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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.49 2007/02/03 16:29:17 tom Exp $
29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
35 + libtool does not work with GNAT.
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
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.
45 + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
46 screen between calls to refresh().
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
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.
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...
61 + vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not.
62 There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
64 Portability (or lack thereof):
66 + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
67 trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
68 termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
69 problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
70 are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
71 BSDI. For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
72 ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
74 + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
75 interface for handling variadic argument lists (and are deprecated by X/Open
76 for that reason). Linux doesn't have varargs.h, it has the newer
77 X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these functions use stdargs
78 instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless you're building ncurses on
79 a System V old enough to only have varargs.h. (Solaris 2.5.1 used the
80 stdarg.h binding as well).
82 + If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
83 a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work. You lose. (It
84 should work on any System V, however). If you want to fix this, add an
85 implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
87 + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers.
89 + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
90 utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
95 + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
97 + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
98 for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
99 label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
100 lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
102 LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
104 1. Extended COSE conformance
106 There is an XPG4 standard released in 1996 which describes a superset
107 of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
108 We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
109 supporting internationalization.
113 Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
114 It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
115 a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
116 port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
117 result of this would be a DOS port.
121 It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
122 maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
123 automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
126 4. Unused capabilities
128 The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
130 A. Status-line capabilities:
132 Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
133 Numerics: width_status_line.
134 Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
136 System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
137 any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
138 shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
139 decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
142 B. Printer capabilities:
144 Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
145 row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
147 Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
148 max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
149 micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
150 output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
151 wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
152 String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
153 set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
154 ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
156 Curses doesn't use these.
158 C. Printer-control capabilities:
160 Boolean: prtr_silent.
161 Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
163 Curses doesn't use these.
167 Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
168 fixed_pause, wait_tone.
170 Curses doesn't use these.
172 E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
174 Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
175 Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
177 These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
178 window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
179 something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
181 F. Unused VDT capabilities:
183 Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
184 move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
185 needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
186 Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
187 Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
188 enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
189 display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
190 enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
191 scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
193 These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
195 i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
198 ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
199 Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.