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7 <TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@
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13 <H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@
</H1>
15 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
16 curses in System V Release
4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
17 supports pads and color
18 and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
19 and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.
<P>
21 In mid-June
1995, the maintainer of
4.4BSD curses declared that he
22 considered
4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
23 Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
26 The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux.
27 It has been in use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library,
28 and on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package.
29 It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
30 It has even been ported to OS/
2 Warp!
<P>
32 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
33 terminfo compiler tic(
1), a decompiler infocmp(
1), clear(
1), tput(
1), tset(
1),
34 and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(
1). Full manual pages are provided for
35 the library and tools.
<P>
37 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
38 the GNU distribution site
39 <A HREF=
"ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
</A> .
40 <br>It is also available at
41 <A HREF=
"ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
</A> .
43 <H1>Release Notes
</H1>
45 This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses
5.0 and
5.3;
46 very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
47 These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses
5.3 release.
51 <li>add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character
57 These are only available if the library is configured using the
58 <kbd>--enable-widec
</kbd> option.
60 <li>write
<code>getyx()
</code> and related
2-return macros in terms of
61 <code>getcury()
</code>,
62 <code>getcurx()
</code>, etc.
64 <li>simplify ifdef for
<code>bool
</code> declaration in curses.h
66 <li>modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of
67 <code>__attribute__()
</code> for g++, since recent versions
68 implement the cases which ncurses uses.
70 <li>add
<code>key_defined()
</code> function, to tell which keycode a
73 New features and improvements:
77 <li>implement logic in lib_mouse.c to handle position reports which
78 are generated when XFree86 xterm is initialized with private
79 modes
1002 or
1003. These are returned to the application as the
80 REPORT_MOUSE_POSITION mask, which was not implemented.
81 <li>modify soft-key initialization to use A_REVERSE if A_STANDOUT
82 would not be shown when colors are used, i.e., if ncv#
1 is set in
83 the terminfo as is done in
"screen".
84 <li>add configure option for FreeBSD sysmouse, --with-sysmouse, and
85 implement library support for that.
94 <li>allow it to run from fallback terminfo data.
95 <li>reset colors after each color test, correct a place
96 where
<code>exit_standout_mode
</code> was used instead of
97 <code>exit_attribute_mode
</code>.
98 <li>improve
<code>bce
</code> test by making it set colors other
105 <li>handle a case where an entry has no
106 description, and capabilities begin on the same line as the entry
108 <li>allow a terminfo entry with a leading
2-character name.
109 <li>improved warnings when suppressing items to fit in termcap's
111 <li>add check for multiple
"tc=" clauses in a termcap.
112 <li>correct logic for resolving
"use=" clauses
113 allow infocmp and tic to show cancelled capabilities.
114 <li>check for incomplete line-drawing character mapping.
115 <li>check for missing/empty/illegal terminfo name.
120 <li>modify tput to use the same parameter analysis as tparm() does,
121 to provide for user-defined strings, e.g., for xterm title, a
122 corresponding capability might be
129 <li>use the system's default values for CKILL and other default
131 <li>correct interchanged defaults for kill and interrupt
132 characters, which caused it to report unnecessarily.
139 <li>prevent recursion in wgetch() via wgetnstr() if the connection
140 cannot be switched between cooked/raw modes because it is not a TTY.
142 <li>correct a case in _nc_remove_string(), used by
143 <code>define_key()
</code>, to avoid infinite loop if the given string
144 happens to be a substring of other strings which are assigned to keys.
146 <li>modify logic of acsc to use the original character if no mapping is
147 defined, rather than a null.
149 <li>several improvements for handling multi-cell display of wide
152 <li>modify setcchar() to allow converting control characters to complex
154 <li>correct handling of multibyte characters in waddch_literal() which
155 force wrapping because they are started too late on the line.
156 <li>modify setcchar() to allow for wchar_t input strings that have
157 more than one spacing character.
160 <li>other fixes for wide-character support:
162 <li>rewrote lib_acs.c to allow PutAttrChar() to decide how to render
163 alternate-characters, i.e., to work with Linux console and UTF-
8
165 <li>implement a workaround so that line-drawing works with screen's
166 crippled UTF-
8 support (tested with
3.9.13). This only works with
167 the wide-character support (--enable-widec); the normal library
168 will simply suppress line-drawing when running in a UTF-
8 locale in
170 <li>corrections to lib_get_wstr.c:
172 <li>null-terminate buffer passed to setcchar(), which occasionally
174 <li>map special characters such as erase- and kill-characters into
175 key-codes so those will work as expected even if they are not
176 mentioned in the terminfo.
180 <li>modify
<code>setupterm()
</code> to check if the terminfo and
181 terminal-modes have already been read. This ensures that it does not
182 reinvoke
<code>def_prog_mode()
</code> when an application calls more
183 than one function, such as
<code>tgetent()
</code> and
184 <code>initscr()
</code>.
186 <li>fix form_driver() cases for REQ_CLR_EOF, REQ_CLR_EOL, REQ_DEL_CHAR,
187 REQ_DEL_PREV and REQ_NEW_LINE, which did not ensure the cursor was at
188 the editing position before making modifications.
190 <li>correct
<code>keybound()
</code>, which reported definitions in the
191 wrong table, i.e., the list of definitions which are disabled by
192 <code>keyok()
</code>.
194 <li>fixes related to safe_sprintf.c:
196 <li>correct an allocation size in safe_sprintf.c for the
"*" format
198 <li>correct safe_sprintf.c to not return a null pointer if the format
199 happens to be an empty string.
200 <li>make return value from _nc_printf_string() consistent. Before,
201 depending on whether --enable-safe-sprintf was used, it might not
202 be cached for reallocating.
205 <li>other low-level improvements to the optimization code include:
207 <li>if the output is a socket or other non-tty device, use
1
209 for the cost in mvcur; previously it was
9 milliseconds because the
210 baudrate was not known.
211 <li>modify lib_getch.c to avoid recursion via wgetnstr() when the
213 is not a tty and consequently mode-changes do not work.
214 <li>fix several places in tack/pad.c which tested and used the
215 parameter- and parameterless strings inconsistently.
216 <li>change several tputs() calls in scrolling code to use putp(), to
217 enable padding which may be needed for some terminals.
218 <li>improve mvcur() by checking if it is safe to move when video
219 attributes are set (msgr), and if not, reset/restore attributes
220 within that function rather than doing it separately in the GoTo()
221 function in tty_update.c.
222 <li>use tputs() rather than putp() in a few cases in tty_update.c
223 since the corresponding delays are proportional to the number of
224 lines affected: repeat_char, clr_eos, change_scroll_region.
227 <li>correct line/column reference in adjust_window(), needed to make
228 special windows such as curscr track properly when resizing.
230 <li>fix a potential recursion between napms() and _nc_timed_wait()
232 <li>rewrote lib_insch.c, combining it with lib_insstr.c so both handle
233 tab and other control characters consistently.
235 <li>do not try to open gpm mouse driver if standard output is not a
236 tty; the gpm library does not make this check.
241 <li>configure script:
245 <dt>--with-abi-version option.
246 <dd>addresses platforms where packagers have diverged from
247 ncurses ABI numbering.
248 <dt>--with-manpage-format=catonly
250 behavior of BSDI, allow install of man+cat files on NetBSD,
251 whose behavior has diverged by requiring both to be present.
252 <dt>--with-manpage-aliases
254 "--with-manpage-aliases" to provide the option of generating
255 ".so" files rather than symbolic links for manpage aliases.
256 <dt>--with-rel-version
257 <dd>workaround to force
258 libtool on Darwin generate the
"same" library names as with
259 the
"--with-shared" option. The Darwin ld program does not
260 work well with a zero as the minor-version value.
262 <dd>simplifies defining TRACE to incorporate trace() in libraries.
265 <li>fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
268 <li>allow BUILD_CC and related configure script variables to be
269 overridden from the environment.
270 <li>use AC_CHECK_TOOL to get proper values for AR and LD for cross
272 <li>use
<code>$cross_compiling
</code> variable in configure script
273 rather than comparing
<code>$host_alias
</code> and
274 <code>$target
</code> alias, since
"host" is traditionally misused
275 in autoconf to refer to the target platform.
276 <li>modify run_tic.in to avoid using wrong shared libraries when
280 <li>fixes for Mac OS X:
282 <li>fix a redefinition of
<code>$RANLIB
</code> in the configure
283 script when libtool is used.
284 <li>modify MKlib_gen.sh to avoid passing
"#" tokens through the C
285 preprocessor. This works around Mac OS X's preprocessor, which
286 insists on adding a blank on each side of the token.
289 <li>workarounds for broken tools:
291 <li>add configure check for wchar_t and wint_t types, rather than
292 rely on preprocessor definitions. Also work around for gcc
293 <code>fixinclude
</code> bug which creates a shadow copy of
294 curses.h if it sees these symbols apparently typedef'd.
295 <li>modify configure script to omit -Winline for gcc
3.3, since
296 that feature is broken.
297 <li>several script fixes to work around the ironically named
298 <em>POSIXLY_CORRECT
</em> feature of GNU sed
4.0.
299 <li>modify configure script to avoid using
"head -1", which does
300 not work if POSIXLY_CORRECT (sic) is set.
301 <li>update configure script to reflect fix for
302 AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL, which is broken in autoconf
2.5x for Mac
304 <li>repair check for missing C++ compiler, which is broken in
305 autoconf
2.5x by hardcoding it to g++.
308 <li>corrected ifdef's relating to configure check for wchar_t, etc.
309 <li>remove configure script check to allow -Wconversion for older
311 <li>modify configure script to accommodate libtool
1.5, as well as
312 add an parameter to the
"--with-libtool" option which can specify
313 the pathname of libtool.
314 <li>change several sed scripts to avoid using
"\+" since it is not a
315 BRE (basic regular expression). One instance caused terminfo
.5 to
316 be misformatted on FreeBSD.
317 <li>use '%' as sed substitute delimiter in run_tic script to avoid
318 problems with pathname delimiters such as ':' and '@'.
319 <li>add -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=
500 if needed when configuring with
320 "--enable-widec", to get
<code>mbstate_t
</code> declaration on HPUX
326 <li>adjust include-options in CF_ETIP_DEFINES to avoid missing
327 ncurses_dll.h, fixing special definitions that may be needed for
329 <li>modify CF_LIB_SUFFIX for Itanium releases of HP-UX, which use a
331 <li>improve ifdef's to guard against redefinition of wchar_t and wint_t
333 <li>remove an #undef for KEY_EVENT from curses.tail used in the
334 experimental NCURSES_WGETCH_EVENTS feature. The #undef confuses
335 Debian
<code>dpkg
</code>'s build script.
339 <H1>Features of Ncurses
</H1>
341 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release
4) curses:
344 <LI>All
257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
345 <LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
346 forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
348 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
349 a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
350 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
351 a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
352 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
353 data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
354 <LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(
1) implementation
355 are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
356 <LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
357 entries for use with less capable
<STRONG>curses
</STRONG>/
<STRONG>terminfo
</STRONG>
358 versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.
</UL>
360 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
363 <LI>The API is
8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses
364 specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features,
365 but not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly
366 concerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many
367 function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all
368 calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
369 <LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
370 of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
371 <LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
372 <LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/
2 console windows.
373 <LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
374 <LI>The function
<CODE>wresize()
</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
376 <LI>The function
<CODE>use_default_colors()
</CODE> allows you to
377 use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
378 achieving the effect of transparent colors.
379 <LI>The functions
<CODE>keyok()
</CODE>
380 and
<CODE>define_key()
</CODE> allow
381 you to better control the use of function keys,
382 e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
383 or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code.
384 <LI>Support for
16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
385 <LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
386 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
388 <LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates
389 a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal
390 use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion
391 for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than
392 the
4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
393 <LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
394 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic-
395 cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and
396 after the end would step on a non-space character. It will
397 automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
398 possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
400 <LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
401 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
402 when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
403 for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode).
404 <LI>The tic(
1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
405 ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
406 AT
&T extension sets.
407 <LI>A BSD-like tset(
1) utility is provided.
408 <LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
409 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
410 if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
411 This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
412 without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
413 <LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
414 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
415 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
416 <LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
417 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
418 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
419 $HOME/.terminfo directory.
420 <LI>A script (
<STRONG>capconvert
</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
421 transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a
422 TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
423 and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.
424 <LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
425 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither
426 fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
428 <LI>The table-of-entries utility
<STRONG>toe
</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
429 see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
430 <LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
431 point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
432 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
434 <LI>An HTML
"Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
435 a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
438 <H1>State of the Package
</H1>
440 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
441 library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
442 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
443 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and
444 arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
<P>
446 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
447 including (versions starting with those noted):
450 <DD> Curses Development Kit
452 <A HREF=
"http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
</A>
454 <A HREF=
"http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
</a>
456 <DD> directory-editor
458 <A HREF=
"http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/
</A>
460 <DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
461 for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
463 <A HREF=
"http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
</A>
465 <DD> the character-screen WWW browser
467 <A HREF=
"http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/
</A>
468 <DT> Midnight Commander
471 <A HREF=
"http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
</A>
475 <A HREF=
"http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/
</A>
477 <DD> file-transfer utility
479 <A HREF=
"http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/
</A>
481 <DD> New vi versions
1.50 are able to use ncurses versions
1.9.7 and later.
483 <A HREF=
"http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/
</A>
486 <DD> Lynx-like info browser.
487 <A HREF=
"http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
</A>
489 <DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
490 <A HREF=
"http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/
</A>
492 <DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
494 <A HREF=
"http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
</A>
496 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
499 <DD> terminal emulator
501 <A HREF=
"http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
</A>
505 <A HREF=
"http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/
</A>
509 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
512 <H2>Who's Who and What's What
</H2>
515 started it from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis.
517 continued development.
518 J
ürgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
519 Ongoing work is being done by
520 <A HREF=
"mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey
</A>.
522 acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
523 which holds the copyright on ncurses.
524 Contact the current maintainers at
525 <A HREF=
"mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org
</A>.
528 To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
529 <CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
</CODE> containing the line:
531 subscribe
<name
>@
<host.domain
>
534 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
535 testing of this package.
<P>
537 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
538 <A HREF=
"ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
</A> .
540 <H2>Future Plans
</H2>
542 <LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
543 <LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
545 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
546 on them, please join the ncurses list.
548 <H2>Other Related Resources
</H2>
550 The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
551 terminal description file maintained by
552 <A HREF=
"http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric Raymond
</A> .
553 Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided
556 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
557 not covered in the terminfo file at
558 <A HREF=
"http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
563 # The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
566 # case-fold-search:nil