README revision 262685
150276Speter------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2262685Sdelphij-- Copyright (c) 1998-2011,2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. -- 3166124Srafan-- -- 4166124Srafan-- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a -- 5166124Srafan-- copy of this software and associated documentation files (the -- 6166124Srafan-- "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including -- 7166124Srafan-- without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, -- 8166124Srafan-- distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell copies -- 9166124Srafan-- of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished -- 10166124Srafan-- to do so, subject to the following conditions: -- 11166124Srafan-- -- 12166124Srafan-- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included -- 13166124Srafan-- in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. -- 14166124Srafan-- -- 15166124Srafan-- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS -- 16166124Srafan-- OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF -- 17166124Srafan-- MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN -- 18166124Srafan-- NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, -- 19166124Srafan-- DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR -- 20166124Srafan-- OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE -- 21166124Srafan-- USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. -- 22166124Srafan-- -- 23166124Srafan-- Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright -- 24166124Srafan-- holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the -- 25166124Srafan-- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written -- 26166124Srafan-- authorization. -- 27166124Srafan------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28262685Sdelphij-- $Id: README,v 1.25 2012/08/11 20:11:26 tom Exp $ 29166124Srafan------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3050276Speter README file for the ncurses package 3150276Speter 3250276SpeterSee the file ANNOUNCE for a summary of ncurses features and ports. 3350276SpeterSee the file INSTALL for instructions on how to build and install ncurses. 3450276SpeterSee the file NEWS for a release history and bug-fix notes. 3550276SpeterSee the file TO-DO for things that still need doing, including known bugs. 3650276Speter 3750276SpeterBrowse the file misc/ncurses-intro.html for narrative descriptions of how 3850276Speterto use ncurses and the panel, menu, and form libraries. 3950276Speter 4066963SpeterBrowse the file doc/html/hackguide.html for a tour of the package internals. 4150276Speter 4250276SpeterROADMAP AND PACKAGE OVERVIEW: 4350276Speter 4450276SpeterYou should be reading this file in a directory called: ncurses-d.d, where d.d 4550276Speteris the current version number (see the dist.mk file in this directory for 4650276Speterthat). There should be a number of subdirectories, including `c++', `form', 4750276Speter`man', `menu', `misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs', `test', 'tack' and `Ada95'. 4856639Speter(The 'tack' program may be distributed separately). 4950276Speter 5050276SpeterA full build/install of this package typically installs several libraries, a 5150276Speterhandful of utilities, and a database hierarchy. Here is an inventory of the 5250276Speterpieces: 5350276Speter 5450276SpeterThe libraries are: 5550276Speter 5650276Speter libncurses.a (normal) 5750276Speter libncurses.so (shared) 5850276Speter libncurses_g.a (debug and trace code enabled) 5950276Speter libncurses_p.a (profiling enabled) 6050276Speter 6150276Speter libpanel.a (normal) 6250276Speter libpanel.so (shared) 6350276Speter libpanel_g.a (debug and trace code enabled) 6450276Speter 6550276Speter libmenu.a (normal) 6650276Speter libmenu.so (shared) 6750276Speter libmenu_g.a (debug enabled) 6850276Speter 6950276Speter libform.a (normal) 7050276Speter libform.so (shared) 7150276Speter libform_g.a (debug enabled) 7250276Speter 73166124SrafanIf you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the 74166124Srafanlibrary names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support 75166124Srafanwide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files 76166124Srafanare compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character 77166124Srafanfeatures are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character 78166124Srafanlibrary interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character 79166124Srafanversion. 80166124Srafan 81262685SdelphijIf you configure using the --enable-reentrant option, a "t" is appended to the 82262685Sdelphijlibrary names (e.g., libncursest.a) and the resulting libraries have a 83262685Sdelphijdifferent binary interface which makes the ncurses interface more "opaque". 84262685Sdelphij 8550276SpeterThe ncurses libraries implement the curses API. The panel, menu and forms 8650276Speterlibraries implement clones of the SVr4 panel, menu and forms APIs. The source 8750276Spetercode for these lives in the `ncurses', `panel', `menu', and `form' directories 8850276Speterrespectively. 8950276Speter 9050276SpeterIn the `c++' directory, you'll find code that defines an interface to the 9150276Spetercurses, forms, menus and panels library packaged as C++ classes, and a demo program in C++ 9250276Speterto test it. These class definition modules are not installed by the 'make 9350276Speterinstall.libs' rule as libncurses++. 9450276Speter 9550276SpeterIn the `Ada95' directory, you'll find code and documentation for an 9650276SpeterAda95 binding of the curses API, to be used with the GNAT compiler. 9750276SpeterThis binding is built by a normal top-level `make' if configure detects 98166124Srafanan usable version of GNAT (3.11 or above). It is not installed automatically. 9950276SpeterSee the Ada95 directory for more build and installation instructions and 10050276Speterfor documentation of the binding. 10150276Speter 10250276SpeterTo do its job, the ncurses code needs your terminal type to be set in the 10350276Speterenvironment variable TERM (normally set by your OS; under UNIX, getty(1) 10450276Spetertypically does this, but you can override it in your .profile); and, it needs a 10550276Speterdatabase of terminal descriptions in which to look up your terminal type's 10650276Spetercapabilities. 10750276Speter 10850276SpeterIn older (V7/BSD) versions of curses, the database was a flat text file, 10950276Speter/etc/termcap; in newer (USG/USL) versions, the database is a hierarchy of 11050276Speterfast-loading binary description blocks under /usr/lib/terminfo. These binary 11150276Speterblocks are compiled from an improved editable text representation called 11250276Speter`terminfo' format (documented in man/terminfo.5). The ncurses library can use 11350276Spetereither /etc/termcap or the compiled binary terminfo blocks, but prefers the 11450276Spetersecond form. 11550276Speter 11650276SpeterIn the `misc' directory, there is a text file terminfo.src, in editable 11750276Speterterminfo format, which can be used to generate the terminfo binaries (that's 11850276Speterwhat make install.data does). If the package was built with the 11950276Speter--enable-termcap option enabled, and the ncurses library cannot find a terminfo 12050276Speterdescription for your terminal, it will fall back to the termcap file supplied 12150276Speterwith your system (which the ncurses package installation leaves strictly 12250276Speteralone). 12350276Speter 12450276SpeterThe utilities are as follows: 12550276Speter 12650276Speter tic -- terminfo source to binary compiler 12750276Speter infocmp -- terminfo binary to source decompiler/comparator 12850276Speter clear -- emits clear-screen for current terminal 129262685Sdelphij tabs -- set tabs on a terminal 13050276Speter tput -- shell-script access to terminal capabilities. 131262685Sdelphij toe -- table of entries utility 13250276Speter tset -- terminal-initialization utility 13350276Speter 13450276SpeterThe first two (tic and infocmp) are used for manipulating terminfo 13550276Speterdescriptions; the next two (clear and tput) are for use in shell scripts. The 13650276Speterlast (tset) is provided for 4.4BSD compatibility. The source code for all of 13750276Speterthese lives in the `progs' directory. 13850276Speter 13966963SpeterDetailed documentation for all libraries and utilities can be found in the 14066963Speter`man' and `doc' directories. An HTML introduction to ncurses, panels, and 14166963Spetermenus programming lives in the `doc/html' directory. Manpages in HTML format 14266963Speterare under `doc/html/man'. 14350276Speter 14450276SpeterThe `test' directory contains programs that can be used to verify or 14550276Speterdemonstrate the functions of the ncurses libraries. See test/README for 14650276Speterdescriptions of these programs. Notably, the `ncurses' utility is designed to 14750276Speterhelp you systematically exercise the library functions. 14850276Speter 14950276SpeterAUTHORS: 15050276Speter 15150276SpeterPavel Curtis: 15250276Speter wrote the original ncurses 15350276Speter 15450276SpeterZeyd M. Ben-Halim: 15550276Speter port of original to Linux and many enhancements. 15650276Speter 15756639SpeterThomas Dickey (maintainer for 1.9.9g through 4.1, resuming with FSF's 5.0): 15850276Speter configuration scripts, porting, mods to adhere to XSI Curses in the 15950276Speter areas of background color, terminal modes. Also memory leak testing, 16050276Speter the wresize, default colors and key definition extensions and numerous 161262685Sdelphij bug fixes -- more than half of those enumerated in NEWS beginning with 162262685Sdelphij the internal release 1.8.9, see 16350276Speter 164262685Sdelphij http://invisible-island.net/personal/changelogs.html 165262685Sdelphij 16650276SpeterFlorian La Roche (official maintainer for FSF's ncurses 4.2) 16750276Speter Beginning with release 4.2, ncurses is distributed under an MIT-style 16850276Speter license. 16950276Speter 17050276SpeterEric S. Raymond: 17150276Speter the man pages, infocmp(1), tput(1), clear(1), captoinfo(1), tset(1), 17250276Speter toe(1), most of tic(1), trace levels, the HTML intro, wgetnstr() and 17350276Speter many other entry points, the cursor-movement optimization, the 17450276Speter scroll-pack optimizer for vertical motions, the mouse interface and 17550276Speter xterm mouse support, and the ncurses test program. 17650276Speter 17750276SpeterJuergen Pfeifer 17850276Speter The menu and form libraries, C++ bindings for ncurses, menus, forms and 17950276Speter panels, as well as the Ada95 binding. Ongoing support for panel. 18050276Speter 18150276SpeterCONTRIBUTORS: 18250276Speter 18350276SpeterAlexander V. Lukyanov 18450276Speter for numerous fixes and improvements to the optimization logic. 18550276Speter 18650276SpeterDavid MacKenzie 18750276Speter for first-class bug-chasing and methodical testing. 18850276Speter 18950276SpeterRoss Ridge 19050276Speter for the code that hacks termcap parameterized strings into terminfo. 19150276Speter 19250276SpeterWarren Tucker and Gerhard Fuernkranz, 19350276Speter for writing and sending the panel library. 19450276Speter 19550276SpeterHellmuth Michaelis, 19650276Speter for many patches and testing the optimization code. 19750276Speter 19850276SpeterEric Newton, Ulrich Drepper, and Anatoly Ivasyuk: 19950276Speter the C++ code. 20050276Speter 20150276SpeterJonathan Ross, 20250276Speter for lessons in using sed. 20350276Speter 20450276SpeterKeith Bostic (maintainer of 4.4BSD curses) 20550276Speter for help, criticism, comments, bug-finding, and being willing to 20650276Speter deep-six BSD curses for this one when it grew up. 20750276Speter 20850276SpeterRichard Stallman, 20950276Speter for his commitment to making ncurses free software. 21050276Speter 21150276SpeterCountless other people have contributed by reporting bugs, sending fixes, 21250276Spetersuggesting improvements, and generally whining about ncurses :-) 21350276Speter 21450276SpeterBUGS: 21550276Speter See the INSTALL file for bug and developer-list addresses. 21666963Speter The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines 21750276Speter on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly. 218