
| --disable-overwrite \<br> |
| |
| --enable-warnings \<br> |
| |
| --with-warnings \<br> |
| |
| --prefix=<font color="#008080">$TOP</font> <font color="#008080">$*</font> <strong><font color="#008080">2</font></strong>>&<strong><font color="#008080">1</font></strong> | tee -a <font color="#008080">$OUT</font><br> |
| |
| <!--atr2html}}--></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>Other major changes to the configure script include:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>ABI 6 is now the default, intending that the existing ABI |
| 5 should build as before using the |
| “<code>--with-abi-version=5</code>” option.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added <code>--with-extra-suffix</code> option to help with |
| installing nonconflicting ncurses6 packages, e.g., avoiding |
| header- and library-conflicts.</p> |
| |
| <p><strong>NOTE:</strong> as a side-effect, this renames</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><code>adacurses-config</code> to |
| <code>adacurses5-config</code> and<br> |
| <code>adacursesw-config</code> to |
| <code>adacursesw5-config</code></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure script looks for gnatgcc if the Ada95 |
| binding is built, in preference to the default gcc/cc. The |
| script also ensures that the Ada95 binding is built with the |
| level of optimization as the C libraries.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure script captures define's related to |
| -D_XOPEN_SOURCE from the configure check and adds those to |
| the *-config and *.pc files, to simplify use for the |
| wide-character libraries.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h4><a name="h4-config-options" id= |
| "h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4> |
| |
| <p>There are several new (or extended) configure options:</p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt><code>--disable-db-install</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit |
| features for packages, as done with |
| <code>--without-progs</code>. The option simplifies building |
| cross-compile support packages.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--disable-gnat-projects</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>This option is used for regression testing</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--disable-lib-suffixes</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Suppress the “w”, “t” or |
| “tw” suffixes which normally would be added to |
| the library names for the <code>--enable-widec</code> and |
| <code>--with-pthread</code> options.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-cxx-shared</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>When <code>--with-shared</code> is set, build libncurses++ |
| as a shared library. This implicitly relies upon building |
| with gcc/g++, since other compiler suites may have |
| differences in the way shared libraries are built. libtool by |
| the way has similar limitations.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-hashed-db</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Extended this configure option to simplify building with |
| different versions of Berkeley database using FreeBSD |
| ports.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-pc-suffix</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to |
| the files and corresponding package names to separate unusual |
| configurations. If no option value is given (or if it is |
| "none"), no suffix is added. This option is used in the test |
| package for ncurses6.</p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt><code>--with-xterm-kbs</code></dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS |
| (<code>^H</code>, i.e., ASCII backspace) or DEL |
| (<code>^?</code>, or 127).</p> |
| </dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <h3><a name="h3-portability" id= |
| "h3-portability">Portability</a></h3> |
| |
| <h4><a name="h4-port-mingw" id="h4-port-mingw">MinGW</a></h4> |
| |
| <p>Most of the portability-related work since <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.9.html"><em class="small-caps"> |
| ncurses</em> 5.9</a> extended and improved the MinGW port |
| introduced in <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.8.html"><em class="small-caps"> |
| ncurses</em> 5.8</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>The MinGW port can be readily cross-compiled:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>modified configure script to allow creating dll's for |
| MinGW when cross-compiling.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>enforced Windows-style path-separator if |
| cross-compiling,</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added scripts for test-builds of cross-compiled packages |
| for ncurses6 to MinGW.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added pc-files to the MinGW cross-compiling |
| test-packages.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added script for building test-packages of binaries |
| cross-compiled to MinGW using NSIS.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added <code>nc_mingw.h</code> to installed headers for |
| MinGW port; this is needed for cross-compiling <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>added test-packages for cross-compiling ncurses-examples |
| using the MinGW test-packages.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>The MinGW-specific Windows driver accounts for several |
| changes:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>wide-character display is made usable by replacing MinGW's |
| non-working <code>wcrtomb</code> and <code>wctomb</code> |
| functions.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>implemented some display features: <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_beep.3x.html">beep</a>, |
| <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_beep.3x.html">flash</a>, |
| <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-curs_set"> |
| curs_set</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the driver handles repainting on endwin/refresh |
| combination.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>modified treatment of <code>TERM</code> variable for MinGW |
| port to allow explicit use of the Windows console driver by |
| checking if <code>$TERM</code> is set to |
| “<code>#win32console</code>” or an abbreviation |
| of that.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the Windows driver also matches the special |
| <code>TERM</code> value “unknown”</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the driver now returns characters for special keys, (like |
| <code>ansi.sys</code> does), when keypad mode is off, rather |
| than returning nothing at all.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the driver checks a new environment variable <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-NCURSES_CONSOLE2"> |
| NCURSES_CONSOLE2</a> to optionally work around a deficiency |
| in <code>Console2</code> (and its descendent |
| <code>ConsoleZ</code>) which hang when an application creates |
| a console buffer.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Finally, there are other improvements:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>MinGW is one of the configurations where <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> installs by default into /usr</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li>configuration for cross-compiling uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS in |
| preference to AC_PATH_PROGS when searching for ncurses*-config, |
| e.g., in Ada95/configure and test/configure.</li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>extend Windows support to work with MSYS2;</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>this works with a scenario where there is an |
| ANSI-escape handler such as <code>ansicon</code> running |
| in the console window.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li>wrap <code>isatty</code> calls with a macro, provide a |
| corresponding set of support routines to address |
| differences between MinGW and MSYS2.</li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>ensure <code>WINVER</code> is defined in makefiles rather |
| than using headers.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add check for the <code>gnatprep</code> |
| “<code>-T</code>” option.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>work around a bug introduced by <a href= |
| "http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20877689/gcc-4-8-1-minggw-d-option-does-not-work-as-usual"> |
| gcc 4.8.1</a> in MinGW which breaks "trace" feature.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>add a driver-name method to each of the drivers.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h4><a name="h4-port-systems" id="h4-port-systems">Other |
| ports</a></h4> |
| |
| <p>These changes affect certain platforms (ports):</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure script knows how to build shared libraries |
| with DragonFlyBSD and Interix.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>support for AIX shared libraries is improved, tested with |
| AIX 5.3, 6.1 and 7.1 with both gcc 4.2.4 and cc:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>the shared-library suffix for AIX 5 and 6 is now |
| ".so"</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the <code>-brtl</code> option is used with AIX 5-7; it |
| is needed to link with the shared libraries.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure <code>--enable-pc-files</code> option takes |
| into account the <a href= |
| "http://linux.die.net/man/1/pkg-config"><code>PKG_CONFIG_PATH</code></a> |
| variable.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure option <code>--with-pkg-config-libdir</code> |
| provides control over the actual directory into which |
| pc-files are installed.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the build scripts add explicit -ltinfo, etc., to the |
| generated ".pc" file when <code>ld</code> option |
| “<code>--as-needed</code>” is used, or when |
| ncurses and tinfo are installed without using rpath.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure script disallows conflicting options |
| “<code>--with-termlib</code>” and |
| “<code>--enable-term-driver</code>”.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the check for missing c++ compiler to work when no error |
| is reported, and no variables set is improved (see note for |
| <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20021206">20021206</a>).</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the misc/gen_edit.sh script selects a "linux" entry which |
| works with the current kernel rather than assuming it is |
| always "linux3.0"</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the test/configure script makes it simpler to override |
| names of curses-related libraries, to help with linking with |
| pdcurses in MinGW environment.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure-script/ifdef's allow the BSD OLD_TTY feature |
| to be suppressed if the type of <code>ospeed</code> is |
| configured using the option <code>--with-ospeed</code> to not |
| be a <code>short</code>. By default, it is a |
| <code>short</code> for termcap-compatibility.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the MKlib_gen.sh script works around a recent change in |
| gcc 5 (released <a href= |
| "https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-5/">mid-2015</a>) which essentially |
| emits multiple <code>#line</code> statements for the same |
| position in a file.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure script works with Minix3.2 (see <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/portability-test.html">note</a> |
| on portability)</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>OS/2 redux:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>the configure script supports OS/2 kLIBC.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the <code>--with-lib-prefix</code> option allows |
| configuring for old/new flavors of OS/2 EMX.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>improved configure-script checks for |
| <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE</code>:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>the definition works starting with Solaris 10.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the definition is suppressed for IRIX64, since its |
| header files have a conflict versus |
| <code>_SGI_SOURCE</code>.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <hr> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em></a></h2> |
| |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> package is fully |
| upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are |
| documented).</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p><em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> supports all of the |
| for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color, |
| forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition |
| of keypad and function keys.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p><em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> provides these SVr4 |
| add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with |
| backing store.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible |
| interface for menu programming.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>the form library, supporting data collection through |
| on-screen forms.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p><em class="small-caps">ncurses</em>'s terminal database is |
| fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> supports |
| user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are |
| hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the |
| <em>same</em> terminal database.</li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>It can be optionally configured to match the format |
| used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Alternatively, <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> can |
| be configured to use hashed databases rather than the |
| directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> utilities have |
| options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with |
| less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such |
| as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> package also has many |
| useful extensions over SVr4:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>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).</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> |
| can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if |
| your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and |
| FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm |
| package.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize |
| windows, preserving their data.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and |
| <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use |
| of function keys, e.g., disabling the <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more than |
| one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em> |
| and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>The <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html">tic</a>/<a href="http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> |
| utility provided with <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> has |
| the ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM |
| and AT&T extension sets.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>A BSD-like <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html">tset</a> |
| utility is provided.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> 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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>The table-of-entries utility <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html">toe</a> |
| makes it easy for users to see exactly what terminal types |
| are available on the system.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading"> |
| Additional Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html"><em class="small-caps"> |
| ncurses</em> FAQ</a></em> for online documentation).</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using |
| <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em></a></h2> |
| |
| <p>The <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> distribution includes |
| a selection of test programs (including a few games). These are |
| available separately as <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p> |
| |
| <p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of |
| applications including:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <dl> |
| <dt>cdk</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>Curses Development Kit</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br> |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>ded</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>directory-editor</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>dialog</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, |
| and the basis for similar install/configure applications on |
| many systems.</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>lynx</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>the text WWW browser</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://lynx.isc.org/">http://lynx.isc.org/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>Midnight Commander</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>file manager</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.midnight-commander.org/">http://www.midnight-commander.org/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>mutt</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>mail utility</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>ncftp</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>file-transfer utility</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>nvi</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>New vi uses ncurses.</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi</a><br> |
| </p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>tin</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| </dl> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>as well as some that use <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> |
| for the terminfo support alone:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <dl> |
| <dt>minicom</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>mosh</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>tack</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>terminfo action checker</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>tmux</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>terminal multiplexor</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://tmux.github.io/">http://tmux.github.io/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>vile</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap |
| or curses interfaces.</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| </dl> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <dl> |
| <dt>emacs</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>text editor</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>screen</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>terminal multiplexor</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt>vim</dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| <p>text editor</p> |
| |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://www.vim.org/">http://www.vim.org/</a></p> |
| </dd> |
| </dl> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development |
| activities</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> |
| 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 development work is done by |
| <a href="mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</a>. |
| Thomas Dickey also acts as the maintainer for the Free Software |
| Foundation, which holds the <a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html">copyright |
| on ncurses</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>Contact the current maintainers at</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <a href= |
| "mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a> |
| </blockquote>containing the line: |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><code>subscribe</code> |
| <em><name>@<host.domain></em></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the |
| development and testing of this package.</p> |
| |
| <p>Beta versions of <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> and |
| patches to the current release are made available at</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><a href= |
| "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><a href= |
| "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a> |
| (also <a href= |
| "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related |
| resources</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages, |
| which may be interesting by themselves:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/scripts/man2html.html">man2html</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.nethttp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html"> |
| <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em> licensing</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol |
| versioning in <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em></a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mingw.html">The |
| MinGW port of <em class="small-caps">ncurses</em></a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">tack – |
| terminfo action checker</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/portability-tar.html">tar |
| versus portability</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html">tctest |
| – termcap library checker</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database"> |
| Terminal Database</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other |
| resources</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>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> |
| |
| <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> |
| |
| <div class="nav"> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h3-lib-setbuf">Output |
| buffering</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h3-lib-versioning">Symbol |
| versioning</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h3-lib-other">Miscellaneous</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting |
| bug-fixes</a></li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration |
| options</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h4-port-mingw">MinGW</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h4-port-systems">Other ports</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em></a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <em class= |
| "small-caps">ncurses</em></a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li> |
| |
| <li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| </body> |
| </html> |
