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32
33<html>
34<head>
35  <meta name="generator" content=
36  "HTML Tidy for HTML5 for Linux version 5.2.0">
37
38  <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
39  <link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
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60
61<body>
62  <h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
63
64  <h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
65
66  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
67  library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
68  Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo format, supports
69  pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and
70  function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
71  enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
72  X/Open Curses.</p>
73
74  <p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
75  that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
76  keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
77  BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
78  "main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
79
80  <p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
81  ported to many systems:</p>
82
83  <ul>
84    <li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
85    (aside from some embedded applications).</li>
86
87    <li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
88    and MacOS.</li>
89
90    <li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
91    first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
92
93    <li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
94    curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
95    "main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
96    Solaris, Tru64.</li>
97
98    <li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
99    <span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
100  </ul>
101
102  <p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
103  including</p>
104
105  <ul>
106    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
107    "part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
108    tool</li>
109
110    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
111    "part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
112    screen</li>
113
114    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
115    "part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
116
117    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
118    "part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
119
120    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
121    "part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
122
123    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
124    "part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
125    entries</li>
126
127    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
128    "part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
129    capabilities in shell scripts</li>
130
131    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
132    "part-name">tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
133  </ul>
134
135  <p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
136
137  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
138  available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
139  "@HOMEPAGE@/">homepage</a>:</p>
140
141  <blockquote>
142    <p><a href=
143    "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
144    or<br>
145    <a href=
146    "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
147  </blockquote>
148
149  <p>It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution
150  site</p>
151
152  <blockquote>
153    <p><a href=
154    "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
155  </blockquote>
156
157  <h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
158  Notes</a></h2>
159
160  <p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
161  @VERSION@, released <strong>February 12, 2020</strong>.</p>
162
163  <p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
164  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.1; providing
165  extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
166  the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
167  "main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
168  to reflect improvements to the <span class=
169  "main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
170  programs.</p>
171
172  <p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
173  this announcement.</p>
174
175  <p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
176  bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with user-defined capabilities
177  in terminal descriptions. The release notes also mention some
178  other bug-fixes, but are focused on new features and improvements
179  to existing features since <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
180  6.1 release.</p>
181
182  <h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
183
184  <h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
185
186  <p>There are several new features:</p>
187
188  <ul>
189    <li>
190      <p><a href=
191      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_EDGE_INSERT_STAY</a>
192      tells the form library to optionally delay cursor movement on
193      a field edge/boundary</p>
194    </li>
195
196    <li>
197      <p><a href=
198      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_INPUT_FIELD</a>
199      extension to form library allows a dynamic field to shrink if
200      the new limit is smaller than the current field size.</p>
201    </li>
202
203    <li>
204      <p>added <a href=
205      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_curses</a> and
206      <a href=
207      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_terminfo</a> to
208      replace internal symbols for leak-checking.</p>
209    </li>
210
211    <li>
212      <p>added <a href=
213      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_trace.3x.html#h3-Functions">curses_trace</a>,
214      to replace trace().</p>
215    </li>
216  </ul>
217
218  <p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
219  extensions) are provided in this release:</p>
220
221  <ul>
222    <li>
223      <p>mouse decoding now handles shift/control/alt logic when
224      decoding xterm's 1006 mode</p>
225    </li>
226
227    <li>
228      <p>ncurses now defines a limit for <a href=
229      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html">wgetnstr</a>, <a href=
230      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html">wgetn_wstr</a> when
231      length is negative or &ldquo;too large&rdquo;.</p>
232    </li>
233
234    <li>reordered loop-limit checks in <a href=
235    "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_insstr.3x.html">winsnstr</a> in case the
236    string has no terminating null and only the number of
237    characters is used.</li>
238
239    <li>
240      <p>there is now no buffer-size limit when reading the
241      <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
242      variable.</p>
243    </li>
244
245    <li>
246      <p>the <a href=
247      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
248      variable may be interpreted as a fallback to a terminfo
249      entry</p>
250    </li>
251
252    <li>
253      <p><a href=
254      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
255      mvcur</tt></a> now decides whether to use hard-tabs, using
256      <strong><tt>xt</tt></strong>, <strong><tt>tbc</tt></strong>
257      and <strong><tt>hts</tt></strong> as clues.</p>
258    </li>
259
260    <li>
261      <p>extended colors are improved by modifying an internal call
262      to <a href=
263      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
264      vid_puts</tt></a> to pass extended color pairs e.g., from
265      <tt>tty_update.c</tt> and <tt>lib_mvcur.c</tt></p>
266    </li>
267
268    <li>
269      <p id="getenv-fixes">the initialization functions now avoid
270      relying upon persistent data for the result from <a href=
271      "#getenv-check"><tt>getenv</tt></a></p>
272    </li>
273
274    <li>
275      <p>scrolling is improved:</p>
276
277      <ul>
278        <li>a limit check in <tt>newline_forces_scroll</tt> handles
279        the case where the row is inside scroll-margins, but not at
280        the end.</li>
281
282        <li>
283          <p>improved loop limits in <tt>_nc_scroll_window</tt>
284          handle a case where the scrolled data is a pad which is
285          taller than the window.</p>
286        </li>
287      </ul>
288    </li>
289  </ul>
290
291  <h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
292  improvements</a></h4>
293
294  <p>These are revised features:</p>
295
296  <ul>
297    <li>
298      <p>used &ldquo;<tt>const</tt>&rdquo; in some prototypes
299      rather than <tt>NCURSES_CONST</tt> where X/Open Curses was
300      updated to do this, e.g., <tt>wscanw</tt>, <tt>newterm</tt>,
301      the terminfo interface. Also use &ldquo;<tt>const</tt>&rdquo;
302      for consistency in the termcap interface, which was withdrawn
303      by X/Open Curses in Issue 5 (2007). As of Issue 7, X/Open
304      Curses still lacks &ldquo;<tt>const</tt>&rdquo; for certain
305      return values, e.g., <a href=
306      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-keyname_key_name">keyname</a>.</p>
307    </li>
308
309    <li>
310      <p>modified <a href=
311      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd"><tt>wbkgd</tt></a>
312      and <a href=
313      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgrnd.3x.html#h3-bkgrnd"><tt>wbkgrnd</tt></a>
314      to improve compatibility with SVr4 curses, changing the way
315      the window rendition is updated when the background character
316      is modified</p>
317    </li>
318
319    <li>
320      <p>improved terminfo write/read by modifying the fourth item
321      of the extended header to denote the number of valid strings
322      in the extended string table (see <a href=
323      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">term(5)</a>).</p>
324    </li>
325
326    <li>
327      <p>modified the initialization checks for mouse so that the
328      <a href=
329      "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
330      block will work with terminal descriptions not mentioning
331      <em>xterm</em>.</p>
332    </li>
333  </ul>
334
335  <p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>
336
337  <ul>
338    <li>
339      <p>deprecated <a href=
340      "@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t970831">safe-sprintf</a>, since the
341      <tt>vsnprintf</tt> function, which does what was needed, was
342      standardized long ago.</p>
343    </li>
344
345    <li>
346      <p>marked <a href=
347      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY"><tt>vwprintw</tt></a>
348      and <tt>vwscanw</tt> as deprecated; recommend using <a href=
349      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html"><tt>vw_printw</tt></a>
350      and <tt>vw_scanw</tt>, respectively.</p>
351    </li>
352
353    <li>
354      <p>added deprecation warnings for internal functions called
355      by older versions of <a href=
356      "@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack</a>.</p>
357    </li>
358
359    <li>
360      <p>removed unused <tt>_nc_import_termtype2</tt> function.</p>
361    </li>
362  </ul>
363
364  <p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
365
366  <ul>
367    <li>
368      <p>check parameter of <a href=
369      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_escdelay</a>,
370      return ERR if negative.</p>
371    </li>
372
373    <li>
374      <p>check parameter of <a href=
375      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_tabsize</a>, return
376      ERR if not greater than zero</p>
377    </li>
378
379    <li>
380      <p>correct a status-check in _nc_read_tic_entry() so that if
381      reading a hex/b64 <a href=
382      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>,
383      and the <a href=
384      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERM"><tt>$TERM</tt></a>
385      does not match, fall-through to the compiled-in search
386      list.</p>
387    </li>
388
389    <li>
390      <p>amend check for <a href=
391      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities"><tt>
392      repeat_char</tt></a> to handle a case where setlocale() was
393      called after <a href=
394      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_initscr.3x.html"><tt>initscr</tt></a></p>
395    </li>
396
397    <li>
398      <p>move macro for <a href=
399      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_touch.3x.html"><tt>is_linetouched</tt></a>
400      inside <strong><tt>NCURSES_NOMACROS</tt></strong>
401      <em><tt>ifndef</tt></em>.</p>
402    </li>
403
404    <li>
405      <p>use <tt>_nc_copy_termtype2</tt> rather than direct
406      assignment in <a href=
407      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization">setupterm</a>,
408      in case it is called repeatedly using fallback terminfo
409      descriptions</p>
410    </li>
411
412    <li>
413      <p>improve workaround for Solaris wcwidth versus line-drawing
414      characters</p>
415    </li>
416
417    <li>
418      <p>add checks in <a href=
419      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html"><tt>repair_subwindows</tt></a>
420      to keep the current position and scroll-margins inside the
421      resized subwindow.</p>
422    </li>
423
424    <li>
425      <p>correct a buffer-limit in <tt>write_entry.c</tt> for
426      systems that use caseless filenames.</p>
427    </li>
428
429    <li>
430      <p>improved build-time utility <em>report_offsets</em>:</p>
431
432      <ul>
433        <li>
434          <p>add categories, e.g., "w" for wide-character, "t" for
435          threads to make the report more readable. Reorganized the
436          structures reported to make the categories more
437          apparent.</p>
438        </li>
439
440        <li>
441          <p>add <tt>NCURSES_GLOBALS</tt> and
442          <tt>NCURSES_PRESCREEN</tt> to report to show how similar
443          the different <em>libtinfo</em> configurations are.</p>
444        </li>
445      </ul>
446    </li>
447
448    <li>
449      <p>modified some header files to ensure that those include
450      necessary files except for the previously-documented
451      cases</p>
452    </li>
453
454    <li>
455      <p>added some traces in initialization to show whether a
456      fallback entry is used.</p>
457    </li>
458
459    <li>
460      <p>made minor optimization to reduce calls to
461      _nc_reserve_pairs</p>
462    </li>
463  </ul>
464
465  <p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
466
467  <ul>
468    <li>
469      <p>fix a special case in <tt>PutAttrChar</tt> where a cell is
470      marked as alternate-character set, but the terminal does not
471      actually support the given graphic character. This would
472      happen in an older terminal such as <em>vt52</em>, which
473      lacks most line-drawing capability.</p>
474    </li>
475
476    <li>
477      <p>corrected flag for "seq" method of db 1.8.5 interface,
478      needed by toe on some of the BSDs.</p>
479    </li>
480
481    <li>
482      <p>modify comparison in make_hash.c to correct a special case
483      in collision handling for Caps-hpux11</p>
484    </li>
485
486    <li>
487      <p>add extended_slk_color{,_sp} symbols to the appropriate
488      package/*.{map,sym} files</p>
489    </li>
490
491    <li>
492      <p>modify lib_setup to avoid calling pthread_self() without
493      first verifying that the address is valid, i.e., for weak
494      symbols</p>
495    </li>
496
497    <li>
498      <p>add a couple of broken-linker symbols to the list of
499      versioned symbols to help with link-time optimization versus
500      weak symbols.</p>
501    </li>
502  </ul>
503
504  <h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
505  improvements</a></h3>
506
507  <p id="h4-utilities">Several improvements were made to the utility programs:</p>
508
509  <dl>
510    <dt><span class="part-name">clear</span>
511    </dt>
512
513    <dd>
514      <ul>
515        <li>improved logic for clearing with the <em>E3</em>
516        extension, in case the terminal scrolls content onto its
517        saved-lines before actually clearing the display, by
518        clearing the saved-lines after clearing the display</li>
519      </ul>
520    </dd>
521
522    <dt><span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
523    </dt>
524
525    <dd>
526      <ul>
527        <li>omit filtering of &ldquo;<tt>OTxx</tt>&rdquo; names
528        which are used for obsolete capabilities, when the output
529        is sorted by long-names. This change helps when making a
530        table of the short/long capability names.</li>
531      </ul>
532    </dd>
533
534    <dt><span class="part-name">tic</span>
535    </dt>
536
537    <dd>
538      <ul>
539        <li>added check for consistent alternate character set
540        capabilities.</li>
541
542        <li>added check for paired <tt>indn</tt>/<tt>rin</tt>.</li>
543
544        <li>added check for terminals with <tt>parm_dch</tt> vs
545        <tt>parm_ich</tt>.</li>
546
547        <li>added check for the case where
548        <tt>setf</tt>/<tt>setb</tt> are given using different
549        strings, but provide identical results to
550        <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setab</tt>.</li>
551
552        <li>corrected check for <tt>ich1</tt>.</li>
553
554        <li>changed a too-large terminal entry from a fatal error
555        to a warning.</li>
556      </ul>
557    </dd>
558
559    <dt><span class="part-name">toe</span>
560    </dt>
561
562    <dd>
563      <ul>
564        <li>ignores any hex/b64 <tt>$TERMINFO</tt> value in the
565        list of terminfo databases.</li>
566      </ul>
567    </dd>
568
569    <dt><span class="part-name">tset</span>
570    </dt>
571
572    <dd>
573      <ul>
574        <li>replace check in <span class="part-name">reset</span>
575        command for obsolete &ldquo;<tt>pt</tt>&rdquo; capability
576        using <tt>tbc</tt> and <tt>hts</tt> capabilities as
577        clues</li>
578
579        <li>modify <span class="part-name">reset</span> to allow
580        for tabstops at intervals other than 8.</li>
581
582        <li>change <span class="part-name">reset</span>'s behavior
583        for margins to simply clear soft-margins if possible,
584        rather than clearing and then setting them according to the
585        terminal's width.</li>
586      </ul>
587    </dd>
588
589    <dt><span class="part-name">tput</span>
590    </dt>
591
592    <dd>
593      <ul>
594        <li>add &ldquo;<tt>x</tt>&rdquo; to <tt>getopt</tt> string
595        so that &ldquo;<tt>tput&nbsp;-x&nbsp;clear</tt>&rdquo;
596        works.</li>
597      </ul>
598    </dd>
599  </dl>
600
601  <p>Several changes were made to the generated ncurses*config
602  scripts and the analogous &ldquo;<tt>.pc</tt>&rdquo; files to
603  reduce differences between the configurations they report:</p>
604
605  <ul>
606    <li>
607      <p>modified the ncurse*-config and pc-files to more closely
608      match for the <tt>-I</tt> and <tt>-l</tt> options.</p>
609    </li>
610
611    <li>
612      <p>filtered out linker-specs from the <tt>--libs</tt>
613      report.</p>
614    </li>
615
616    <li>
617      <p>amended the ncurses*-config and pc-files to take into
618      account the rpath hack which differed between those
619      files.</p>
620    </li>
621
622    <li>
623      <p>modified generated ncurses*config and ncurses.pc,
624      ncursesw.pc, etc., to list helper libraries such as gpm for
625      static linking.</p>
626    </li>
627  </ul>
628
629  <h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
630
631  <p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
632  to the <a href=
633  "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. Most of
634  this activity aimed at improving the test-packages. A few changes
635  are more generally useful, e.g., for the main ncurses
636  test-program, and for analyzing traces using the
637  <em>tracemunch</em> script:</p>
638
639  <ul>
640    <li>
641      <p>improve recovery from error when reading command-character
642      in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>, showing the relevant error
643      message and not exiting on EINTR.</p>
644    </li>
645
646    <li>
647      <p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>, by keeping track of
648      <tt>TERMINAL*</tt> values, and if tracing was first turned on
649      after initialization, attempt to show distinct screen, window
650      and terminal names anyway.</p>
651    </li>
652
653    <li>
654      <p>modify <em>tracemunch</em> to accept filename parameters
655      in addition to use as a pipe/filter.</p>
656    </li>
657
658    <li>
659      <p>update <em>tracemunch</em> to work with <em>perl
660      5.26.2</em>, which changed the rules for escaping regular
661      expressions.</p>
662    </li>
663
664    <li>
665      <p>add some checks in <em>tracemunch</em> for undefined
666      variables.</p>
667    </li>
668
669    <li>
670      <p>modify <tt>TurnOn</tt>/<tt>TurnOff</tt> macros (in
671      lib_vidattr.c and lib_vid_attr.c) to avoid expansion of
672      &ldquo;<tt>CUR</tt>&rdquo; in trace.</p>
673    </li>
674  </ul>
675
676  <p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
677  examples:</p>
678
679  <dl>
680    <dt><span class="part-name">color_content</span>
681    </dt>
682
683    <dd>Demonstrate the <tt>color_content</tt> and
684    <tt>extended_color_content</tt> functions.</dd>
685
686    <dt><span class="part-name">demo_tabs</span>
687    </dt>
688
689    <dd>A simple demo of tabs in curses.</dd>
690
691    <dt><span class="part-name">dump_window</span>
692    </dt>
693
694    <dd>A portable curses screen-dump, used to compare ncurses
695    screen contents with Solaris.</dd>
696
697    <dt><span class="part-name">pair_content</span>
698    </dt>
699
700    <dd>Demonstrate the <tt>pair_content</tt> and
701    <tt>extended_pair_content</tt> functions.</dd>
702
703    <dt><span class="part-name">report_hashing</span>
704    </dt>
705
706    <dd>Check hash-tables used for terminfo and termcap names.</dd>
707
708    <dt><span class="part-name">parse_rgb</span>
709    </dt>
710
711    <dd>Sample implementation of the ncurses RGB extension from
712    <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>, used
713    in <em>picsmap</em> and <em>savescreen</em> programs.</dd>
714  </dl>
715
716  <p>A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both
717  new features as well as options added to make the set of programs
718  more consistent.</p>
719
720  <ul>
721    <li>
722      <p>add &ldquo;<tt>-l</tt>&rdquo; option to test/background,
723      to dump screen contents in a form that lets different curses
724      implementations be compared.</p>
725    </li>
726
727    <li>
728      <p>add &ldquo;<tt>@</tt>&rdquo; command to test/ncurses
729      F-test, to allow rapid jump to different character pages.</p>
730    </li>
731
732    <li>
733      <p>added enum, regex examples to test/demo_forms</p>
734    </li>
735
736    <li>
737      <p>amend Scaled256() macro in test/picsmap.c to cover the
738      full range 0..1000</p>
739    </li>
740
741    <li>
742      <p>corrected pathname used in Ada95 sample programs for
743      <tt>explain.txt</tt>, to work with test-packages, and used an
744      awk script to split the resulting pathname when it would be
745      too long for a single line.</p>
746    </li>
747
748    <li>
749      <p>ignore interrupted system-call in test/ncurses's
750      command-line, e.g., if the terminal were resized.</p>
751    </li>
752
753    <li>
754      <p>improved ifdef's for <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable, to help
755      with AIX/HPUX ports.</p>
756    </li>
757  </ul>
758
759  <h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
760
761  <p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
762
763  <blockquote style="word-break:keep-all">
764    <p><tt>alacritty</tt>, <tt>domterm</tt>, <tt>kitty</tt>,
765    <tt>mintty</tt>, <tt>mintty-direct</tt>, <tt>ms-terminal</tt>,
766    <tt>n7900</tt>, <tt>nsterm-build309</tt>,
767    <tt>nsterm-direct</tt>, <tt>screen5</tt>, <tt>ti703</tt>,
768    <tt>ti707</tt>, <tt>ti703-w</tt>, <tt>ti707-w</tt>
769    <tt>vscode</tt>, <tt>vscode-direct</tt>, <tt>xterm-mono</tt>,
770    <tt>xterm.js</tt></p>
771  </blockquote>
772
773  <p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
774  were updates to several descriptions:</p>
775
776  <ul>
777    <li>use <a href=
778    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_rep"><tt>ansi+rep</tt></a>
779    in a dozen places</li>
780
781    <li>add rs1 to konsole, mlterm</li>
782
783    <li>improve several flash capabilities with trailing mandatory
784    delays</li>
785
786    <li>drop <tt>ich1</tt> from <tt>rxvt-basic</tt>, <tt>Eterm</tt>
787    and <tt>mlterm</tt> to improve compatibility with old
788    non-curses programs</li>
789
790    <li>add/use <a href=
791    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_keypad"><tt>xterm+keypad</tt></a>
792    in <tt>xterm-new</tt></li>
793
794    <li>use <a href=
795    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl-twm"><tt>xterm+sl-twm</tt></a>
796    for consistency, nine places</li>
797
798    <li>improve <em>xm</em> example in <a href=
799    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11mouse">xterm+x11mouse</a>
800    and <a href=
801    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006">xterm+sm_1006</a>.</li>
802  </ul>
803
804  <p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
805  retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
806
807  <blockquote>
808    <p><tt>terminator</tt>, <tt>st</tt></p>
809  </blockquote>
810
811  <p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
812  documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
813  "part-name">tic</span>:</p>
814
815  <dl>
816    <dt><a href=
817    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-adds200">adds200</a>:</dt>
818
819    <dd>
820      <ul>
821        <li>fix typo</li>
822      </ul>
823    </dd>
824
825    <dt><a href=
826    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-gnome-256color">gnome-256color</a>
827    </dt>
828
829    <dd>
830      <ul>
831        <li>base entry on "gnome", not "vte", for consistency</li>
832      </ul>
833    </dd>
834
835    <dt><a href=
836    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-interix">interix</a>
837    </dt>
838
839    <dd>
840      <ul>
841        <li>trim unnecessary setf/setb</li>
842      </ul>
843    </dd>
844
845    <dt><a href=
846    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux-16color">linux-16color</a>
847    </dt>
848
849    <dd>
850      <ul>
851        <li>accommodate <a href=
852        "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2019-10/msg00061.html">
853        Linux console driver</a> incompatibility introduced in
854        early 2018</li>
855      </ul>
856    </dd>
857
858    <dt><a href=
859    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm-256color">nsterm-256color</a>:</dt>
860
861    <dd>
862      <ul>
863        <li>add nsterm-build309 to replace nsterm-256color,
864        assigning the latter as an alias of nsterm, to make mouse
865        work with nsterm-256color</li>
866      </ul>
867    </dd>
868
869    <dt><a href=
870    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent40">regent40</a>:</dt>
871
872    <dd>
873      <ul>
874        <li>renumber function-keys to match manual</li>
875      </ul>
876    </dd>
877
878    <dt><a href=
879    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent60">regent60</a>:</dt>
880
881    <dd>
882      <ul>
883        <li>add cd (clr_eos)</li>
884
885        <li>corrected acsc</li>
886
887        <li>add shifted function-keys</li>
888      </ul>
889    </dd>
890
891    <dt><a href=
892    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi950">tvi950</a>:</dt>
893
894    <dd>
895      <ul>
896        <li>added function-key definitions to agree with Televideo
897        950 manual</li>
898
899        <li>corrected acsc</li>
900
901        <li>remove bogus kf0</li>
902
903        <li>add bel</li>
904      </ul>
905    </dd>
906
907    <dt><a href=
908    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi955">tvi955</a>:</dt>
909
910    <dd>
911      <ul>
912        <li>fix typo</li>
913      </ul>
914    </dd>
915
916    <dt><a href=
917    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vi200">vi200</a>:</dt>
918
919    <dd>
920      <ul>
921        <li>add acsc string, including right/down-arrow</li>
922      </ul>
923    </dd>
924
925    <dt><a href=
926    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a>:</dt>
927
928    <dd>
929      <ul>
930        <li>corrected acsc</li>
931      </ul>
932    </dd>
933
934    <dt><a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a> and
935    <a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy60">wy60</a>:</dt>
936
937    <dd>
938      <ul>
939        <li>add shifted function-keys as kF1 to kF16</li>
940      </ul>
941    </dd>
942
943    <dt><a href=
944    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11hilite">xterm+x11hilite</a>:</dt>
945
946    <dd>
947      <ul>
948        <li>eliminate unused <em>p5</em> parameter.</li>
949      </ul>
950    </dd>
951  </dl>
952
953  <p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
954  capabilities):</p>
955
956  <ul>
957    <li>use <a href=
958    "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
959    (aka &ldquo;SGR 1006 mouse&rdquo;) for konsole-base and
960    putty</li>
961
962    <li>add <em><tt>Smol/Rmol</tt></em> user-defined capability to
963    <tt>tmux</tt> and <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
964
965    <li>add <em><tt>Smulx</tt></em> user-defined capability to
966    <tt>tmux</tt>, <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
967  </ul>
968
969  <h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
970  "h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
971
972  <p>As usual, this release</p>
973
974  <ul>
975    <li>
976      <p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
977    </li>
978
979    <li>
980      <p>attempts to improve the description of features which
981      users have found confusing</p>
982    </li>
983
984    <li>
985      <p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
986      described in the <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
987      but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
988    </li>
989  </ul>
990
991  <p>In addition to providing background information to explain
992  these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
993  clarifications, etc.:</p>
994
995  <ul>
996    <li>
997      <p>Corrections:</p>
998
999      <ul>
1000        <li>correct error-returns listed in manual pages for a few
1001        form functions</li>
1002
1003        <li>corrected prototypes in several manpages using script
1004        to extract those in compilable form.</li>
1005
1006        <li>fix typo in <a href=
1007        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">term.5</a>,
1008        improve explanation of format</li>
1009      </ul>
1010    </li>
1011
1012    <li>
1013      <p>Clarify in manual pages that <a href=
1014      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwprintw</a>
1015      and <a href=
1016      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scanw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwscanw</a>
1017      are obsolete.<br>
1018      They have not been part of X/Open Curses since 2007.</p>
1019    </li>
1020
1021    <li>
1022      <p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
1023
1024      <ul>
1025        <li><a href=
1026        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">curs_addch.3x</a>
1027        gives some background for ACS symbols.</li>
1028
1029        <li><a href=
1030        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getcchar.3x</a>
1031        explains a difference between ncurses and X/Open
1032        Curses.</li>
1033
1034        <li><a href=
1035        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getstr.3x</a>
1036        gives historical/portability background for the length
1037        parameter of <tt>wgetnstr</tt>.</li>
1038
1039        <li><a href=
1040        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_slk.3x.html">curs_slk.3x</a> lists a
1041        few differences between SVr4 curses and X/Open Curses for
1042        soft-keys.</li>
1043
1044        <li><a href=
1045        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo.3x</a>
1046        explains that the initial implementation of terminfo in
1047        SVr2 was mostly replaced by other developers in SVr3.</li>
1048
1049        <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp.1</a>
1050        explains that the initial version of terminfo had no tool
1051        for decompiling descriptions. That came later, with SVr3,
1052        with a different developer.</li>
1053
1054        <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html">tabs.1</a> tells more
1055        than you wanted to know about the tool.</li>
1056
1057        <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic.1</a> explains
1058        that the initial version of terminfo had a rudimentary tool
1059        (based on termcap) for compiling entries. The tool used
1060        with Unix was developed by others for SVr3.</li>
1061
1062        <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">toe.1</a> explains
1063        the origin of this tool.</li>
1064      </ul>
1065    </li>
1066
1067    <li>
1068      <p>Improvements for <a href=
1069      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>:</p>
1070
1071      <ul>
1072        <li>mention <tt>meml</tt>, <tt>memu</tt> and
1073        <tt>box1</tt></li>
1074
1075        <li>expanded description of <tt>XM</tt></li>
1076
1077        <li>add a clarification regarding the <tt>RGB</tt>
1078        capability.</li>
1079
1080        <li>mention user_caps.5 in the tic and infocmp manual
1081        pages.</li>
1082      </ul>
1083    </li>
1084
1085    <li>
1086      <p>Other improvements:</p>
1087
1088      <ul>
1089        <li><a href=
1090        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_add_wch.3x.html#h3-Line-Graphics">curs_add_wch.3x</a>
1091        adds note about Unicode terminology for the line-drawing
1092        characters.</li>
1093
1094        <li><a href=
1095        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_color.3x.html#h2-RETURN-VALUE">curs_color.3x</a>
1096        improves discussion of error returns and extensions.</li>
1097
1098        <li><a href=
1099        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_mouse.3x.html">curs_mouse.3x</a>
1100        explains how the <tt>kmous</tt> and <tt>XM</tt>
1101        capabilities are used for xterm-mouse input.</li>
1102
1103        <li><a href=
1104        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_refresh.3x.html#h3-wnoutrefresh_doupdate">
1105        curs_refresh.3x</a> improves documentation regarding the
1106        virtual and physical screens.</li>
1107
1108        <li><a href=
1109        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html">curs_util.3x</a>
1110        mentions a difference between SVr4 and X/Open Curses for
1111        <tt>unctrl.h</tt></li>
1112
1113        <li><a href=
1114        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_variables.3x</a>
1115        improves description of the <em>init_tabs</em> capability
1116        and <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable.</li>
1117
1118        <li><a href=
1119        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
1120        ncurses.3x</a> improves documentation regarding
1121        feature-test macros in curses.h</li>
1122
1123        <li><a href=
1124        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h3-resize_term">resizeterm.3x</a>
1125        about top-level windows which touch the screen's
1126        borders.</li>
1127
1128        <li><a href=
1129        "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html#h3-Terminal-Size">tput.1</a>
1130        clarifies how <em>tput</em> determines the terminal
1131        size.</li>
1132      </ul>
1133    </li>
1134  </ul>
1135
1136  <p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
1137  are to existing pages).</p>
1138
1139  <p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
1140  the information is presented. For instance, the generated
1141  terminfo.5 file uses a different table layout, allowing it to use
1142  space on wide terminals more effectively.</p>
1143
1144  <h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
1145  bug-fixes</a></h3>
1146
1147  <p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
1148  6.2, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
1149  and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
1150  which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
1151  are detailed in the NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.</p>
1152
1153  <p>The interesting bugs were in tic/infocmp's handling of
1154  user-defined capabilities. These were not recent bugs. Initially
1155  it was a simple problem:</p>
1156
1157  <ul>
1158    <li>The user-defined capabilities can be any type (boolean,
1159    number or string), but once given a type all uses of the name
1160    must conform to that type&mdash;unless some special support for
1161    a particular multi-typed name is built into ncurses.</li>
1162
1163    <li>
1164      <p>One of simpleterm's contributors copied some definitions
1165      for using <em>tmux</em>'s user-defined capabilities in
1166      <a href=
1167      "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/06f8cf8ca87a81db15816658c40b2afcd1ad5332.html">
1168      late in 2016</a>.</p>
1169
1170      <blockquote>
1171        <pre class="demo-name">
1172diff --git a/st.info b/st.info
1173@@ -185,7 +185,10 @@ st| simpleterm,
1174  tsl=\E]0;,
1175  xenl,
1176  vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,
1177-
1178+# Tmux unofficial extensions, see TERMINFO EXTENSIONS in tmux(1)
1179+ Se,
1180+ Ss,
1181+ Tc,
1182
1183 st-256color| simpleterm with 256 colors,
1184  use=st,
1185</pre>
1186      </blockquote>
1187    </li>
1188
1189    <li>
1190      <p>Later, in (referring to a version from <a href=
1191      "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/c0882f2ed1d7a2dd0fa2efa52157e6fc6fde3652.html">
1192      mid-2017</a>), a user asked to have it updated in
1193      ncurses.</p>
1194    </li>
1195
1196    <li>
1197      <p>However, it had an error from the change in late 2016. The
1198      terminal description made what <em>tmux</em> expected to be
1199      <strong>string</strong> actually a
1200      <strong>boolean</strong>.</p>
1201
1202      <p>Over the years, there were problems with each of
1203      simpleterm's terminal descriptions. I repaired those, and
1204      usually dealt with the problem.</p>
1205    </li>
1206
1207    <li>
1208      <p>The difference in this case was that when compiling the
1209      terminal database, <em>tic</em> may have in memory the
1210      definitions for more than one terminal description (so that
1211      it can resolve &ldquo;<tt>use=</tt>&rdquo; clauses). Seeing
1212      two different types for the same name, in certain situations
1213      it would incorrectly merge the symbol tables for the two
1214      terminal descriptions.</p>
1215    </li>
1216
1217    <li>
1218      <p>On simpleterm's side, their bug was finally fixed in
1219      <a href=
1220      "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/83866428de031300eab03fbb116bcf7d2b1d4f60.html">
1221      late 2019</a>, three years after the bug was created.</p>
1222    </li>
1223  </ul>
1224
1225  <p>For ncurses, the elapsed time to fix this bug was less than
1226  three years. Someone reported a problem with the terminal
1227  description a few weeks after releasing ncurses 6.1 (in <a href=
1228  "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1264">tmux #1264</a>), and
1229  the terminal description was updated that week (ncurses patch
1230  <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t20180224">20180224</a>):</p>
1231
1232  <blockquote>
1233    <pre class="demo-name">
123420180224
1235        + modify _nc_resolve_uses2() to detect incompatible types when merging
1236          a "use=" clause of extended capabilities.  The problem was seen in a
1237          defective terminfo integrated from simpleterm sources in 20171111,
1238          compounded by repair in 20180121.
1239        + correct Ss/Ms interchange in st-0.7 entry (tmux #1264) -TD
1240</pre>
1241  </blockquote>
1242
1243  <p>The larger part of that change added a check to prevent a
1244  simple merge of terminal descriptions where the same user-defined
1245  name was used with different types. But it raised some
1246  questions:</p>
1247
1248  <ul>
1249    <li>
1250      <p>Was there a reliable way to manage terminal descriptions
1251      which used the same extended name in different ways?</p>
1252    </li>
1253
1254    <li>
1255      <p>Should ncurses provide a registry of well-known extended
1256      names, with their types?</p>
1257    </li>
1258  </ul>
1259
1260  <p>Since the correction to <a href=
1261  "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database"><tt>terminfo.src</tt></a>
1262  could have been readily adopted by packagers, there was nothing
1263  more to be done from ncurses' standpoint on that part. But
1264  improving ncurses to prevent issues like that is the reason for
1265  making a release.</p>
1266
1267  <p>Nothing more (constructive) was mentioned with regard to
1268  simpleterm. But a few problems were found in the handling of
1269  user-defined capabilities:</p>
1270
1271  <ul>
1272    <li>
1273      <p>Forward-references to user-defined capabilities in a
1274      &ldquo;<tt>use=</tt>&rdquo; clause did not allocate new data
1275      for each use. In <em>tic</em>, successive compilation of
1276      terminal entries could add user-defined capabilities to the
1277      wrong terminal entry.</p>
1278
1279      <p>This was not noticed before, since xterm's terminal
1280      descriptions were the main users of the feature, and almost
1281      all of the uses of the building-blocks which contained
1282      user-defined capabilities were backward-references.</p>
1283    </li>
1284
1285    <li>
1286      <p>There is one (documented) case where ncurses 6.1 supports
1287      a user-defined capability that could be any type (i.e.,
1288      &ldquo;RGB&rdquo;). The check added in February 2018 to guard
1289      against mismatches did not handle all of the combinations
1290      needed.</p>
1291    </li>
1292  </ul>
1293
1294  <p>Both of these issues dated from the original implementation of
1295  user-defined capabilities. Fixing them does not change the
1296  terminal database, but a older <em>tic</em> without the fixes
1297  will not be able to handle terminfo sources which rely upon those
1298  fixes. Starting in June 2019, the download link for the terminfo
1299  source file was capped at that date. The development sources have
1300  an up-to-date copy of the file, for people with a legitimate need
1301  for it.</p>
1302
1303  <p>The &ldquo;<tt>-c</tt>&rdquo; (check) option of <em>tic</em>
1304  is not very useful if it cannot offer advice on parameters needed
1305  for user-defined capabilities. The various <em>Caps</em> files
1306  were reorganized to reduce redundancy, and in the common portion
1307  (<a href=
1308  "https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots/blob/master/include/Caps-ncurses">Caps-ncurses</a>),
1309  a registry of user-defined capabilities is provided for use by
1310  <em>tic</em>. While users can still define their own custom
1311  capabilities, <em>tic</em> will not offer any advice when their
1312  parameters do not match.</p>
1313
1314  <p>In ncurses 6.2, <em>tic</em> makes a special check to allow
1315  any type for <em>RGB</em>, but its being able to do this relies
1316  upon fixes made in the ncurses library in mid-2019.</p>
1317
1318  <h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
1319  "h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
1320
1321  <h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
1322  changes</a></h4>
1323
1324  <p>There are no major changes. Several new options were added to
1325  ease integration of packages with systems using different
1326  versions of <em>GNAT</em> and <em>ncurses</em>. Also,
1327  improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
1328
1329  <h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
1330  "h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
1331
1332  <p>There are a few new/modified configure options:</p>
1333
1334  <dl>
1335    <dt><tt>--with-config-suffix</tt>
1336    </dt>
1337
1338    <dd>
1339      <p>helps work around a filename conflict with Debian packages
1340      versus test-packages.</p>
1341    </dd>
1342
1343    <dt><tt>--with-ada-libname</tt>
1344    </dt>
1345
1346    <dd>
1347      <p>allows one to rename the &ldquo;AdaCurses&rdquo; library
1348      (at least one packager prefers a lowercase name).</p>
1349    </dd>
1350
1351    <dt><tt>--with-fallbacks</tt>
1352    </dt>
1353
1354    <dd>
1355      <p>now ensures there is a value, and adds the fallback
1356      information to top-level Makefile summary.</p>
1357    </dd>
1358
1359    <dt><tt>--with-pcre2</tt>
1360    </dt>
1361
1362    <dd>
1363      <p>check for pcre-posix library to help with MinGW port.</p>
1364    </dd>
1365
1366    <dt><tt>--with-tic-path</tt> and<br></dt>
1367
1368    <dt><tt>--with-infocmp-path</tt>
1369    </dt>
1370
1371    <dd>
1372      <p>help work around problems building fallback source using
1373      pre-6.0 tic/infocmp.</p>
1374    </dd>
1375
1376    <dt><tt>--with-versioned-syms</tt>
1377    </dt>
1378
1379    <dd>
1380      <p>option value can now be a relative pathname.</p>
1381    </dd>
1382  </dl>
1383
1384  <h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
1385
1386  <p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
1387  configure script:</p>
1388
1389  <ul>
1390    <li>
1391      <p>ignore <a href=
1392      "/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>
1393      as a default value in configure script if it came from the
1394      <tt>infocmp</tt> <strong><tt>-Q</tt></strong> option.</p>
1395    </li>
1396
1397    <li>
1398      <p>distinguish gcc from icc and clang when the
1399      <tt>--enable-warnings</tt> option is not used, to avoid
1400      unnecessary warnings about unrecognized inline options</p>
1401    </li>
1402
1403    <li>
1404      <p>consistently prepend new libraries as they are found
1405      during configuration, rather than relying upon the linker to
1406      resolve order dependencies of libraries.</p>
1407    </li>
1408
1409    <li>
1410      <p>modified configure scripts to reduce relinking/ranlib
1411      during library install :</p>
1412
1413      <ul>
1414        <li>use &ldquo;<tt>install -p</tt>&rdquo; when available,
1415        to avoid need for ranlib of static libraries.</li>
1416
1417        <li>scripts which use
1418        &ldquo;<tt>--disable-relink</tt>;&rdquo; add a 1-second
1419        sleep to work around tools which use whole-second
1420        timestamps, e.g., in <tt>utime</tt> rather than the actual
1421        file system resolution.</li>
1422      </ul>
1423    </li>
1424
1425    <li>
1426      <p id="getenv-check">add configure check for <a href=
1427      "#getenv-fixes"><tt>getenv</tt></a> to work around
1428      implementation shown in Emscripten which overwrites the
1429      previous return value on each call.</p>
1430
1431      <p>Use that to optionally suppress <tt>START_TRACE</tt>
1432      macro, whose call to <tt>getenv</tt> may not work
1433      properly</p>
1434    </li>
1435
1436    <li>
1437      <p>change target configure level for <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>
1438      to 600 to address use of <tt>vsscanf</tt> and
1439      <tt>setenv</tt>.</p>
1440    </li>
1441
1442    <li>
1443      <p>reduce use of <tt>_GNU_SOURCE</tt> for current glibc where
1444      <tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> combines with
1445      <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt></p>
1446
1447      <p>Allow for Cygwin's newlib when checking for the
1448      _DEFAULT_SOURCE symbol.</p>
1449
1450      <p>MidnightBSD is now checked for the
1451      <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>-related definitions.</p>
1452    </li>
1453
1454    <li>
1455      <p>If the check for <tt>va_copy</tt> or <tt>__va_copy</tt>
1456      fails,</p>
1457
1458      <ul>
1459        <li>configure now tries copying the pointers for
1460        <tt>va_list</tt>, or as an array.</li>
1461
1462        <li>alternatively, it checks for
1463        <tt>__builtin_va_copy</tt>(), which could be used with AIX
1464        <tt>xlc</tt> in <em>c89</em> mode.</li>
1465      </ul>
1466    </li>
1467
1468    <li>
1469      <p>several changes to support a port to Ultrix 3.1:</p>
1470
1471      <ul>
1472        <li>check if "b" binary feature of fopen works</li>
1473
1474        <li>check for missing feature of locale.h</li>
1475
1476        <li>add fallback for strstr() in test-programs</li>
1477
1478        <li>add fallback for STDOUT_FILENO in test-programs</li>
1479      </ul>
1480    </li>
1481
1482    <li>
1483      <p>The <em>test/configure</em> script (used for <a href=
1484      "/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html"><em>ncurses-examples</em></a>)
1485      is improved:</p>
1486
1487      <ul>
1488        <li>work around non-ncurses termcap.h file, e.g., in
1489        Slackware.</li>
1490
1491        <li>check for <a href=
1492        "/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h3-TABSIZE"><tt>TABSIZE</tt></a>
1493        variable.</li>
1494
1495        <li>checks for the X11/Intrinsic.h header, accommodate
1496        recent MacOS changes which largely emptied
1497        <tt>/usr/include</tt>.</li>
1498      </ul>
1499    </li>
1500  </ul>
1501
1502  <p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
1503
1504  <ul>
1505    <li>
1506      <p>added dummy "check" rule in top-level and test-Makefile to
1507      simplify building test-packages for ArchLinux.</p>
1508    </li>
1509
1510    <li>
1511      <p>dropped library-dependency on psapi for MinGW port, since
1512      win_driver.c defines <tt>PSAPI_VERSION</tt> to 2, making it
1513      use <tt>GetProcessImageFileName</tt> from kernel32.dll</p>
1514    </li>
1515
1516    <li>
1517      <p>made build-fixes for configuration using --program-suffix
1518      with Ada95, noticed with MacOS but applicable to other
1519      platforms without libpanelw, etc.</p>
1520    </li>
1521
1522    <li>
1523      <p>modified ncurses/Makefile.in to fix a case where
1524      Debian/testing changes to the ld --as-needed configuration
1525      broke ncurses-examples test packages.</p>
1526    </li>
1527
1528    <li>
1529      <p>used <tt>_WIN32</tt>/<tt>_WIN64</tt> in preference to
1530      <tt>__MINGW32__</tt>/<tt>__MINGW64__</tt> symbols to simplify
1531      building with Microsoft Visual C++, since the former are
1532      defined in both compiler configurations.</p>
1533    </li>
1534  </ul>
1535
1536  <hr>
1537
1538  <h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
1539  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
1540
1541  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
1542  upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
1543
1544  <ul>
1545    <li>
1546      <p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
1547      documented).</p>
1548    </li>
1549
1550    <li>
1551      <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
1552      for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
1553      forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
1554      of keypad and function keys.</p>
1555    </li>
1556
1557    <li>
1558      <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
1559      add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>
1560
1561      <ul>
1562        <li>
1563          <p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
1564          backing store.</p>
1565        </li>
1566
1567        <li>
1568          <p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
1569          interface for menu programming.</p>
1570        </li>
1571
1572        <li>
1573          <p>the form library, supporting data collection through
1574          on-screen forms.</p>
1575        </li>
1576      </ul>
1577    </li>
1578
1579    <li>
1580      <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
1581      is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
1582
1583      <ul>
1584        <li>
1585          <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
1586          user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
1587          hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
1588          <em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
1589        </li>
1590
1591        <li>
1592          <p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
1593          used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
1594        </li>
1595
1596        <li>
1597          <p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
1598          can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
1599          directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
1600        </li>
1601      </ul>
1602    </li>
1603
1604    <li>
1605      <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
1606      options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
1607      less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
1608      as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p>
1609    </li>
1610  </ul>
1611
1612  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
1613  many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
1614
1615  <ul>
1616    <li>
1617      <p>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
1618      X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it
1619      implements all BASE level features, and most EXTENDED
1620      features). It includes many function calls not supported
1621      under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is documented
1622      so you can use the SVr4 subset only).</p>
1623    </li>
1624
1625    <li>
1626      <p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
1627      can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
1628      your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
1629    </li>
1630
1631    <li>
1632      <p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
1633    </li>
1634
1635    <li>
1636      <p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
1637      FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
1638    </li>
1639
1640    <li>
1641      <p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
1642      package.</p>
1643    </li>
1644
1645    <li>
1646      <p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
1647      windows, preserving their data.</p>
1648    </li>
1649
1650    <li>
1651      <p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
1652      use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
1653      achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
1654    </li>
1655
1656    <li>
1657      <p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
1658      <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
1659      of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
1660      "main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
1661      than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
1662    </li>
1663
1664    <li>
1665      <p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
1666    </li>
1667
1668    <li>
1669      <p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
1670      and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
1671    </li>
1672
1673    <li>
1674      <p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
1675      features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
1676      than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
1677    </li>
1678
1679    <li>
1680      <p>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
1681      incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that
1682      enables it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling,
1683      line-insertion, and line-deletion for screen-line movements.
1684      This algorithm is more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses
1685      <code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
1686    </li>
1687
1688    <li>
1689      <p>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
1690      The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight
1691      if the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before
1692      the beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
1693      character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
1694      when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
1695      without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</p>
1696    </li>
1697
1698    <li>
1699      <p>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
1700      pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
1701      those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap
1702      file is accessible (this may be useful for support of
1703      screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
1704      mode).</p>
1705    </li>
1706
1707    <li>
1708      <p>The <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
1709      "part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
1710      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> utility
1711      provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has the
1712      ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
1713      AT&amp;T extension sets.</p>
1714    </li>
1715
1716    <li>
1717      <p>A BSD-like <a href=
1718      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
1719      "part-name">tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
1720    </li>
1721
1722    <li>
1723      <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> library and
1724      utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from
1725      $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
1726      if it exists and the user has no write access to the system
1727      directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
1728      personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the
1729      system terminfo directory.</p>
1730    </li>
1731
1732    <li>
1733      <p>You may specify a path of directories to search for
1734      compiled descriptions with the environment variable
1735      TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
1736      TERMINFO under stock System V.)</p>
1737    </li>
1738
1739    <li>
1740      <p>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
1741      just to other entries in the same source file (as in System
1742      V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
1743      directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
1744    </li>
1745
1746    <li>
1747      <p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
1748      "@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
1749      "part-name">toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see
1750      exactly what terminal types are available on the system.</p>
1751    </li>
1752
1753    <li>
1754      <p>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
1755      entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
1756      (and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
1757      disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</p>
1758    </li>
1759
1760    <li>
1761      <p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
1762      "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
1763      Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
1764      "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html"><span class=
1765      "main-name">ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online
1766      documentation).</p>
1767    </li>
1768  </ul>
1769
1770  <h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
1771  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
1772
1773  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
1774  includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
1775  These are available separately as <a href=
1776  "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
1777
1778  <p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
1779  applications including:</p>
1780
1781  <blockquote>
1782    <dl>
1783      <dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
1784      </dt>
1785
1786      <dd>
1787        <p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
1788
1789        <p><a href=
1790        "https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
1791      </dd>
1792
1793      <dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
1794      </dt>
1795
1796      <dd>
1797        <p>Curses Development Kit</p>
1798
1799        <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/cdk/">@WEBSITE@/cdk/</a><br>
1800        </p>
1801      </dd>
1802
1803      <dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
1804      </dt>
1805
1806      <dd>
1807        <p>directory-editor</p>
1808
1809        <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/ded/">@WEBSITE@/ded/</a></p>
1810      </dd>
1811
1812      <dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
1813      </dt>
1814
1815      <dd>
1816        <p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
1817        and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
1818        many systems.</p>
1819
1820        <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/dialog/">@WEBSITE@/dialog/</a></p>
1821      </dd>
1822
1823      <dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
1824      </dt>
1825
1826      <dd>
1827        <p>the text WWW browser</p>
1828
1829        <p><a href=
1830        "https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
1831      </dd>
1832
1833      <dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
1834      </dt>
1835
1836      <dd>
1837        <p>mail utility</p>
1838
1839        <p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
1840      </dd>
1841
1842      <dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
1843      </dt>
1844
1845      <dd>
1846        <p>file-transfer utility</p>
1847
1848        <p><a href=
1849        "https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
1850      </dd>
1851
1852      <dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
1853      </dt>
1854
1855      <dd>
1856        <p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
1857
1858        <p><a href=
1859        "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
1860
1861        </p>
1862      </dd>
1863
1864      <dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
1865      </dt>
1866
1867      <dd>
1868        <p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
1869        <em>Python</em>.</p>
1870
1871        <p><a href=
1872        "https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
1873      </dd>
1874
1875      <dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
1876      </dt>
1877
1878      <dd>
1879        <p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
1880
1881        <p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
1882      </dd>
1883
1884      <dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
1885      </dt>
1886
1887      <dd>
1888        <p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
1889
1890        <p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
1891      </dd>
1892    </dl>
1893  </blockquote>
1894
1895  <p>as well as some that use <span class=
1896  "main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
1897
1898  <blockquote>
1899    <dl>
1900      <dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
1901      </dt>
1902
1903      <dd>
1904        <p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
1905
1906        <p><a href=
1907        "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
1908      </dd>
1909
1910      <dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
1911      </dt>
1912
1913      <dd>
1914        <p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
1915
1916        <p><a href=
1917        "https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p>
1918      </dd>
1919
1920      <dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
1921      </dt>
1922
1923      <dd>
1924        <p>terminfo action checker</p>
1925
1926        <p><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html</a></p>
1927      </dd>
1928
1929      <dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
1930      </dt>
1931
1932      <dd>
1933        <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
1934
1935        <p><a href=
1936        "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
1937      </dd>
1938
1939      <dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
1940      </dt>
1941
1942      <dd>
1943        <p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
1944        termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
1945
1946        <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/vile/">@WEBSITE@/vile/</a></p>
1947      </dd>
1948    </dl>
1949  </blockquote>
1950
1951  <p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
1952
1953  <blockquote>
1954    <dl>
1955      <dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
1956      </dt>
1957
1958      <dd>
1959        <p>text editor</p>
1960
1961        <p><a href=
1962        "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
1963      </dd>
1964
1965      <dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
1966      </dt>
1967
1968      <dd>
1969        <p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
1970        displays text files).</p>
1971
1972        <p><a href=
1973        "http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
1974      </dd>
1975
1976      <dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
1977      </dt>
1978
1979      <dd>
1980        <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
1981
1982        <p><a href=
1983        "https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
1984      </dd>
1985
1986      <dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
1987      </dt>
1988
1989      <dd>
1990        <p>text editor</p>
1991
1992        <p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
1993      </dd>
1994    </dl>
1995  </blockquote>
1996
1997  <h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
1998  activities</a></h2>
1999
2000  <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
2001  from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
2002  Raymond continued development. J&uuml;rgen Pfeifer wrote most of
2003  the form and menu libraries.</p>
2004
2005  <p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
2006  "mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
2007  E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
2008  Foundation, which holds a <a href=
2009  "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html">copyright on ncurses</a> for
2010  releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following the release of ncurses 6.1,
2011  effective as of release 6.2, copyright for ncurses reverted to
2012  Thomas E. Dickey (see the <a href=
2013  "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">ncurses FAQ</a> for
2014  additional information).</p>
2015
2016  <p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
2017
2018  <blockquote>
2019    <a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
2020  </blockquote>
2021
2022  <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
2023
2024  <blockquote>
2025    <a href=
2026    "mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
2027  </blockquote>
2028  containing the line:
2029
2030  <blockquote>
2031    <p><code>subscribe</code>
2032    <em>&lt;name&gt;@&lt;host.domain&gt;</em></p>
2033  </blockquote>
2034
2035  <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
2036  development and testing of this package.</p>
2037
2038  <p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
2039  made available at</p>
2040
2041  <blockquote>
2042    <p><a href=
2043    "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/</a>
2044    and<br>
2045    <a href=
2046    "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
2047  </blockquote>
2048
2049  <p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
2050
2051  <blockquote>
2052    <p><a href=
2053    "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/</a>
2054    and<br>
2055    <a href=
2056    "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
2057  </blockquote>
2058
2059  <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
2060
2061  <blockquote>
2062    <p><a href=
2063    "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
2064    (also <a href=
2065    "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
2066  </blockquote>
2067
2068  <h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
2069  resources</a></h2>
2070
2071  <p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
2072  which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
2073
2074  <ul>
2075    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
2076    "main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
2077
2078    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
2079    in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
2080
2081    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-slang.html">Comments on
2082    <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
2083    "main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
2084
2085    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack &ndash; terminfo action
2086    checker</a></li>
2087
2088    <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tctest.html">tctest &ndash; termcap
2089    library checker</a></li>
2090
2091    <li><a href=
2092    "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal
2093    Database</a></li>
2094  </ul>
2095
2096  <h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
2097  resources</a></h2>
2098
2099  <p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
2100  terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
2101  <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
2102  Raymond</a>&nbsp;. Unlike the older version, the termcap and
2103  terminfo data are provided in the same file, which also provides
2104  several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open
2105  specification.</p>
2106
2107  <p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
2108  not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
2109  "http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
2110  Richard Shuford's archive</a>&nbsp;. The collection of computer
2111  manuals at <a href=
2112  "http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
2113  useful.</p>
2114
2115  <div class="nav">
2116    <ul>
2117      <li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
2118
2119      <li>
2120        <a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
2121
2122        <ul>
2123          <li>
2124            <a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
2125
2126            <ul>
2127              <li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
2128
2129              <li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
2130              improvements</a></li>
2131            </ul>
2132          </li>
2133
2134          <li>
2135            <a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
2136
2137            <ul>
2138              <li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
2139
2140              <li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
2141            </ul>
2142          </li>
2143
2144          <li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
2145
2146          <li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
2147
2148          <li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
2149
2150          <li>
2151            <a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
2152
2153            <ul>
2154              <li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
2155
2156              <li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
2157              options</a></li>
2158            </ul>
2159          </li>
2160
2161          <li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
2162        </ul>
2163      </li>
2164
2165      <li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
2166      "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
2167
2168      <li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
2169      "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
2170
2171      <li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
2172
2173      <li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
2174
2175      <li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
2176    </ul>
2177  </div>
2178</body>
2179</html>
2180