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31 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
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38 <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
39 <link rev="made" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
40 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
41 "text/html; charset=us-ascii">
45 <h1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
47 <p>The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation
48 of curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo
49 format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms
50 characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other
51 SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.</p>
53 <p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
54 that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
55 keepers of Unix releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to
56 switch over to ncurses.</p>
58 <p>The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in
59 use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and
60 on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package. It should port
61 easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported
64 <p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
65 including a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1),
66 clear(1), tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool
67 captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for the library and
70 <p>The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the
71 GNU distribution site <a href=
72 "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .<br>
74 It is also available at <a href=
75 "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p>
77 <h1>Release Notes</h1>
79 <p>This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses
80 5.0 through 5.8; very few applications will require
81 recompilation, depending on the platform. These are the
82 highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.8 release.</p>
84 <p>This is a bug-fix release, correcting a small number of urgent
85 problems in the ncurses library from the 5.8 release.</p>
87 <p>It also improves the Ada95 binding:</p>
90 <li>fixes a longstanding portability problem with its use of
92 "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_fieldtype.3x">set_field_type</a>
93 function. Because that function uses variable-length argument
94 lists, its interface with gnat does not work with certain
97 <li>improves configurability and portability, particularly when
98 built separately from the main ncurses tree. The 5.8 release
99 introduced scripts which can be used to construct separate
100 tarballs for the Ada95 and ncurses examples.
102 <p>Those were a proof of concept. For the 5.9 release, those
103 scripts are augmented with rpm- and dpkg-scripts used in test
104 builds against a variety of gnat- and system ncurses versions
105 as old as gnat 3.15 and ncurses 5.4 (see snapshots and
106 systems tested <a href=
107 "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-Ada95.html">here</a>.</p>
110 <li>additional improvements were made for portability of the
111 ncurses examples, adding rpm- and dpkg-scripts for test-builds.
113 "http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">this
114 page</a> for snapshots and other information.</li>
117 <h1>Features of Ncurses</h1>
119 <p>The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V
120 Release 4) curses:</p>
123 <li>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
126 <li>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard
127 mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
128 automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.</li>
130 <li>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack
131 of windows with backing store, is included.</li>
133 <li>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a
134 uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is
137 <li>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data
138 collection through on-screen forms, is included.</li>
140 <li>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
141 implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
142 SVr4 curses uses.</li>
144 <li>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
145 entries for use with less capable
146 <strong>curses</strong>/<strong>terminfo</strong> versions such
147 as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</li>
150 <p>The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over
154 <li>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
155 X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements
156 all BASE level features, and most EXTENDED features). It
157 includes many function calls not supported under SVr4 curses
158 (but portability of all calls is documented so you can use the
159 SVr4 subset only).</li>
161 <li>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the
162 rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if your terminal has
163 an insert-character capability.</li>
165 <li>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</li>
167 <li>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
168 FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</li>
170 <li>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
173 <li>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
174 windows, preserving their data.</li>
176 <li>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
177 use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
178 achieving the effect of transparent colors.</li>
180 <li>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
181 <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use of
182 function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by
183 defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key
186 <li>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when
187 configured using the <code>--enable-ext-colors</code>
190 <li>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
191 and <em>modern xterm</em>.</li>
193 <li>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
194 features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
195 than either BSD's or System V's.</li>
197 <li>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
198 incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables
199 it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion,
200 and line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is
201 more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses <code>quickch</code>
204 <li>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
205 The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if
206 the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
207 beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
208 character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
209 when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
210 without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</li>
212 <li>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
213 pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
214 those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file
215 is accessible (this may be useful for support of
216 screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
219 <li>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
220 ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
221 AT&T extension sets.</li>
223 <li>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.</li>
225 <li>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read
226 terminfo entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile
227 to that directory if it exists and the user has no write access
228 to the system directory. This feature makes it easier for users
229 to have personal terminfo entries without giving up access to
230 the system terminfo directory.</li>
232 <li>You may specify a path of directories to search for
233 compiled descriptions with the environment variable
234 TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
235 TERMINFO under stock System V.)</li>
237 <li>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
238 just to other entries in the same source file (as in System V)
239 but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
240 directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</li>
242 <li>A script (<strong>capconvert</strong>) is provided to help
243 BSD users transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the
244 information in a TERMCAP environment variable and/or a
245 ~/.termcap local entries file and converts it to an equivalent
246 local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.</li>
248 <li>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled
249 in when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This
250 feature is neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it
251 unless you have to, but it's there.</li>
253 <li>The table-of-entries utility <strong>toe</strong> makes it
254 easy for users to see exactly what terminal types are available
257 <li>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
258 entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
259 (and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
260 disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</li>
262 <li>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
263 provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
267 <h1>State of the Package</h1>
269 <p>Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
270 library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking
271 in many `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is
272 now type-safe according to gcc -Wall. The library has been
273 checked for malloc leaks and arena corruption by the Purify
274 memory-allocation tester.</p>
276 <p>The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of
277 applications including (versions starting with those noted):</p>
282 <dd>Curses Development Kit<br>
284 "http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
287 "http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a></dd>
291 <dd>directory-editor<br>
293 "http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></dd>
297 <dd>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and
298 the basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.<br>
300 "http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></dd>
304 <dd>the character-screen WWW browser<br>
306 "http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</a></dd>
308 <dt>Midnight Commander</dt>
312 "http://www.midnight-commander.org/">http://www.midnight-commander.org/</a></dd>
317 <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></dd>
321 <dd>file-transfer utility<br>
322 <a href="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</a></dd>
326 <dd>New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7
329 "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi</a><br>
334 <dd>Lynx-like info browser. <a href=
335 "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/</a></dd>
339 <dd>newsreader, supporting color, MIME <a href=
340 "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></dd>
343 <p>as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support
349 <dd>terminal emulator<br>
351 "http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></dd>
355 <dd>vi-like-emacs<br>
357 "http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></dd>
360 <p>The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
361 (including a few games).</p>
363 <h2>Who's Who and What's What</h2>
365 <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses,
366 written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
367 Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
368 Ongoing work is being done by <a href=
369 "mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</a>. Thomas
370 Dickey acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
371 which holds the copyright on ncurses. Contact the current
372 maintainers at <a href=
373 "mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>.</p>
375 <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
376 <code>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</code> containing the line:</p>
378 subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
381 <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
382 development and testing of this package.</p>
384 <p>Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release
385 are made available at <a href=
386 "ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a> .</p>
388 <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
391 "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
393 "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
395 <h2>Future Plans</h2>
398 <li>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
401 <li>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.</li>
404 <p>We need people to help with these projects. If you are
405 interested in working on them, please join the ncurses list.</p>
407 <h2>Other Related Resources</h2>
409 <p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
410 terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
411 <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
412 Raymond</a> . Unlike the older version, the termcap and
413 terminfo data are provided in the same file, and provides several
414 user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open specification.</p>
416 <p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
417 not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
418 "http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
419 Richard Shuford's archive</a> .</p>