TO-DO revision 166124 
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27-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28-- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.48 2006/10/28 19:49:16 tom Exp $
29-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30
31SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
32
33Known Problems:
34
35+ libtool does not work with GNAT.
36
37+ The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner.  We should
38  develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
39  lib_mvcur.c.
40
41+ Magic cookie support (for nonzero xmc values) does not work, since the logic
42  does not take into account refresh.  Also, the initial optimize does not
43  adjust the current location when a cookie is emitted.
44
45+ Scrolling optimization has holes:  for example, it forces repaints of the
46  screen between calls to refresh().
47
48+ SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown. 
49  For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
50  activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
51  displayed.
52
53+ The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
54  specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
55  terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
56  point.  This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
57
58+ The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation.  Some
59  C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
60
61+ The resizeterm() function does not handle ripped-off lines such as that done
62  for the slk_XXX functions.
63
64+ vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not. 
65  There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
66
67Portability (or lack thereof):
68
69+ Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
70  trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
71  termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
72  problem was first seen running lynx).  You will not see this problem if you
73  are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
74  BSDI.  For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
75  ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
76
77+ In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
78  interface for handling variadic argument lists.  Linux doesn't have
79  varargs.h, it has the newer X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent.  So these
80  functions use stdargs instead.  This is unlikely to be a problem unless
81  you're building ncurses on a System V old enough to only have varargs.h. 
82  (Solaris 2.5.1 uses the stdarg.h binding as well).
83
84+ If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
85  a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work.  You lose.  (It
86  should work on any System V, however).  If you want to fix this, add an
87  implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
88
89+ The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers, mainly with
90  configure script problems with vsscanf().
91
92+ terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
93  utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry.  Get the
94  groff package.
95
96Untested features:
97
98+ The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
99
100+ The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
101  for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
102  label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested.  The label_format and
103  lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
104
105LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
106
1071. Extended COSE conformance
108
109There is an XPG4 standard recently released which describes a superset
110of the SVr4 API.  The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
111We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
112supporting internationalization.
113
1142. DOS port
115
116Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
117It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite 
118a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
119port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area.  The first
120result of this would be a DOS port.
121
1223. X port
123
124It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
125maintain its own window.  With this feature, all ncurses programs would
126automatically become X programs.  The challenge is to handle resize events
127properly.
128
1294. Unused capabilities
130
131The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
132
133A. Status-line capabilities:
134
135	Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
136	Numerics: width_status_line.
137	Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
138
139System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all.  SVr4's use, if
140any, is unknown.  From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
141shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
142decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
143alone.
144
145B. Printer capabilities:
146
147	Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
148		row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
149		lpi_changes_res.
150	Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
151		max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
152		micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
153		output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
154		wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
155	String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
156		set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
157		... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
158
159Curses doesn't use these.
160
161C. Printer-control capabilities:
162
163	Boolean: prtr_silent.
164	Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
165
166Curses doesn't use these.
167
168D. Dialer strings:
169
170	Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
171		fixed_pause, wait_tone.
172
173Curses doesn't use these.
174
175E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
176
177	Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
178	Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
179
180These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
181window systems that never escaped the lab.  The virtual_terminal cap had
182something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
183
184F. Unused VDT capabilities:
185
186	Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
187		move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
188		needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
189	Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
190	Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char, 
191		enter_xon_mode,	exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character, 
192		display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
193		enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options, 
194		scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
195
196These are the potentially important ones for ncurses.  Notes:
197
198	i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
199		insert_mode is on.
200
201	ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
202		Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.
203
204-- vile:txtmode
205