xref: /freebsd/contrib/ncurses/ANNOUNCE (revision 06bfebdedb0d353f1771adb65731f64461d9bd01)

                            Announcing ncurses 5.9

   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   5.8;  very  few  applications  will  require  recompilation,
   depending   on  the  platform.  These  are  the  highlights  from  the
   change-log since ncurses 5.8 release.

   This  is  a  bug-fix  release,  correcting  a  small  number of urgent
   problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release.

   It also improves the Ada95 binding:
     * fixes  a  longstanding  portability  problem  with  its use of the
       [3]set_field_type    function.    Because   that   function   uses
       variable-length  argument  lists, its interface with gnat does not
       work with certain platforms.
     * improves  configurability and portability, particularly when built
       separately  from the main ncurses tree. The 5.8 release introduced
       scripts  which  can be used to construct separate tarballs for the
       Ada95 and ncurses examples.
       Those  were a proof of concept. For the 5.9 release, those scripts
       are  augmented  with  rpm-  and  dpkg-scripts  used in test builds
       against  a  variety of gnat- and system ncurses versions as old as
       gnat  3.15  and  ncurses  5.4  (see  snapshots  and systems tested
       [4]here.
     * additional  improvements  were made for portability of the ncurses
       examples,  adding  rpm-  and  dpkg-scripts  for  test-builds.  See
       [5]this page for snapshots and other information.

                              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
          [6]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
          [7]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/

   ded
          directory-editor
          [8]http://invisible-island.net/ded/

   dialog
          the  underlying  application used in Slackware's setup, and the
          basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
          [9]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/

   lynx
          the character-screen WWW browser
          [10]http://lynx.isc.org/release/

   Midnight Commander
          file manager
          [11]http://www.midnight-commander.org/

   mutt
          mail utility
          [12]http://www.mutt.org/

   ncftp
          file-transfer utility
          [13]http://www.ncftp.com/

   nvi
          New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
          later.
          [14]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi

   pinfo
          Lynx-like info browser.
          [15]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/

   tin
          newsreader, supporting color, MIME [16]http://www.tin.org/

   as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:

   minicom
          terminal emulator
          [17]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/

   vile
          vi-like-emacs
          [18]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. Juergen Pfeifer
   wrote  most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done
   by  [19]Thomas  Dickey.  Thomas  Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
   Free  Software  Foundation,  which  holds  the  copyright  on ncurses.
   Contact the current maintainers at [20]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 [21]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 [22]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 [23]Richard Shuford's archive .

References

   1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
   2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
   3. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x
   4. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html
   5. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
   6. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
   7. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
   8. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
   9. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
  10. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
  11. http://www.midnight-commander.org/
  12. http://www.mutt.org/
  13. http://www.ncftp.com/
  14. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
  15. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
  16. http://www.tin.org/
  17. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
  18. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
  19. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
  20. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
  21. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
  22. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
  23. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal