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32<HTML>
33<HEAD>
34<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
35<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
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38<BODY>
39
40<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1>
41
42The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
43curses in System V Release 4.0, and more.  It uses terminfo format,
44supports pads and color
45and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
46and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P>
47
48In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
49considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of
50Unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to
51ncurses.<P>
52
53The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux.
54It has been in use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library,
55and on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package.
56It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
57It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
58
59The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
60terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
61and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1).  Full manual pages are provided for
62the library and tools.<P>
63
64The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
65the GNU distribution site
66<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</A>&nbsp;.
67<br>It is also available at
68<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A>&nbsp;.
69
70<H1>Release Notes</H1>
71
72This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.5;
73very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
74These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.5 release.
75<p>
76Interface changes:
77<ul>
78	<li>generate linkable stubs for some macros:
79	<br>
80	  getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
81	  getpary, getpary,
82	<br>
83	  and (for libncursesw)
84	<br>
85	  wgetbkgrnd
86
87</ul>
88New features and improvements:
89<ul>
90        <li>library
91	<ul>
92		<li>support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions.
93		    This uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for
94		    several versions on different platforms.
95
96		<li>add <code>use_legacy_coding()</code> function to support
97		    lynx's font-switching feature.
98
99		<li>add extension <code>nofilter()</code>, to cancel a prior
100		    <code>filter()</code> call.
101
102		<li>add/install a package config script, e.g.,
103		    <code>ncurses5-config</code> or
104		    <code>ncursesw5-config</code>, according to
105		    configuration options.
106
107		<li>provide ifdef for <code>NCURSES_NOMACROS</code> which
108		    suppresses most macro definitions from curses.h, i.e.,
109		    where a macro is defined to override a function to improve
110		    performance.
111
112		<li>make ifdef's consistent in <code>curses.h</code> for the
113		    extended colors so the header file can be used for the
114		    normal curses library.  The header file installed for
115		    extended colors is a variation of the wide-character
116		    configuration.
117
118		<li>improve <code>tgetstr()</code> by making the return value
119		    point into the user's buffer, if provided.
120
121		<li>add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with
122		    <code>tparm()</code> using either varargs (the existing
123		    status), or using a fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
124
125		<li>widen the test for xterm <code>kmous</code> a little to
126		    <code>allow</code> for other
127		    strings than "\E[M", e.g., for <code>xterm-sco</code>
128		    functionality in xterm.
129
130		<li>modify <code>wgetnstr()</code> to return
131		    <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> if a sigwinch occurs.
132
133		<li>move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
134		    curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
135		    those if <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED</code> is defined
136		    without ensuring that &lt;wchar.h&gt; is included.
137
138		<li>change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are
139		    installed.  Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries,
140		    link the shared objects into the install directory.  This
141		    makes the <code>--with-rpath</code> option work except with
142		    <code>$(DESTDIR)</code>.
143
144		<li>several improvements for rendering in hpterm.  These are
145		    only available if the library is configured using
146		    <code>--enable-xmc-glitch</code>.
147
148		<li>Add <code>NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS</code> and
149		    <code>NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE</code> environment variables
150		    to allow runtime suppression of the related hard-tabs and
151		    xmc-glitch features.
152	</ul>
153
154        <li>programs:
155	<ul>
156		<li>add new test programs:  chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c,
157		    echochar.c, foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting
158		    that existing test programs also were modified to test
159		    additional features).
160
161		<li>modify tack to test extended capability function-key
162		    strings.
163
164		<li>modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via <code>cgetent()</code>
165		    functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
166
167		<li>improve infocmp/tic <code>-f</code> option formatting.
168
169		<li>add <code>toe -a</code> option, to show all databases.
170		    This uses new private interfaces in the ncurses library for
171		    iterating through the list of databases.
172
173		<li>modify <code>MKfallback.sh</code> to use
174		    <code>tic&nbsp;-x</code> when constructing fallback tables to
175		    allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a fallback entry.
176	</ul>
177
178	<li>terminal database
179	<ul>
180		<li>add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome terminal (mgt)
181		<li>add nsterm-16color entry
182		<li>updated mlterm terminfo entry
183		<li>add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
184		<li>remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux entry, since it does not really do this
185		<li>add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
186		<li>add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri strings
187		<li>add hpterm-color terminfo entry
188		<li>add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which are reported to implement this feature
189		<li>correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
190	</ul>
191</ul>
192Major bug fixes:
193<ul>
194	<li>correct a typo in configure <code>--with-bool</code> option for the
195	    case where <code>--without-cxx</code> is used.
196
197	<li>move assignment from environment variable <code>ESCDELAY</code>
198	    from <code>initscr()</code> down to <code>newterm()</code> so the
199	    environment variable affects timeouts for terminals opened with
200	    newterm() as well.
201
202	<li>modify <code>werase</code> to clear multicolumn characters that
203	    extend into a derived window.
204
205	<li>modify <code>wchgat()</code> to mark updated cells as changed so a
206	    refresh will repaint those cells.
207
208	<li>correct logic in <code>wadd_wch()</code> and
209	    <code>wecho_wch()</code>, which did not guard against passing the
210	    multi-column attribute into a call on <code>waddch()</code>, e.g.,
211	    using data returned by <code>win_wch()</code>
212
213	<li>fix redrawing of windows other than <code>stdscr</code> using
214	    <code>wredrawln()</code> by touching the corresponding rows in
215	    <code>curscr</code>.
216
217	<li>reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to <code>tgetent()</code> by
218	    remembering the last <code>TERMINAL*</code> value allocated to hold
219	    the corresponding data and freeing that if the
220	    <code>tgetent()</code> result buffer is the same as the previous
221	    call.
222
223	<li>modify <code>read_termtype()</code> so the <code>term_names</code>
224	    data is always allocated as part of the <code>str_table</code>, a
225	    better fix for a memory leak.
226
227	<li>fix <code>wins_nwstr(),</code> which did not handle single-column
228	    non-8bit codes.
229
230	<li>modify <code>wbkgrnd()</code> to avoid clearing the
231	    <code>A_CHARTEXT</code> attribute bits since those record the state
232	    of multicolumn characters.
233
234	<li>improve <code>SIGWINCH</code> handling by postponing its effect
235	    during <code>newterm()</code>, etc., when allocating screens.
236
237	<li>remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
238	    <code>mvwin()</code>.
239
240	<li>add checks in <code>waddchnstr()</code> and
241	    <code>wadd_wchnstr()</code> to stop copying when a null character
242	    is found.
243
244	<li>add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
245	    region before scrolling on a new line.
246
247	<li>add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as
248	    test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with
249	    A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision
250	    of legacy coding.
251</ul>
252
253Portability:
254<ul>
255        <li>configure script:
256          <ul>
257          <li>new options:
258            <dl>
259
260	    <dt>--with-hashed-db
261	    <dd>Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
262		each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
263		tree.
264
265	    <dt>--without-dlsym
266	    <dd>Do not use <code>dlsym()</code> to load GPM dynamically.
267
268	    <dt>--with-valgrind
269	    <dd>Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
270
271	    <dt>--enable-wgetch-events
272	    <dd>Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
273
274	    <dt>--enable-signed-char
275	    <dd>Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
276
277            </dl>
278
279	  <li>improved options:
280	    <dl>
281
282	    <dt>--disable-largefile
283	    <dd>make the option work both ways.
284
285	    <dt>--with-gpm
286	    <dd>The option now accepts a parameter,
287		i.e., the name of the dynamic GPM library to load via
288		<code>dlopen()</code>
289
290	    <dt>--disable-symlinks
291	    <dd>The option now allows one to
292		disable <code>symlink()</code> in <code>tic</code> even when
293		<code>link()</code> does not work.
294
295	    </dl>
296
297	</ul>
298
299	<li>other configure/build issues:  <ul> <li>remove special case for
300	    Darwin in <code>CF_XOPEN_SOURCE</code> configure macro.
301
302		<li>add configure check to ensure that <code>SIGWINCH</code> is
303		    defined on platforms such as OS X which exclude that when
304		    <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE,</code> etc., are defined
305
306		<li>use ld's <code>-search_paths_first</code> option on Darwin
307		    to work around odd search rules on that platform.
308
309		<li>improve ifdef's for <code>_POSIX_VDISABLE</code> in tset to
310                    work with Mac OS X.
311
312		<li>modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
313		    used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
314		    <code>$(CFLAGS)</code> variable is also used.
315
316		<li>use <code>${CC}</code> rather than <code>${LD}</code> in
317		    shared library rules for IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure
318		    that initialization sections are provided for extra linkage
319		    requirements, e.g., of C++ applications.
320
321		<li>improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
322		    FreeBSD and NetBSD to make
323		    <code>--with-shlib-version</code> work.
324
325		<li>split up dependency of <code>names.c</code> and
326		    <code>codes.c</code> in <code>ncurses/Makefile</code> to
327		    work with parallel make.
328
329		<li>modify <code>MKlib_gen.sh</code> to change
330                    preprocessor-expanded <code>_Bool</code> back to <code>bool</code>.
331
332		<li>modify <code>progs/Makefile.in</code> to make
333		    <code>tput&nbsp;init</code> work properly with cygwin,
334		    i.e., do not pass a <code>.exe</code> in the reference
335		    string used in check_aliases.
336	</ul>
337
338	<li>library:
339	<ul>
340		<li>ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that
341		    <code>wcwidth()</code> claims are not one-column.  This is
342		    a workaround for Solaris' broken locale support.
343
344		<li>reduce name-pollution in <code>term.h</code> by removing
345		    <code>#define</code>'s for HAVE_xxx symbols.
346
347		<li>fix <code>#ifdef</code> in <code>c++/internal.h</code> for
348		    QNX 6.1
349	</ul>
350
351	<li>test programs:  <ul> <li>modify <code>test/configure</code> script
352	    to allow building test programs with PDCurses/X11.
353
354		<li>modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD
355		    curses.  Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a
356		    subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4
357		    additions.  But it is enough for comparison.
358
359		<li>improved <code>test/configure</code> to build test/ncurses
360		    on HPUX 11 using the vendor curses.
361
362		<li>change configure script to produce
363		    <code>test/Makefile</code> from data file.
364	</ul>
365</ul>
366
367<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
368
369The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
370
371<UL>
372<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
373<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
374forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
375and function keys.
376<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
377a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
378<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
379a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
380<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
381data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
382<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
383are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
384<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
385entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
386versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL>
387
388The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
389
390<UL>
391<LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses
392specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features,
393and most EXTENDED features).
394It includes many function calls not supported under SVr4 curses
395(but portability of all
396calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
397<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
398of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
399<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
400<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm
401and FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.
402<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
403<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
404their data.
405<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to
406use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
407achieving the effect of transparent colors.
408<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE>
409and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow
410you to better control the use of function keys,
411e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
412or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code.
413<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
414<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization.  The package now features a
415cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
416or System V's.
417<LI>Super hardware scrolling support.  The screen-update code incorporates
418a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal
419use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion
420for screen-line movements.  This algorithm is more powerful than
421the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
422<LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.  The
423screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic-
424cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and
425after the end would step on a non-space character.  It will
426automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
427possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
428of the screen.
429<LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
430fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
431when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
432for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode).
433<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
434ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
435AT&amp;T extension sets.
436<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
437<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
438entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
439if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
440This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
441without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
442<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
443descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
444generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
445<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
446other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
447compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
448$HOME/.terminfo directory.
449<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
450transition from termcap to terminfo.  It gathers the information in a
451TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
452and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.
453<LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
454when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree.  This feature is neither
455fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
456but it's there.
457<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
458see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
459<LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
460point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
461prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
462<CODE>#undef</CODE>.
463<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
464a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
465</UL>
466
467<H1>State of the Package</H1>
468
469Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
470library is far more reliable than it used to be.  Bounds checking in many
471`dangerous' entry points has been improved.  The code is now type-safe
472according to gcc -Wall.  The library has been checked for malloc leaks and
473arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P>
474
475The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
476including (versions starting with those noted):
477<DL>
478<DT> cdk
479<DD> Curses Development Kit
480<br>
481<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A>
482<br>
483<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a>
484<DT> ded
485<DD> directory-editor
486<br>
487<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</A>
488<DT> dialog
489<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
490for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
491<br>
492<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</A>
493<DT> lynx
494<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
495<br>
496<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</A>
497<DT> Midnight Commander
498<DD> file manager
499<br>
500<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/</A>
501<DT> mutt
502<DD> mail utility
503<br>
504<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</A>
505<DT> ncftp
506<DD> file-transfer utility
507<br>
508<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</A>
509<DT> nvi
510<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
511<br>
512<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>
513<br>
514<DT> pinfo
515<DD> Lynx-like info browser.
516<A HREF="http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/</A>
517<DT> tin
518<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
519<A HREF="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</A>
520<DT> vh-1.6
521<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
522<br>
523<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>
524</DL>
525as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
526<DL>
527<DT> minicom
528<DD> terminal emulator
529<br>
530<A HREF="http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">
531http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</A>
532<DT> vile
533<DD> vi-like-emacs
534<br>
535<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</A>
536</DL>
537<P>
538
539The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
540a few games).
541
542<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
543
544Zeyd Ben-Halim
545started it from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis.
546Eric S. Raymond
547continued development.
548J&uuml;rgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
549Ongoing work is being done by
550<A HREF="mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</A>.
551Thomas Dickey
552acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
553which holds the copyright on ncurses.
554Contact the current maintainers at
555<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>.
556<P>
557
558To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
559<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line:
560<PRE>
561             subscribe &lt;name&gt;@&lt;host.domain&gt;
562</PRE>
563
564This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
565testing of this package.<P>
566
567Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
568<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A>&nbsp;.
569
570<H2>Future Plans</H2>
571<UL>
572<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
573<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
574</UL>
575We need people to help with these projects.  If you are interested in working
576on them, please join the ncurses list.
577
578<H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
579
580The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
581terminal description file once maintained by
582<A HREF="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric Raymond</A>&nbsp;.
583Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided
584in the same file, and provides several user-definable extensions
585beyond the X/Open specification.<P>
586
587You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
588not covered in the terminfo file at
589<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
590archive</A>&nbsp;.
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