announce.html.in revision 62449
1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//EN"> 2<!-- 3 $Id: announce.html.in,v 1.37 2000/07/02 01:48:54 tom Exp $ 4--> 5<HTML> 6<HEAD> 7<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE> 8<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org"> 9</HEAD> 10<BODY> 11 12<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1> 13 14The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of 15curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format, 16supports pads and color 17and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping, 18and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P> 19 20In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he 21considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of 22Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to 23ncurses.<P> 24 25The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily to 26any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P> 27 28The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a 29terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1), 30and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for 31the library and tools.<P> 32 33The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at 34the GNU distribution site 35<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>. 36It is also available at 37<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>. 38 39<H1>Release Notes</H1> 40 41This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0; very few 42applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform. 43These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.0 release. 44<p> 45Interface changes: 46<ul> 47 <li>made the extended terminal capabilities 48 (<code>configure --enable-tcap-names</code>) 49 a standard feature (though the configure script can disable it, 50 it is built by default). 51 52 <li>removed the <code>trace()</code> function and related trace support 53 from the production library. This is the only interface change that 54 may cause problems with existing applications linked to shared 55 libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number. 56 57 <li>explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were 58 implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly 59 initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems 60 linking on some platforms. 61 62 <li>modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict with 63 C++ STL. 64</ul> 65New features: 66<ul> 67 <li>added a new extension, <code>assume_default_colors()</code> to 68 provide better control over the use of default colors. This is 69 the principal visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding 70 versions. The new extension allows an application to specify what 71 colors pair 0 uses. It defaults to white on black, unless you 72 have invoked <code>use_default_colors()</code>. 73 74 <li>made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and 75 have been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning. 76 This builds on the extension <code>use_extended_names()</code> by 77 adding "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src 78 <ul> 79 <li>modified <code>tic</code> so that if extended names (i.e., 80 configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then <code>tic -x</code> 81 will also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the 82 terminfo source. 83 84 <li>added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to applicable 85 terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check for a small 86 improvement in setting default colors. 87 88 <li>add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out 89 capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g., captoinfo 90 and infotocap. 91 </ul> 92 93 <li>implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm: 94 <ul> 95 <li>if the <code>configure --enable-widec</code> option is 96 given, append 'w' to names of the generated libraries (e.g., 97 libncursesw.so) to avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries. 98 <li>add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental 99 wide-character support. If any of the environment variables 100 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this driver 101 will be used to translate the output to UTF-8. 102 <li>modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text. 103 </ul> 104 105 <li>modify <code>raw()</code> and <code>noraw()</code> to clear/restore 106 IEXTEN flag which affects stty lnext on systems such as FreeBSD 107 108 <li>reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to run in 109 xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped test for 110 $DISPLAY in favor of kmous=\E[M or $TERM containing "xterm". 111 112 <li>added configure option <code>--with-manpage-symlinks</code>, which 113 provides for fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links 114 for the aliases. 115 116 <li>changed <code>unctrl()</code> to render C1 characters (128-159) as 117 <code>~@</code>, <code>~A</code>, etc. 118 119 <li>add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for 120 $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm. 121 122 <li>made the <code>infocmp -F</code> option less verbose. 123 124 <li>dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current). 125 126</ul> 127Major bug fixes: 128<ul> 129 <li>modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated fallback.c 130 type for Booleans agrees with term.h 131 132 <li>documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2 and 133 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL. 134 135 <li>corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A 136 negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call to 137 wait indefinitely. 138 139 <li>made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in 140 delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo to 141 specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud rate 142 could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding characters. 143 144 <li>modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right 145 corner, rather than displaying only the first character written until 146 the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can update the 147 lower-right corner, and behave this way. 148 149 <li>modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for 150 carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella). 151 152 <li>corrected offsets used for subwindows in <code>wresize()</code> 153 154 <li>modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined to 155 a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++ 156 compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option 157 158 <li>corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM mouse 159 support when poll() is used rather than select(). 160 161 <li>made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion, 162 improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details. 163</ul> 164 165<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1> 166 167The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses: 168 169<UL> 170<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). 171<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color, 172forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad 173and function keys. 174<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting 175a stack of windows with backing store, is included. 176<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting 177a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included. 178<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting 179data collection through on-screen forms, is included. 180<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation 181are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses. 182<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo 183entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> 184versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL> 185 186The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: 187 188<UL> 189<LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses 190specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features, 191but not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly 192concerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many 193function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all 194calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only). 195<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner 196of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. 197<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings. 198<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows. 199<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. 200<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving 201their data. 202<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to 203use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair, 204achieving the effect of transparent colors. 205<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE> 206and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow 207you to better control the use of function keys, 208e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, 209or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code. 210<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm. 211<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a 212cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's 213or System V's. 214<LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates 215a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal 216use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion 217for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than 218the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine. 219<LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The 220screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic- 221cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and 222after the end would step on a non-space character. It will 223automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it 224possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance 225of the screen. 226<LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded 227fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even 228when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful 229for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode). 230<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the 231ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and 232AT&T extension sets. 233<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. 234<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo 235entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory 236if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory. 237This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries 238without giving up access to the system terminfo directory. 239<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled 240descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this 241generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.) 242<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to 243other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to 244compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's 245$HOME/.terminfo directory. 246<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users 247transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a 248TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file 249and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo. 250<LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in 251when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither 252fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to, 253but it's there. 254<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to 255see exactly what terminal types are available on the system. 256<LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry 257point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be 258prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with 259<CODE>#undef</CODE>. 260<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides 261a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface. 262</UL> 263 264<H1>State of the Package</H1> 265 266Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the 267library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many 268`dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe 269according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and 270arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P> 271 272The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications 273including (versions starting with those noted): 274<DL> 275<DT> cdk 276<DD> Curses Development Kit 277<br> 278<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">Curses Development Kit</a> 279<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html">http://dickey.his.com/cdk</A>. 280<DT> ded 281<DD> directory-editor 282<br> 283<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html">http://dickey.his.com/ded</A>. 284<DT> dialog 285<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis 286for similar applications on GNU/Linux. 287<br> 288<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html">http://dickey.his.com/dialog</A>. 289<DT> lynx 290<DD> the character-screen WWW browser 291<br> 292<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>. 293<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1 294<DD> file manager 295<DT> mutt 296<DD> mail utility 297<br> 298<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>. 299<DT> ncftp 300<DD> file-transfer utility 301<DT> nvi 302<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later. 303<DT> tin 304<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME 305<br> 306<A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>. 307<DT> taper 308<DD> tape archive utility 309<DT> vh-1.6 310<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File 311</DL> 312as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: 313<DL> 314<DT> minicom 315<DD> terminal emulator 316<DT> vile 317<DD> vi-like-emacs 318<br> 319<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html">http://dickey.his.com/vile</A>. 320</DL> 321<P> 322 323The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including 324a few games). 325 326<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2> 327 328The original developers of ncurses are <A 329HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and 330<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>. 331Ongoing work is being done by 332<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A> 333and 334<A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>. 335<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A> 336acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the 337copyright on ncurses. 338Contact the current maintainers at 339<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>. 340<P> 341 342To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to 343<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line: 344<PRE> 345 subscribe <name>@<host.domain> 346</PRE> 347 348This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and 349testing of this package.<P> 350 351Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at 352<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>. 353 354<H2>Future Plans</H2> 355<UL> 356<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. 357<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. 358</UL> 359We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working 360on them, please join the ncurses list. 361 362<H2>Other Related Resources</H2> 363 364The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format 365terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond. 366<A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P> 367 368You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics 369not covered in the terminfo file at 370<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's 371archive</A>. 372</BODY> 373</HTML> 374<!-- 375# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS 376# Local Variables: 377# mode:html 378# case-fold-search:nil 379# fill-column:70 380# End: 381--> 382