| Announcing ncurses 5.7 | |
| The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of | |
| curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, | |
| supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters | |
| and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses | |
| enhancements over BSD curses. | |
| In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he | |
| considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and 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 | |
| and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any | |
| ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp! | |
| The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including | |
| a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), | |
| tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full | |
| manual pages are provided for the library and tools. | |
| The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU | |
| distribution site [1]ftp://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 | |
| through 5.6; very few applications will require recompilation, | |
| depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the | |
| change-log since ncurses 5.6 release. | |
| Interface changes: | |
| * generate linkable stubs for some macros: | |
| getattrs | |
| New features and improvements: | |
| * library | |
| + new flavor of the ncurses library provides rudimentary | |
| support for POSIX threads. Several functions are reentrant, | |
| but most require either a window-level or screen-level mutex. | |
| (This is API-compatible, but not ABI-compatible with the | |
| normal library). | |
| + add NCURSES_OPAQUE symbol to curses.h, will use to make | |
| structs opaque in selected configurations. | |
| + add NCURSES_EXT_FUNCS and NCURSES_EXT_COLORS symbols to | |
| curses.h to make it simpler to tell if the extended functions | |
| and/or colors are declared. | |
| + add wresize() to C++ binding | |
| + eliminate fixed-buffer vsprintf() calls in C++ binding. | |
| + add several functions to C++ binding which wrap C functions | |
| that pass a WINDOW* parameter. | |
| + adapt mouse-handling code from menu library in form-library | |
| + improve tracing for form library, showing created forms, | |
| fields, etc. | |
| + make $NCURSES_NO_PADDING feature work for termcap interface . | |
| + add check to trace-file open, if the given name is a | |
| directory, add ".log" to the name and try again. | |
| + several new manpages: curs_legacy.3x, curs_memleaks.3x, | |
| curs_opaque.3x and curs_threads.3x | |
| * programs: | |
| + modified three test-programs to demonstrate the threading | |
| support in this version: ditto, rain, worm. | |
| + several new test-programs: demo_panels, dots_mvcur, | |
| inch_wide, inchs, key_name, key_names, savescreen, | |
| savescreen.sh test_arrays, test_get_wstr, test_getstr, | |
| test_instr, test_inwstr and test_opaque. | |
| + add adacurses-config to the Ada95 install. | |
| + modify tic -f option to format spaces as \s to prevent them | |
| from being lost when that is read back in unformatted | |
| strings. | |
| + The tack program is now distributed separately from ncurses. | |
| * terminal database | |
| + added entries: | |
| o Eterm-256color, Eterm-88color and rxvt-88color | |
| o aterm | |
| o konsole-256color | |
| o mrxvt | |
| o screen.mlterm | |
| o screen.rxvt | |
| o teraterm4.59 is now the primary primary teraterm entry, | |
| renamed original to teraterm2.3 | |
| o 9term terminal | |
| o Newbury Data entries | |
| + updated/improved entries: | |
| o gnome to version 2.22.3 | |
| o h19, z100 | |
| o konsole to version 1.6.6 | |
| o mlterm, mlterm+pcfkeys | |
| o xterm, and building-blocks for function-keys to [3]xterm | |
| patch #230. | |
| Major bug fixes: | |
| * add logic to tic for cancelling strings in user-defined | |
| capabilities (this is needed for current konsole terminfo entry). | |
| * modify mk-1st.awk so the generated makefile rules for linking or | |
| installing shared libraries do not first remove the library, in | |
| case it is in use, e.g., libncurses.so by /bin/sh. | |
| * correct check for notimeout() in wgetch(). | |
| * fix a sign-extension bug in infocmp's repair_acsc() function. | |
| * change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line. | |
| * make Ada95 demo_panels() example work. | |
| * fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line. | |
| * fill in extended-color pair to make colors work for | |
| wide-characters using extended-colors. | |
| * improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters, | |
| taking into account split characters on left/right window | |
| boundaries. | |
| * modify win_wchnstr() to ensure that only a base cell is returned | |
| for each multi-column character. | |
| * improve waddch() and winsch() handling of EILSEQ from mbrtowc() by | |
| using unctrl() to display illegal bytes rather than trying to | |
| append further bytes to make up a valid sequence. | |
| * restore curs_set() state after endwin()/refresh() | |
| * modify keyname() to use "^X" form only if meta() has been called, | |
| or if keyname() is called without initializing curses, e.g., via | |
| initscr() or newterm(). | |
| * modify unctrl() to check codes in 128-255 range versus isprint(). | |
| If they are not printable, and locale was set, use a "M-" or "~" | |
| sequence. | |
| * improve resizeterm() by moving ripped-off lines, and repainting | |
| the soft-keys. | |
| * modify form library to accept control characters such as newline | |
| in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris. | |
| * use NCURSES_MOUSE_MASK() in definition of BUTTON_RELEASE(), etc., | |
| to make those work properly with the --enable-ext-mouse | |
| configuration | |
| * correct some functions in Ada95 binding which were using return | |
| value from C where none was returned. | |
| * reviewed/fixed issues reported by Coverity and Klocwork tools. | |
| Portability: | |
| * configure script: | |
| + new options: | |
| --disable-big-strings | |
| control whether static string tables are generated | |
| as single large strings (to improve startup | |
| performance), or as array of individual strings. | |
| --disable-relink | |
| control whether shared libraries are relinked | |
| (during install) when rpath is enabled. | |
| --disable-tic-depends | |
| make explicit whether tic library depends on | |
| ncurses/ncursesw library. | |
| --enable-mixed-case | |
| override the configure script's check if the | |
| filesystem supports mixed-case filenames. This | |
| allows one to control how the terminal database | |
| maps to the filesystem. For filesystems that do not | |
| support mixed-case, the library uses generate | |
| 2-character (hexadecimal) codes for the lower-level | |
| of the filesystem terminfo database | |
| --enable-reentrant | |
| builds a different flavor of the ncurses library | |
| (ncursest) which improves reentrant use of the | |
| library by reducing global and static variables | |
| (see the "--with-pthread" option for the threaded | |
| support). | |
| --enable-weak-symbols | |
| use weak-symbols for linking to the POSIX thread | |
| library, and use the same soname for the ncurses | |
| shared library as the normal library (caveat: the | |
| ABI is for the threaded library, which makes global | |
| data accessed via functions). | |
| --with-pthread | |
| build with the POSIX thread library (tested with | |
| AIX, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HPUX, IRIX64, | |
| Solaris, Tru64). | |
| --with-ticlib | |
| build/install the tic-support functions in a | |
| separate library | |
| + improved options: | |
| --enable-ext-colors | |
| requires the wide-character configuration. | |
| --with-chtype | |
| ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to | |
| the type in curses.h; do the same for | |
| --with-mmask-t. | |
| --with-dmalloc | |
| build-fix for redefinition of strndup. | |
| --with-hashed-db | |
| accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of | |
| a given Berkeley Database. | |
| --with-hashed-db | |
| the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search | |
| for the db library. | |
| --without-hashed-db | |
| assumed when "--disable-database" is used. | |
| * other configure/build issues: | |
| + build-fixes for LynxOS | |
| + modify shared-library rules to allow FreeBSD 3.x to use | |
| rpath. | |
| + build-fix for FreeBSD "contemporary" TTY interface. | |
| + build-fixes for AIX with libtool. | |
| + build-fixes for Darwin and libtool. | |
| + modify BeOS-specific ifdef's to build on Haiku. | |
| + corrected gcc options for building shared libraries on | |
| Solaris and IRIX64. | |
| + change shared-library configuration for OpenBSD, make rpath | |
| work. | |
| + build-fixes for using libutf8, e.g., on OpenBSD 3.7 | |
| + add "-e" option in ncurses/Makefile.in when generating | |
| source-files to force earlier exit if the build environment | |
| fails unexpectedly. | |
| + add support for shared libraries for QNX. | |
| + change delimiter in MKlib_gen.sh from '%' to '@', to avoid | |
| substitution by IBM xlc to '#' as part of its extensions to | |
| digraphs. | |
| * library: | |
| + rewrite wrapper for wcrtomb(), making it work on Solaris. | |
| This is used in the form library to determine the length of | |
| the buffer needed by field_buffer. | |
| + add/use configure script macro CF_SIG_ATOMIC_T, use the | |
| corresponding type for data manipulated by signal handlers. | |
| + set locale in misc/ncurses-config.in since it uses a range | |
| + disable GPM mouse support when $TERM does not happen to | |
| contain "linux", since Gpm_Open() no longer limits its | |
| assertion to terminals that it might handle, e.g., within | |
| "screen" in xterm. | |
| + reset mouse file-descriptor when unloading GPM library. | |
| * test programs: | |
| + update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses | |
| for comparisons. | |
| Features of Ncurses | |
| The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) | |
| curses: | |
| * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are | |
| documented). | |
| * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, | |
| color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic | |
| recognition of keypad and function keys. | |
| * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of | |
| windows with backing store, is included. | |
| * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but | |
| flexible interface for menu programming, is included. | |
| * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection | |
| through on-screen forms, is included. | |
| * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) | |
| implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format | |
| SVr4 curses uses. | |
| * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries | |
| for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the | |
| HP/UX and AIX ports. | |
| The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: | |
| * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN | |
| curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE | |
| 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 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. | |
| * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's | |
| default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of | |
| transparent colors. | |
| * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control | |
| the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, | |
| or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given | |
| key code. | |
| * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when | |
| configured using the --enable-ext-colors option. | |
| * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm. | |
| * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a | |
| cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's | |
| or System V's. | |
| * 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 quickch() routine. | |
| * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The | |
| screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the | |
| magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the | |
| 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. | |
| * 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). | |
| * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability | |
| to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension | |
| sets. | |
| * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. | |
| * The ncurses 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. | |
| * 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.) | |
| * 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. | |
| * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition | |
| from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP | |
| environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and | |
| converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under | |
| $HOME/.terminfo. | |
| * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in | |
| when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is | |
| neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have | |
| to, but it's there. | |
| * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see | |
| exactly what terminal types are available on the system. | |
| * 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 | |
| #undef. | |
| * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document | |
| provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming | |
| interface. | |
| State of the Package | |
| Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library | |
| is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many | |
| `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe | |
| according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks | |
| and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester. | |
| The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications | |
| including (versions starting with those noted): | |
| cdk | |
| Curses Development Kit | |
| [4]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ | |
| [5]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ | |
| ded | |
| directory-editor | |
| [6]http://invisible-island.net/ded/ | |
| dialog | |
| the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the | |
| basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux. | |
| [7]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ | |
| lynx | |
| the character-screen WWW browser | |
| [8]http://lynx.isc.org/release/ | |
| Midnight Commander | |
| file manager | |
| [9]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ | |
| mutt | |
| mail utility | |
| [10]http://www.mutt.org/ | |
| ncftp | |
| file-transfer utility | |
| [11]http://www.ncftp.com/ | |
| nvi | |
| New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and | |
| later. | |
| [12]http://www.bostic.com/vi/ | |
| pinfo | |
| Lynx-like info browser. | |
| [13]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ | |
| tin | |
| newsreader, supporting color, MIME [14]http://www.tin.org/ | |
| as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: | |
| minicom | |
| terminal emulator | |
| [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ | |
| vile | |
| vi-like-emacs | |
| [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 | |
| Zeyd Ben-Halim started it 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 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 [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. | |
| To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to | |
| bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line: | |
| subscribe <name>@<host.domain> | |
| This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development | |
| and testing of this package. | |
| Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made | |
| available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . | |
| Future Plans | |
| * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization | |
| support. | |
| * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. | |
| We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in | |
| working on them, please join the ncurses list. | |
| Other Related Resources | |
| The distribution 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 [21]Richard Shuford's archive . | |
| References | |
| 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ | |
| 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ | |
| 3. http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_230 | |
| 4. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ | |
| 5. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ | |
| 6. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ | |
| 7. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ | |
| 8. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ | |
| 9. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ | |
| 10. http://www.mutt.org/ | |
| 11. http://www.ncftp.com/ | |
| 12. http://www.bostic.com/vi/ | |
| 13. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ | |
| 14. http://www.tin.org/ | |
| 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 |