announce.html.in revision 166124
1139825Simp<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//EN"> 21541Srgrimes<!-- 31541Srgrimes $Id: announce.html.in,v 1.64 2006/12/17 23:31:26 tom Exp $ 41541Srgrimes **************************************************************************** 51541Srgrimes * Copyright (c) 1998-2005,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. * 61541Srgrimes * * 71541Srgrimes * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a * 81541Srgrimes * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the * 91541Srgrimes * "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including * 101541Srgrimes * without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, * 111541Srgrimes * distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell * 121541Srgrimes * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is * 131541Srgrimes * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: * 141541Srgrimes * * 151541Srgrimes * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included * 161541Srgrimes * in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. * 171541Srgrimes * * 181541Srgrimes * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS * 191541Srgrimes * OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF * 201541Srgrimes * MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. * 211541Srgrimes * IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, * 221541Srgrimes * DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR * 231541Srgrimes * OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR * 241541Srgrimes * THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. * 251541Srgrimes * * 261541Srgrimes * Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright * 271541Srgrimes * holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the * 281541Srgrimes * sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written * 291541Srgrimes * authorization. * 301541Srgrimes **************************************************************************** 311541Srgrimes--> 3222521Sdyson<HTML> 331541Srgrimes<HEAD> 341541Srgrimes<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE> 351541Srgrimes<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org"> 361541Srgrimes<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> 371541Srgrimes</HEAD> 381541Srgrimes<BODY> 395455Sdg 401541Srgrimes<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1> 411541Srgrimes 421541SrgrimesThe ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of 431541Srgrimescurses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, 441541Srgrimessupports pads and color 455455Sdgand multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping, 465455Sdgand has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P> 475455Sdg 481541SrgrimesIn mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he 495455Sdgconsidered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of 501541SrgrimesUnix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to 511541Srgrimesncurses.<P> 521541Srgrimes 531541SrgrimesThe ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. 541541SrgrimesIt has been in use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, 551541Srgrimesand on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package. 561541SrgrimesIt should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. 571541SrgrimesIt has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P> 581541Srgrimes 591817SdgThe distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a 6050477Speterterminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1), 611541Srgrimesand a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for 621541Srgrimesthe library and tools.<P> 631541Srgrimes 641541SrgrimesThe ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at 651541Srgrimesthe GNU distribution site 661541Srgrimes<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</A> . 671541Srgrimes<br>It is also available at 681541Srgrimes<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A> . 6995686Salc 70132880Smux<H1>Release Notes</H1> 71108518Salc 7276244SmarkmThis release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 through 5.5; 731541Srgrimesvery few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform. 741541SrgrimesThese are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.5 release. 751541Srgrimes<p> 761541SrgrimesInterface changes: 771541Srgrimes<ul> 781541Srgrimes <li>generate linkable stubs for some macros: 791541Srgrimes <br> 80118771Sbms getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx, 8157550Sps getpary, getpary, 8257550Sps <br> 831541Srgrimes and (for libncursesw) 841541Srgrimes <br> 851541Srgrimes wgetbkgrnd 861541Srgrimes 871541Srgrimes</ul> 881541SrgrimesNew features and improvements: 895455Sdg<ul> 905455Sdg <li>library 911541Srgrimes <ul> 921541Srgrimes <li>support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions. 931541Srgrimes This uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for 941541Srgrimes several versions on different platforms. 951541Srgrimes 961541Srgrimes <li>add <code>use_legacy_coding()</code> function to support 971541Srgrimes lynx's font-switching feature. 981541Srgrimes 991541Srgrimes <li>add extension <code>nofilter()</code>, to cancel a prior 1005455Sdg <code>filter()</code> call. 1015455Sdg 102103777Salc <li>add/install a package config script, e.g., 103103777Salc <code>ncurses5-config</code> or 1045455Sdg <code>ncursesw5-config</code>, according to 1055455Sdg configuration options. 10642360Sjulian 107133636Salc <li>provide ifdef for <code>NCURSES_NOMACROS</code> which 108133636Salc suppresses most macro definitions from curses.h, i.e., 1095455Sdg where a macro is defined to override a function to improve 11012767Sdyson performance. 11157550Sps 1125455Sdg <li>make ifdef's consistent in <code>curses.h</code> for the 1135455Sdg extended colors so the header file can be used for the 1145455Sdg normal curses library. The header file installed for 1155455Sdg extended colors is a variation of the wide-character 1165455Sdg configuration. 11751342Sdillon 1181541Srgrimes <li>improve <code>tgetstr()</code> by making the return value 1191541Srgrimes point into the user's buffer, if provided. 12057550Sps 12157550Sps <li>add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with 12257550Sps <code>tparm()</code> using either varargs (the existing 12357550Sps status), or using a fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open). 12457550Sps 12557550Sps <li>widen the test for xterm <code>kmous</code> a little to 12621754Sdyson <code>allow</code> for other 12757550Sps strings than "\E[M", e.g., for <code>xterm-sco</code> 12857550Sps functionality in xterm. 12957550Sps 13057550Sps <li>modify <code>wgetnstr()</code> to return 13149338Salc <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> if a sigwinch occurs. 13257550Sps 13349338Salc <li>move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from 13498022Salc curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to 13598022Salc those if <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED</code> is defined 13657550Sps without ensuring that <wchar.h> is included. 13757550Sps 138119595Smarcel <li>change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are 139119595Smarcel installed. Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries, 140119595Smarcel link the shared objects into the install directory. This 14197710Salc makes the <code>--with-rpath</code> option work except with 142121962Sdes <code>$(DESTDIR)</code>. 14397710Salc 144121962Sdes <li>several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are 14597710Salc only available if the library is configured using 14697710Salc <code>--enable-xmc-glitch</code>. 147133401Sgreen 148133401Sgreen <li>Add <code>NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS</code> and 149133401Sgreen <code>NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE</code> environment variables 150133401Sgreen to allow runtime suppression of the related hard-tabs and 151133401Sgreen xmc-glitch features. 152133401Sgreen </ul> 153133401Sgreen 154133401Sgreen <li>programs: 155133401Sgreen <ul> 156133401Sgreen <li>add new test programs: chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c, 157133401Sgreen echochar.c, foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting 158133401Sgreen that existing test programs also were modified to test 159133401Sgreen additional features). 160133401Sgreen 16197710Salc <li>modify tack to test extended capability function-key 16297710Salc strings. 1631541Srgrimes 164103777Salc <li>modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via <code>cgetent()</code> 165103777Salc functions, or as a text file if those are not available. 166103777Salc 167103777Salc <li>improve infocmp/tic <code>-f</code> option formatting. 168103777Salc 169121962Sdes <li>add <code>toe -a</code> option, to show all databases. 17050247Salc This uses new private interfaces in the ncurses library for 17150247Salc iterating through the list of databases. 17250247Salc 17350247Salc <li>modify <code>MKfallback.sh</code> to use 17450247Salc <code>tic -x</code> when constructing fallback tables to 17550247Salc allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a fallback entry. 17650247Salc </ul> 17795589Salc 17895589Salc <li>terminal database 17995589Salc <ul> 1801541Srgrimes <li>add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome terminal (mgt) 1811541Srgrimes <li>add nsterm-16color entry 18250247Salc <li>updated mlterm terminfo entry 183132880Smux <li>add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry 184108515Salc <li>remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux entry, since it does not really do this 1855455Sdg <li>add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension 1865455Sdg <li>add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri strings 187118852Salc <li>add hpterm-color terminfo entry 18899754Salc <li>add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which are reported to implement this feature 18950248Salc <li>correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style. 190118771Sbms </ul> 191103777Salc</ul> 19295589SalcMajor bug fixes: 19395589Salc<ul> 19495589Salc <li>correct a typo in configure <code>--with-bool</code> option for the 1951541Srgrimes case where <code>--without-cxx</code> is used. 1961541Srgrimes 197118771Sbms <li>move assignment from environment variable <code>ESCDELAY</code> 198118771Sbms from <code>initscr()</code> down to <code>newterm()</code> so the 199118771Sbms environment variable affects timeouts for terminals opened with 200118771Sbms newterm() as well. 201118771Sbms 20295589Salc <li>modify <code>werase</code> to clear multicolumn characters that 20395589Salc extend into a derived window. 20495589Salc 20595589Salc <li>modify <code>wchgat()</code> to mark updated cells as changed so a 20695589Salc refresh will repaint those cells. 20795589Salc 20895589Salc <li>correct logic in <code>wadd_wch()</code> and 20995589Salc <code>wecho_wch()</code>, which did not guard against passing the 21095589Salc multi-column attribute into a call on <code>waddch()</code>, e.g., 21195589Salc using data returned by <code>win_wch()</code> 21295589Salc 21395589Salc <li>fix redrawing of windows other than <code>stdscr</code> using 21495589Salc <code>wredrawln()</code> by touching the corresponding rows in 21595589Salc <code>curscr</code>. 21695589Salc 21795589Salc <li>reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to <code>tgetent()</code> by 21895589Salc remembering the last <code>TERMINAL*</code> value allocated to hold 21995589Salc the corresponding data and freeing that if the 220118771Sbms <code>tgetent()</code> result buffer is the same as the previous 221118771Sbms call. 222118771Sbms 223118771Sbms <li>modify <code>read_termtype()</code> so the <code>term_names</code> 224118771Sbms data is always allocated as part of the <code>str_table</code>, a 225118771Sbms better fix for a memory leak. 22695589Salc 22795589Salc <li>fix <code>wins_nwstr(),</code> which did not handle single-column 228121962Sdes non-8bit codes. 22912662Sdg 23098818Salc <li>modify <code>wbkgrnd()</code> to avoid clearing the 23198818Salc <code>A_CHARTEXT</code> attribute bits since those record the state 23298818Salc of multicolumn characters. 23312662Sdg 23412662Sdg <li>improve <code>SIGWINCH</code> handling by postponing its effect 23512662Sdg during <code>newterm()</code>, etc., when allocating screens. 236100512Salfred 23712662Sdg <li>remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in 23812662Sdg <code>mvwin()</code>. 23912662Sdg 24012662Sdg <li>add checks in <code>waddchnstr()</code> and 24198818Salc <code>wadd_wchnstr()</code> to stop copying when a null character 24298818Salc is found. 24312662Sdg 244131719Salc <li>add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling 245176717Smarcel region before scrolling on a new line. 246176717Smarcel 247176717Smarcel <li>add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as 248176717Smarcel test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with 249176717Smarcel A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision 250176717Smarcel of legacy coding. 25112662Sdg</ul> 25212662Sdg 25376827SalfredPortability: 25497727Salc<ul> 25597727Salc <li>configure script: 25697727Salc <ul> 25797727Salc <li>new options: 25897727Salc <dl> 25997727Salc 26097727Salc <dt>--with-hashed-db 26197727Salc <dd>Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing 2621541Srgrimes each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory 2631541Srgrimes tree. 2641541Srgrimes 26549900Salc <dt>--without-dlsym 26649900Salc <dd>Do not use <code>dlsym()</code> to load GPM dynamically. 26749900Salc 26849900Salc <dt>--with-valgrind 26949900Salc <dd>Simplify building for testing with valgrind. 2701541Srgrimes 2711541Srgrimes <dt>--enable-wgetch-events 27295686Salc <dd>Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. 27395686Salc 27495686Salc <dt>--enable-signed-char 27595686Salc <dd>Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char". 27695686Salc 277112167Sdas </dl> 27895686Salc 27995686Salc <li>improved options: 280173429Spjd <dl> 28199754Salc 28228345Sdyson <dt>--disable-largefile 28395686Salc <dd>make the option work both ways. 28495686Salc 28595686Salc <dt>--with-gpm 28695686Salc <dd>The option now accepts a parameter, 28795686Salc i.e., the name of the dynamic GPM library to load via 288112167Sdas <code>dlopen()</code> 289112167Sdas 29095686Salc <dt>--disable-symlinks 29195686Salc <dd>The option now allows one to 29295686Salc disable <code>symlink()</code> in <code>tic</code> even when 29395686Salc <code>link()</code> does not work. 29495686Salc 29579248Sdillon </dl> 296120831Sbms 29776827Salfred </ul> 2981541Srgrimes 29944146Sluoqi <li>other configure/build issues: <ul> <li>remove special case for 3001541Srgrimes Darwin in <code>CF_XOPEN_SOURCE</code> configure macro. 3011541Srgrimes 3021549Srgrimes <li>add configure check to ensure that <code>SIGWINCH</code> is 3031541Srgrimes defined on platforms such as OS X which exclude that when 30413490Sdyson <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE,</code> etc., are defined 30513490Sdyson 30613490Sdyson <li>use ld's <code>-search_paths_first</code> option on Darwin 30757550Sps to work around odd search rules on that platform. 30857550Sps 30957550Sps <li>improve ifdef's for <code>_POSIX_VDISABLE</code> in tset to 31057550Sps work with Mac OS X. 31157550Sps 31257550Sps <li>modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is 31357550Sps used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the 31485762Sdillon <code>$(CFLAGS)</code> variable is also used. 315120531Smarcel 316120531Smarcel <li>use <code>${CC}</code> rather than <code>${LD}</code> in 31713490Sdyson shared library rules for IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure 31820449Sdyson that initialization sections are provided for extra linkage 31920449Sdyson requirements, e.g., of C++ applications. 32020449Sdyson 32124666Sdyson <li>improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux, 32224666Sdyson FreeBSD and NetBSD to make 32324666Sdyson <code>--with-shlib-version</code> work. 32424666Sdyson 32524666Sdyson <li>split up dependency of <code>names.c</code> and 32620449Sdyson <code>codes.c</code> in <code>ncurses/Makefile</code> to 327118771Sbms work with parallel make. 328118771Sbms 329118771Sbms <li>modify <code>MKlib_gen.sh</code> to change 330118771Sbms preprocessor-expanded <code>_Bool</code> back to <code>bool</code>. 331118771Sbms 332118771Sbms <li>modify <code>progs/Makefile.in</code> to make 333118771Sbms <code>tput init</code> work properly with cygwin, 334118771Sbms i.e., do not pass a <code>.exe</code> in the reference 335118771Sbms string used in check_aliases. 33655206Speter </ul> 33779248Sdillon 338116387Salc <li>library: 33979248Sdillon <ul> 34079248Sdillon <li>ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that 341171902Skib <code>wcwidth()</code> claims are not one-column. This is 34279248Sdillon a workaround for Solaris' broken locale support. 34379248Sdillon 34479248Sdillon <li>reduce name-pollution in <code>term.h</code> by removing 34579248Sdillon <code>#define</code>'s for HAVE_xxx symbols. 34679248Sdillon 34779248Sdillon <li>fix <code>#ifdef</code> in <code>c++/internal.h</code> for 348133598Stegge QNX 6.1 349133598Stegge </ul> 35079248Sdillon 35179248Sdillon <li>test programs: <ul> <li>modify <code>test/configure</code> script 352128596Salc to allow building test programs with PDCurses/X11. 353117047Salc 35479248Sdillon <li>modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD 35579248Sdillon curses. Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a 35679248Sdillon subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4 35779248Sdillon additions. But it is enough for comparison. 358122349Salc 35979248Sdillon <li>improved <code>test/configure</code> to build test/ncurses 36079248Sdillon on HPUX 11 using the vendor curses. 36179248Sdillon 36279248Sdillon <li>change configure script to produce 36379248Sdillon <code>test/Makefile</code> from data file. 36498022Salc </ul> 365118771Sbms</ul> 36698036Salc 367118771Sbms<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1> 36879248Sdillon 36992029SeivindThe ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses: 3705455Sdg 371<UL> 372<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). 373<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color, 374forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad 375and function keys. 376<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting 377a stack of windows with backing store, is included. 378<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting 379a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included. 380<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting 381data collection through on-screen forms, is included. 382<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation 383are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses. 384<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo 385entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> 386versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL> 387 388The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: 389 390<UL> 391<LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses 392specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features, 393and most EXTENDED features). 394It includes many function calls not supported under SVr4 curses 395(but portability of all 396calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only). 397<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner 398of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. 399<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings. 400<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm 401and FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows. 402<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. 403<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving 404their data. 405<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to 406use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair, 407achieving the effect of transparent colors. 408<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE> 409and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow 410you to better control the use of function keys, 411e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, 412or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code. 413<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm. 414<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a 415cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's 416or System V's. 417<LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates 418a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal 419use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion 420for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than 421the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine. 422<LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The 423screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic- 424cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and 425after the end would step on a non-space character. It will 426automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it 427possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance 428of the screen. 429<LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded 430fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even 431when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful 432for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode). 433<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the 434ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and 435AT&T extension sets. 436<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. 437<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo 438entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory 439if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory. 440This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries 441without giving up access to the system terminfo directory. 442<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled 443descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this 444generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.) 445<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to 446other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to 447compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's 448$HOME/.terminfo directory. 449<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users 450transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a 451TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file 452and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo. 453<LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in 454when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither 455fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to, 456but it's there. 457<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to 458see exactly what terminal types are available on the system. 459<LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry 460point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be 461prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with 462<CODE>#undef</CODE>. 463<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides 464a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface. 465</UL> 466 467<H1>State of the Package</H1> 468 469Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the 470library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many 471`dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe 472according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and 473arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P> 474 475The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications 476including (versions starting with those noted): 477<DL> 478<DT> cdk 479<DD> Curses Development Kit 480<br> 481<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A> 482<br> 483<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a> 484<DT> ded 485<DD> directory-editor 486<br> 487<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</A> 488<DT> dialog 489<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis 490for similar applications on GNU/Linux. 491<br> 492<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</A> 493<DT> lynx 494<DD> the character-screen WWW browser 495<br> 496<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</A> 497<DT> Midnight Commander 498<DD> file manager 499<br> 500<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/</A> 501<DT> mutt 502<DD> mail utility 503<br> 504<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</A> 505<DT> ncftp 506<DD> file-transfer utility 507<br> 508<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</A> 509<DT> nvi 510<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later. 511<br> 512<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A> 513<br> 514<DT> pinfo 515<DD> Lynx-like info browser. 516<A HREF="http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/</A> 517<DT> tin 518<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME 519<A HREF="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</A> 520<DT> vh-1.6 521<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File 522<br> 523<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A> 524</DL> 525as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: 526<DL> 527<DT> minicom 528<DD> terminal emulator 529<br> 530<A HREF="http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/"> 531http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</A> 532<DT> vile 533<DD> vi-like-emacs 534<br> 535<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</A> 536</DL> 537<P> 538 539The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including 540a few games). 541 542<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2> 543 544Zeyd Ben-Halim 545started it from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. 546Eric S. Raymond 547continued development. 548Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries. 549Ongoing work is being done by 550<A HREF="mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</A>. 551Thomas Dickey 552acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, 553which holds the copyright on ncurses. 554Contact the current maintainers at 555<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>. 556<P> 557 558To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to 559<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line: 560<PRE> 561 subscribe <name>@<host.domain> 562</PRE> 563 564This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and 565testing of this package.<P> 566 567Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at 568<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A> . 569 570<H2>Future Plans</H2> 571<UL> 572<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. 573<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. 574</UL> 575We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working 576on them, please join the ncurses list. 577 578<H2>Other Related Resources</H2> 579 580The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format 581terminal description file once maintained by 582<A HREF="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric Raymond</A> . 583Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided 584in the same file, and provides several user-definable extensions 585beyond the X/Open specification.<P> 586 587You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics 588not covered in the terminfo file at 589<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's 590archive</A> . 591</BODY> 592</HTML> 593<!-- 594# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS 595# Local Variables: 596# mode:html 597# case-fold-search:nil 598# fill-column:70 599# End: 600--> 601