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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.51 2008/10/11 19:22:27 tom Exp $
29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
35 + libtool does not work with GNAT.
37 + The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
38 develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
41 + Magic cookie support (for nonzero xmc values) does not work, since the logic
42 does not take into account refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not
43 adjust the current location when a cookie is emitted.
45 + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
46 screen between calls to refresh().
48 + SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
49 For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
50 activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
53 + The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
54 specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
55 terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
56 point. This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
58 + The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation. Some
59 C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
61 + vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not.
62 There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
64 + the configure --disable-ext-funcs option does not work for Ada95 tree.
66 + the --with-pthread configuration builds for Cygwin, but does not work
67 properly (test/worm.c shows all of the worms in the same location).
69 + the --enable-rpath configure option builds for the corresponding platforms;
70 however combining it with --with-ticlib and --with-termlib does not always
71 produce libraries that can be run without setting environment variables.
72 Building those with libtool does not work either. (This is a problem with
75 Portability (or lack thereof):
77 + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
78 trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
79 termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
80 problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
81 are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
82 BSDI. For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
83 ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
85 + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
86 interface for handling variadic argument lists (and are deprecated by X/Open
87 for that reason). Linux doesn't have varargs.h, it has the newer
88 X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these functions use stdargs
89 instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless you're building ncurses on
90 a System V old enough to only have varargs.h. (Solaris 2.5.1 used the
91 stdarg.h binding as well).
93 + If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
94 a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work. You lose. (It
95 should work on any System V, however). If you want to fix this, add an
96 implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
98 + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers.
100 + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
101 utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
106 + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
108 + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
109 for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
110 label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
111 lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
113 LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
115 1. Extended COSE conformance
117 There is an XPG4 standard released in 1996 which describes a superset
118 of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
119 We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
120 supporting internationalization.
124 Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
125 It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
126 a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
127 port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
128 result of this would be a DOS port.
132 It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
133 maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
134 automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
137 4. Unused capabilities
139 The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
141 A. Status-line capabilities:
143 Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
144 Numerics: width_status_line.
145 Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
147 System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
148 any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
149 shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
150 decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
153 B. Printer capabilities:
155 Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
156 row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
158 Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
159 max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
160 micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
161 output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
162 wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
163 String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
164 set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
165 ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
167 Curses doesn't use these.
169 C. Printer-control capabilities:
171 Boolean: prtr_silent.
172 Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
174 Curses doesn't use these.
178 Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
179 fixed_pause, wait_tone.
181 Curses doesn't use these.
183 E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
185 Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
186 Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
188 These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
189 window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
190 something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
192 F. Unused VDT capabilities:
194 Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
195 move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
196 needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
197 Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
198 Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
199 enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
200 display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
201 enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
202 scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
204 These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
206 i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
209 ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
210 Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.