1 Announcing ncurses 5.9 2 3 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of 4 curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, 5 supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters 6 and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses 7 enhancements over BSD curses. 8 9 In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he 10 considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of Unix 11 releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses. 12 13 The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for 14 some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD 15 and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any 16 ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp! 17 18 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including 19 a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), 20 tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full 21 manual pages are provided for the library and tools. 22 23 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU 24 distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ . 25 It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . 26 27 Release Notes 28 29 This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 30 through 5.8; very few applications will require recompilation, 31 depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the 32 change-log since ncurses 5.8 release. 33 34 This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent 35 problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release. 36 37 It also improves the Ada95 binding: 38 * fixes a longstanding portability problem with its use of the 39 [3]set_field_type function. Because that function uses 40 variable-length argument lists, its interface with gnat does not 41 work with certain platforms. 42 * improves configurability and portability, particularly when built 43 separately from the main ncurses tree. The 5.8 release introduced 44 scripts which can be used to construct separate tarballs for the 45 Ada95 and ncurses examples. 46 Those were a proof of concept. For the 5.9 release, those scripts 47 are augmented with rpm- and dpkg-scripts used in test builds 48 against a variety of gnat- and system ncurses versions as old as 49 gnat 3.15 and ncurses 5.4 (see snapshots and systems tested 50 [4]here. 51 * additional improvements were made for portability of the ncurses 52 examples, adding rpm- and dpkg-scripts for test-builds. See 53 [5]this page for snapshots and other information. 54 55 Features of Ncurses 56 57 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) 58 curses: 59 * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are 60 documented). 61 * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, 62 color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic 63 recognition of keypad and function keys. 64 * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of 65 windows with backing store, is included. 66 * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but 67 flexible interface for menu programming, is included. 68 * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection 69 through on-screen forms, is included. 70 * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) 71 implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format 72 SVr4 curses uses. 73 * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries 74 for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the 75 HP/UX and AIX ports. 76 77 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: 78 * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN 79 curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE 80 level features, and most EXTENDED features). It includes many 81 function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of 82 all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only). 83 * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost 84 corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character 85 capability. 86 * Ada95 and C++ bindings. 87 * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD 88 and OS/2 console windows. 89 * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. 90 * The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving 91 their data. 92 * The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's 93 default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of 94 transparent colors. 95 * The functions keyok and define_key allow you to better control the 96 use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by 97 defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key 98 code. 99 * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when 100 configured using the --enable-ext-colors option. 101 * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm. 102 * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a 103 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's 104 or System V's. 105 * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code 106 incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it 107 to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and 108 line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more 109 powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch routine. 110 * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The 111 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the 112 magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the 113 beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character. 114 It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so 115 would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the 116 visual appearance of the screen. 117 * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded 118 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal 119 types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible 120 (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that 121 must run in single-user mode). 122 * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability 123 to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension 124 sets. 125 * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. 126 * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo 127 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that 128 directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the 129 system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have 130 personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system 131 terminfo directory. 132 * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled 133 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this 134 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System 135 V.) 136 * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to 137 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to 138 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the 139 user's $HOME/.terminfo directory. 140 * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition 141 from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP 142 environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and 143 converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under 144 $HOME/.terminfo. 145 * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in 146 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is 147 neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have 148 to, but it's there. 149 * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see 150 exactly what terminal types are available on the system. 151 * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point 152 have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be 153 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with 154 #undef. 155 * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document 156 provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming 157 interface. 158 159 State of the Package 160 161 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library 162 is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many 163 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe 164 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks 165 and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester. 166 167 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications 168 including (versions starting with those noted): 169 170 cdk 171 Curses Development Kit 172 [6]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ 173 [7]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ 174 175 ded 176 directory-editor 177 [8]http://invisible-island.net/ded/ 178 179 dialog 180 the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the 181 basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux. 182 [9]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ 183 184 lynx 185 the character-screen WWW browser 186 [10]http://lynx.isc.org/release/ 187 188 Midnight Commander 189 file manager 190 [11]http://www.midnight-commander.org/ 191 192 mutt 193 mail utility 194 [12]http://www.mutt.org/ 195 196 ncftp 197 file-transfer utility 198 [13]http://www.ncftp.com/ 199 200 nvi 201 New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and 202 later. 203 [14]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi 204 205 pinfo 206 Lynx-like info browser. 207 [15]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ 208 209 tin 210 newsreader, supporting color, MIME [16]http://www.tin.org/ 211 212 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: 213 214 minicom 215 terminal emulator 216 [17]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ 217 218 vile 219 vi-like-emacs 220 [18]http://invisible-island.net/vile/ 221 222 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs 223 (including a few games). 224 225Who's Who and What's What 226 227 Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by 228 Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen Pfeifer 229 wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done 230 by [19]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the 231 Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses. 232 Contact the current maintainers at [20]bug-ncurses@gnu.org. 233 234 To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to 235 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line: 236 subscribe <name>@<host.domain> 237 238 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development 239 and testing of this package. 240 241 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made 242 available at [21]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ . 243 244Future Plans 245 246 * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization 247 support. 248 * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. 249 250 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in 251 working on them, please join the ncurses list. 252 253Other Related Resources 254 255 The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format 256 terminal description file once maintained by [22]Eric Raymond . Unlike 257 the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the 258 same file, and provides several user-definable extensions beyond the 259 X/Open specification. 260 261 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not 262 covered in the terminfo file at [23]Richard Shuford's archive . 263 264References 265 266 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ 267 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ 268 3. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x 269 4. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html 270 5. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html 271 6. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/ 272 7. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/ 273 8. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ 274 9. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/ 275 10. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ 276 11. http://www.midnight-commander.org/ 277 12. http://www.mutt.org/ 278 13. http://www.ncftp.com/ 279 14. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi 280 15. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/ 281 16. http://www.tin.org/ 282 17. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ 283 18. http://invisible-island.net/vile/ 284 19. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net 285 20. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org 286 21. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ 287 22. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/ 288 23. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal 289