announce.html.in revision 50276
150276Speter<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//EN"> 250276Speter<!-- 350276Speter $Id: announce.html.in,v 1.30 1999/05/16 17:01:39 juergen Exp $ 450276Speter--> 550276Speter<HTML> 650276Speter<HEAD> 750276Speter<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE> 850276Speter<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org"> 950276Speter</HEAD> 1050276Speter<BODY> 1150276Speter 1250276Speter<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1> 1350276Speter 1450276SpeterThe ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of 1550276Spetercurses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, 1650276Spetersupports pads and color 1750276Speterand multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping, 1850276Speterand has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P> 1950276Speter 2050276SpeterIn mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he 2150276Speterconsidered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of 2250276SpeterUnix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to 2350276Speterncurses.<P> 2450276Speter 2550276SpeterThe ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily to 2650276Speterany ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P> 2750276Speter 2850276SpeterThe distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a 2950276Speterterminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1), 3050276Speterand a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for 3150276Speterthe library and tools.<P> 3250276Speter 3350276SpeterThe ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at 3450276Speterthe GNU distribution site 3550276Speter<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu</A>. 3650276SpeterIt is also available at 3750276Speter<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>. 3850276Speter 3950276Speter<H1>Release Notes</H1> 4050276Speter 4150276SpeterWe decided to release ncurses as a new whole number release (5.0) because it 4250276Speterincorporates several interface changes, including some that would invalidate 4350276Speterexisting shared libraries. These are the highlights from the change-log 4450276Spetersince ncurses 4.2 release. 4550276Speter<p> 4650276SpeterInterface changes: 4750276Speter<ul> 4850276Speter <li>The principal source of changes to the interface comes from the 4950276Speter release of X/Open Curses in 1997. Earlier versions of ncurses (4.0 5050276Speter and before) were based on a draft version of the specification. The 5150276Speter release version adds parameters to some functions to support the 5250276Speter evolving internationalization of curses. These summarize the impact: 5350276Speter<ul> 5450276Speter <li>modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of 5550276Speter X/Open Curses (affects ABI since developers have used attr_get). 5650276Speter 5750276Speter <li>corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than 5850276Speter attr_t. 5950276Speter 6050276Speter <li>the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void* 6150276Speter parameter according to XSI. 6250276Speter 6350276Speter <li>correct macros for wattr_set, wattr_get, separate wattrset macro from 6450276Speter these to preserve behavior that allows attributes to be combined with 6550276Speter color pair numbers. 6650276Speter 6750276Speter <li>reviewed/updated curses.h, term.h against X/Open Curses Issue 4 6850276Speter Version 2. This includes making some parameters NCURSES_CONST 6950276Speter rather than const, e.g., in termcap.h. 7050276Speter 7150276Speter <li>reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document. 7250276Speter 7350276Speter <li>add set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch to terminfo structure, as per 7450276Speter XSI and Solaris 2.5. 7550276Speter</ul> 7650276Speter <li>The newest version of the X/Open Curses is implemented on Solaris 7750276Speter and other vendor's systems. It adds new features to the terminfo 7850276Speter descriptions: 7950276Speter<ul> 8050276Speter <li>implement tparm %l format. 8150276Speter 8250276Speter <li>implement tparm printf-style width and precision for %s, %d, %x, %o 8350276Speter as per XSI. 8450276Speter</ul> 8550276Speter <li>We made additional changes to reduce impact by future interface 8650276Speter changes: 8750276Speter<ul> 8850276Speter <li>change key_names[] array to static since it is not part of the curses 8950276Speter interface. 9050276Speter 9150276Speter <li>move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat 9250276Speter</ul> 9350276Speter <li>modify configure script to embed ABI in shared libraries for HP-UX 9450276Speter 10.x (detailed request by Tim Mooney). 9550276Speter 9650276Speter <li>modify configuration of shared libraries on Digital Unix so that 9750276Speter versioning is embedded in the library, rather than implied by 9850276Speter links (patch by Tim Mooney). 9950276Speter</ul> 10050276SpeterNew features: 10150276Speter<ul> 10250276Speter <li>enable sigwinch handler by default. 10350276Speter 10450276Speter <li>turn on hashmap scrolling code by default 10550276Speter 10650276Speter <li>improved support for termcap applications 10750276Speter<ul> 10850276Speter <li>modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to terminfo 10950276Speter names. 11050276Speter 11150276Speter <li>provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from terminfo 11250276Speter data and using it as the padding character in tputs. 11350276Speter 11450276Speter <li>provide support for termcap ospeed variable by copying it from the 11550276Speter internal cur_term member, and using ospeed as the baudrate 11650276Speter reference for the delay_output and tputs functions. 11750276Speter 11850276Speter <li>change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more than 2 11950276Speter characters. 12050276Speter 12150276Speter <li>add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially 12250276Speter allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap. 12350276Speter</ul> 12450276Speter <li>add mouse support to ncurses menus. 12550276Speter 12650276Speter <li>add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX 12750276Speter 12850276Speter <li>modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants 12950276Speter 13050276Speter <li>add configure option --enable-no-padding, to allow environment 13150276Speter variable $NCURSES_NO_PADDING to eliminate non-mandatory padding, 13250276Speter thereby making terminal emulators (e.g., for vt100) a little more 13350276Speter efficient. 13450276Speter 13550276Speter <li>modify lib_color.c to eliminate dependency on orig_colors and 13650276Speter orig_pair, since SVr4 curses does not require these either, but 13750276Speter uses them when they are available. 13850276Speter 13950276Speter <li>add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo 14050276Speter if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and 14150276Speter tabs). 14250276Speter 14350276Speter <li>modify tic to compile into %'char' form in preference to %{number}, 14450276Speter since that is a little more efficient. 14550276Speter</ul> 14650276SpeterMajor bug fixes: 14750276Speter<ul> 14850276Speter <li>modify lib_tstp.c to block SIGTTOU when handling SIGTSTP, fixes a 14950276Speter problem where ncurses applications which were run via a shell script 15050276Speter would hang when given a ^Z. Also, check if the terminal's process 15150276Speter group is consistent, i.e., a shell has not taken ownership of it, 15250276Speter before deciding to save the current terminal settings in the SIGTSTP 15350276Speter handler. 15450276Speter 15550276Speter <li>suppress sc/rc capabilities from terminal description if they appear 15650276Speter in smcup/rmcup. This affects only scrolling optimization, to fix a 15750276Speter problem reported by several people with xterm's alternate screen, 15850276Speter though the problem is more general. 15950276Speter 16050276Speter <li>modify relative_move and tputs to avoid an interaction with the 16150276Speter BSD-style padding. The relative_move function could produce a string 16250276Speter to replace on the screen which began with a numeric character, which 16350276Speter was then interpreted by tputs as padding. 16450276Speter 16550276Speter <li>modify setupterm so that cancelled strings are treated the same as 16650276Speter absent strings, cancelled and absent booleans false (does not affect 16750276Speter tic, infocmp). 16850276Speter 16950276Speter <li>modify lib_vidattr.c to allow for terminal types (e.g., xterm-color) 17050276Speter which may reset all attributes in the 'op' capability, so that colors 17150276Speter are set before turning on bold and other attributes, but still after 17250276Speter turning attributes off. 17350276Speter 17450276Speter <li>use 'access()' to check if ncurses library should be permitted to 17550276Speter open or modify files with fopen/open/link/unlink/remove calls, in 17650276Speter case the calling application is running in setuid mode. 17750276Speter 17850276Speter <li>correction to doupdate, for case where terminal does not support 17950276Speter insert/delete character. The logic did not check that there was a 18050276Speter difference in alignment of changes to old/new screens before 18150276Speter repainting the whole non-blank portion of the line. Modified to fall 18250276Speter through into logic that reduces by the portion which does not differ. 18350276Speter</ul> 18450276Speter 18550276Speter<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1> 18650276Speter 18750276SpeterThe ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:<P> 18850276Speter 18950276Speter<UL> 19050276Speter<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). 19150276Speter<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color, 19250276Speterforms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad 19350276Speterand function keys. 19450276Speter<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting 19550276Spetera stack of windows with backing store, is included. 19650276Speter<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting 19750276Spetera uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included. 19850276Speter<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting 19950276Speterdata collection through on-screen forms, is included. 20050276Speter<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation 20150276Speterare bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses. 20250276Speter<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo 20350276Speterentries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> 20450276Speterversions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL> 20550276Speter 20650276SpeterThe ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:<P> 20750276Speter 20850276Speter<UL> 20950276Speter<LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses 21050276Speterspecification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features, 21150276Speterbut not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly 21250276Speterconcerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many 21350276Speterfunction calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all 21450276Spetercalls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only). 21550276Speter<LI>Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner 21650276Speterof the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. 21750276Speter<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings. 21850276Speter<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows. 21950276Speter<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. 22050276Speter<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving 22150276Spetertheir data. 22250276Speter<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to 22350276Speteruse the terminal's default colors for the default color pair, 22450276Speterachieving the effect of transparent colors. 22550276Speter<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE> 22650276Speterand <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow 22750276Speteryou to better control the use of function keys, 22850276Spetere.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, 22950276Speteror by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code. 23050276Speter<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm. 23150276Speter<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a 23250276Spetercursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's 23350276Speteror System V's. 23450276Speter<LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates 23550276Spetera novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal 23650276Speteruse of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion 23750276Speterfor screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than 23850276Speterthe 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine. 23950276Speter<LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The 24050276Speterscreen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic- 24150276Spetercookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and 24250276Speterafter the end would step on a non-space character. It will 24350276Speterautomatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it 24450276Speterpossible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance 24550276Speterof the screen. 24650276Speter<LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded 24750276Speterfallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even 24850276Speterwhen no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful 24950276Speterfor support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode). 25050276Speter<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the 25150276Speterability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and 25250276SpeterAT&T extension sets. 25350276Speter<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. 25450276Speter<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo 25550276Speterentries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory 25650276Speterif it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory. 25750276SpeterThis feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries 25850276Speterwithout giving up access to the system terminfo directory. 25950276Speter<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled 26050276Speterdescriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this 26150276Spetergeneralizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.) 26250276Speter<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to 26350276Speterother entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to 26450276Spetercompiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's 26550276Speter$HOME/.terminfo directory. 26650276Speter<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users 26750276Spetertransition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a 26850276SpeterTERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file 26950276Speterand converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo. 27050276Speter<LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in 27150276Speterwhen it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither 27250276Speterfast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to, 27350276Speterbut it's there. 27450276Speter<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to 27550276Spetersee exactly what terminal types are available on the system. 27650276Speter<LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry 27750276Speterpoint have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be 27850276Speterprototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with 27950276Speter<CODE>#undef</CODE>. 28050276Speter<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides 28150276Spetera narrative introduction to the curses programming interface. 28250276Speter</UL> 28350276Speter 28450276Speter<H1>State of the Package</H1> 28550276Speter 28650276SpeterNumerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the 28750276Speterlibrary is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many 28850276Speter`dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe 28950276Speteraccording to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and 29050276Speterarena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P> 29150276Speter 29250276SpeterThe ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications 29350276Speterincluding (versions starting with those noted):<P> 29450276Speter<DL> 29550276Speter<DT> ded 29650276Speter<DD> directory-editor 29750276Speter<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded</A>. 29850276Speter<DT> dialog 29950276Speter<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis 30050276Speterfor similar applications on GNU/Linux. 30150276Speter<DT> lynx-2.7 30250276Speter<DD> the character-screen WWW browser 30350276Speter<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1 30450276Speter<DD> file manager 30550276Speter<DT> mutt 0.88 30650276Speter<DD> mail utility 30750276Speter<DT> ncftp 2.0 30850276Speter<DD> file-transfer utility 30950276Speter<DT> nvi 31050276Speter<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later. 31150276Speter<DT> taper 31250276Speter<DD> tape archive utility 31350276Speter<DT> vh-1.6 31450276Speter<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File 31550276Speter</DL> 31650276Speteras well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: 31750276Speter<DL> 31850276Speter<DT> minicom-1.75 31950276Speter<DD> terminal emulator 32050276Speter<DT> tin-unoff 32150276Speter<DD> tin 1.4 newsreader, supporting color, MIME 32250276Speter<A HREF="ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff">ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff</A>. 32350276Speter<DT> vile 32450276Speter<DD> vi-like-emacs 32550276Speter<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile</A>. 32650276Speter</DL> 32750276Speter<P> 32850276Speter 32950276SpeterThe ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including 33050276Spetera few games). 33150276Speter 33250276Speter<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2> 33350276Speter 33450276SpeterThe original developers of ncurses are <A 33550276SpeterHREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and 33650276Speter<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>. 33750276SpeterOngoing work is being done by 33850276Speter<A HREF="mailto:dickey@clark.net">Thomas Dickey</A> 33950276Speterand 34050276Speter<A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>. 34150276Speter<A HREF="mailto:florian@gnu.org">Florian La Roche</A> 34250276Speteracts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the 34350276Spetercopyright on ncurses. 34450276SpeterContact the current maintainers at 34550276Speter<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>. 34650276Speter<P> 34750276Speter 34850276SpeterTo join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to 34950276Speter<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line: 35050276Speter<PRE> 35150276Speter subscribe <name>@<host.domain> 35250276Speter</PRE> 35350276Speter 35450276SpeterThis list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and 35550276Spetertesting of this package.<P> 35650276Speter 35750276SpeterBeta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at 35850276Speter<A HREF="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses</A>. 35950276Speter 36050276Speter<H2>Future Plans</H2> 36150276Speter<UL> 36250276Speter<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. 36350276Speter<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. 36450276Speter</UL> 36550276SpeterWe need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working 36650276Speteron them, please join the ncurses list. 36750276Speter 36850276Speter<H2>Other Related Resources</H2> 36950276Speter 37050276SpeterThe distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format 37150276Speterterminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond. 37250276Speter<A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P> 37350276Speter 37450276SpeterYou can find lots of information on terminal-related topics 37550276Speternot covered in the terminfo file at 37650276Speter<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's 37750276Speterarchive</A>. 37850276Speter</BODY> 37950276Speter</HTML> 38050276Speter<!-- 38150276Speter# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS 38250276Speter# Local Variables: 38350276Speter# mode:html 38450276Speter# case-fold-search:nil 38550276Speter# fill-column:70 38650276Speter# End: 38750276Speter--> 388