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7 <TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
8 <link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
12 <H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1>
14 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
15 curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
16 supports pads and color
17 and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
18 and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P>
20 In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
21 considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
22 Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
25 The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux.
26 It has been in use for some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library,
27 and on FreeBSD and NetBSD as an external package.
28 It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
29 It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
31 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
32 terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
33 and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
34 the library and tools.<P>
36 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
37 the GNU distribution site
38 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>.
39 <br>It is also available at
40 <A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
42 <H1>Release Notes</H1>
44 This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.1;
45 very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
46 These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.1 release.
50 <li>change type of <code>ospeed</code> variable back to
51 <code>short</code> to match its use in legacy applications. It was
52 altered after ncurses 4.2 to <code>speed_t</code> to repair a type
53 mismatch which was introduced after 1.9.4 in 1995. The principal
54 users of termcap continued to use <code>short</code>, which is
57 <em>NOTE</em>: A few applications will have to be recompiled
58 (about 1% of the programs in a typical Linux distribution,
59 10% of the programs that use ncurses). These are easy to
60 identify with <code>nm</code> or <code>strings</code>.
62 <li>remove a private function <code>_nc_can_clear_with()</code>, which
63 was built with the configure --enable-expanded option but not used.
65 <li>add several private functions (prefixed with "_nc_") for tracing
66 <code>chtype</code> values in the debug library, and for better
67 access and buffer limit checking.
69 New features and improvements:
71 <li>rewrote <code>tgoto()</code> to make it better support existing
72 termcap applications which use hardcoded strings rather than obtain
73 all of their information from the termcap file. If the string does
74 not appear to be a terminfo string (i.e., does not refer to a "%p"
75 parameter, or terminfo-style padding), and termcap support is configured, <code>tgoto()</code>
76 will interpret it as termcap. Otherwise, as before, it will use
79 <li>to ensure that the <code>tgoto()</code> changes work properly,
80 added checks to <code>tic</code> which report capabilities that do
81 not reference the expected number of parameters.
83 <li>new configure script options:
85 <li>option <code>--disable-root-environ</code> adds runtime checks
86 which tell ncurses to disregard $TERMINFO and similar environment
87 variables if the current user is root, or running setuid/setgid.
89 <li>option <code>--disable-assumed-color</code> allows you to use the
90 pre-5.1 convention of default colors used for color-pair 0 to be
91 configured (see assume_default_colors()).
93 <li>implement configure script options that transform installed
94 program names, e.g., <code>--program-prefix</code>, including the
95 manpage names and cross references.
97 <li>option <code>--with-database</code> allows you to specify a
98 different terminfo source-file to install. On OS/2 EMX, the
99 default is misc/emx.src, otherwise misc/terminfo.src
101 <li>option <code>--with-default-terminfo-dir</code> allows you to
102 specify the default terminfo database directory.
104 <li>option <code>--with-libtool</code> allows you to build with
105 <code>libtool</code>. <p> <em>NOTE</em>: <code>libtool</code>
106 uses a different notation for numbering shared library versions
107 from the existing ncurses configuration.
109 <li>option <code>--with-manpage-tbl</code> causes the manpages to be
110 preprocessed by tbl(1) prior to installation,
112 <li>option <code>--without-curses-h</code> causes the installation
113 process to install curses.h as ncurses.h and make appropriate
114 changes to headers and manpages.
117 <li>modified configure script options:
119 <li>change symbol used by the <code>--install-prefix</code> configure
120 option from <code>INSTALL_PREFIX</code> to <code>DESTDIR</code>
121 (the latter has become common usage although the name is
124 <li>modify <code>ld -rpath</code> options (e.g., Linux, and Solaris)
125 to use an absolute pathname for the build tree's lib directory,
126 avoiding confusion with directories relative to the current one
127 with the installed programs.
129 <li>modified <code>misc/run_tic.in</code> to use
130 <code>tic -o</code>, to eliminate dependency on
131 <code>$TERMINFO</code> variable for installs.
134 <li>terminfo database:
136 <li>updated xterm terminfo entries to match XFree86 xterm patch #146.
140 QNX qansi to misc/terminfo.src.
142 <li>added os2 entry to misc/emx.src.
144 <li>add S0 and E0 extensions to <code>screen</code>'s terminfo entry
145 since otherwise the FreeBSD port makes it pass termcap equivalents
146 to <code>tgoto</code>, which would be misinterpreted by older
150 <li>improvements to program usability:
152 <li>modify programs to use <code>curses_version()</code> string to
153 report the version of ncurses with which they are compiled rather
154 than the NCURSES_VERSION string. The function returns the patch
155 level in addition to the major and minor version numbers.
157 <li>modify <code>tput</code> program so it can be renamed or invoked via a link as
158 'reset' or 'init', producing the same effect as <code>tput reset</code> or <code>tput init</code>.
160 <li>add error checking to infocmp's -v and -m options to ensure that
161 the option value is indeed a number.
164 <li>improved performance:
166 <li>replace a lookup table in lib_vidattr.c used to decode
167 <code>no_color_video</code> with a logic expression which is faster.
173 <li>correct <code>manlinks.sed</code> script introduced in ncurses 5.1
174 to avoid using ERE "\+", which is not understood by standard versions
175 of <code>sed</code>. This happens to work with GNU <code>sed</code>,
176 but is not portable, and was the initial motivation for this release.
178 <li>remove "hpux10.*" case from CF_SHARED_OPTS configure script macro.
179 This differed from the "hpux*" case by using reversed symbolic
180 links, which made the 5.1 version not match the configuration of
181 5.0 shared libraries.
183 <li>guard against corrupt terminfo data:
185 <li>modify <code>tparm()</code> to disallow arithmetic on strings,
186 analyze the varargs list to read strings as strings and numbers as
189 <li>modify <code>tparm()</code>'s internal function
190 <code>spop()</code> to treat a null pointer as an empty string.
192 <li>modify <code>parse_format()</code> in lib_tparm.c to ignore
193 precision if it is longer than 10000.
195 <li>rewrote limit checks in lib_mvcur.c using new functions
196 <code>_nc_safe_strcat()</code>, etc. Made other related changes to
197 check lengths used for <code>strcat()</code> and
198 <code>strcpy()</code>.
201 <li>corrections to screen optimization:
203 <li>added special case in lib_vidattr.c to reset underline and
204 standout for devices that have no sgr0 defined.
206 <li>change handling of <code>non_dest_scroll_region</code> in
207 tty_update.c to clear text after it is shifted in rather than before
208 shifting out. Also correct row computation.
210 <li>modify <code>rs2</code> capability in xterm-r6 and similar entries
211 where cursor save/restore bracketed the sequence for resetting video
212 attributes. The cursor restore would undo that.
217 <li>when checking LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables
218 for UTF-8 locale, ignore those which are set to an empty value, as
221 <li>encode 0xFFFD in UTF-8 with 3 bytes, not 2.
223 <li>modify <code>_nc_utf8_outch()</code> to avoid sign-extension when
224 checking for out-of-range value.
227 <li>other library fixes:
229 <li>added checks for an empty <code>$HOME</code> environment
230 variable, to avoid retrieving terminfo descriptions from
231 <code>./.terminfo</code> .
233 <li>change functions <code>_nc_parse_entry()</code> and
234 <code>postprocess_termcap()</code> to avoid using
235 <code>strtok()</code>, because it is non-reentrant.
237 <li>initialize <code>fds[]</code> array to 0's in
238 <code>_nc_timed_wait()</code>; apparently <code>poll()</code> only
239 sets the <code>revents</code> members of that array when there is
240 activity corresponding to the related file.
242 <li>add a check for null pointer in <code>Make_Enum_Type()</code>.
244 <li>fix a heap problem with the c++ binding.
246 <li>correct missing includes for <string.h> in several places,
247 including the C++ binding. This is not noted by gcc unless we use
248 the <code>-fno-builtin</code> option.
251 <li>several fixes for tic:
253 <li>add a check for empty buffers returned by <code>fgets()</code> in
254 comp_scan.c <code>next_char()</code> function, in case
255 <code>tic</code> is run on a non-text file (fixes a core dump).
257 <li>modify <code>tic</code> to verify that its inputs are really files,
258 in case someone tries to read a directory (or
259 <code>/dev/zero</code>).
261 <li>correct an uninitialized parameter to <code>open_tempfile()</code>
262 in tic.c which made "tic -I" give an ambiguous error message about
265 <li>correct logic in <code>adjust_cancels()</code>, which did not check
266 both alternatives when reclassifying an extended name between
267 boolean, number and string, causing an infinite loop in
271 <li>using new checks in <code>tic</code> for parameter counts in
272 capability strings, found/fixed several errors both in the
273 terminfo database and in the include/Caps file.
275 <li>modified several terminfo capability strings, including the
276 definitions for setaf, setab, in include/Caps to indicate that the
277 entries are parameterized. This information is used to tell which
278 strings are translated when converting to termcap. This fixes a
279 problem where the generated termcap would contain a spurious "%p1"
280 for the terminfo "%p1%d".
282 <li>correct parameter counts in include/Caps for dclk as well as some
283 printer-specific capabilities: csnm, defc, scs, scsd, smgtp, smglp.
286 <li>various fixes for install scripts used to support configure
287 <code>--srcdir</code> and <code>--with-install-prefix</code>.
289 <li>correct several mismatches between manpage filename and ".TH"
290 directives, renaming dft_fgbg.3x to default_colors.3x and
291 menu_attribs.3x to menu_attributes.3x.
296 <li>configure script:
298 <li>newer config.guess, config.sub, including changes to support OS/2
299 EMX. The configure script for OS/2 EMX still relies on a patch
300 since there is no (working) support for that platform in the main
301 autoconf distribution.
303 <li>make configure script checks on variables <code>$GCC</code> and
304 <code>$GXX</code> consistently compare against 'yes' rather than
305 test if they are nonnull, since either may be set to the
306 corresponding name of the C or C++ compiler.
308 <li>change configure script to use AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM rather than
309 AC_CANONICAL_HOST, which means that <code>configure --target</code>
310 will set a default program-prefix.
312 <li>modify the check for big-core to force a couple of memory
313 accesses, which may work as needed for older/less-capable machines
314 (if not, there's still the explicit configure option).
316 <li>modify configure test for <code>tcgetattr()</code> to allow for
317 old implementations, e.g., on BeOS, which only defined it as a
320 <li>add configure check for filesystems (such as OS/2 EMX) which do
321 not distinguish between upper/lowercase filenames, use this to fix
322 tags rules in makefiles.
324 <li>add MKncurses_def.sh to generate fallback definitions for
325 ncurses_cfg.h, to quiet gcc -Wundef warnings, modified ifdef's in
326 code to consistently use "#if" rather than "#ifdef".
328 <li>change most remaining unquoted parameters of <code>test</code> in
329 configure script to use quotes, for instance fixing a problem in the
330 <code>--disable-database</code> option.
332 <li>modify scripts so that "make install.data" works on OS/2 EMX.
334 <li>modify scripts and makefiles so the Ada95 directory builds on
340 <li>replaced case-statement in <code>_nc_tracebits()</code> for CSIZE
341 with a table to simplify working around implementations that define
342 random combinations of the related macros to zero.
344 <li>improved OS/2 mouse support by retrying as a 2-button mouse if code
345 fails to set up a 3-button mouse.
347 <li>added private entrypoint <code>_nc_basename()</code>, used to
348 consolidate related code in progs, as well as accommodating OS/2 EMX
351 <li>alter definition of NCURSES_CONST to make it non-empty.
353 <li>redefine 'TEXT' in menu.h for AMIGA, since it is reported to have
354 an (unspecified) symbol conflict.
359 <li>modified progs/tset.c and tack/sysdep.c to build with sgttyb
360 interface if neither termio or termios is available. Tested this
361 with FreeBSD 2.1.5 (which does have termios - but the sgttyb does
367 <H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
369 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
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,
374 forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
376 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
377 a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
378 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
379 a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
380 <LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
381 data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
382 <LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
383 are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
384 <LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
385 entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
386 versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL>
388 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
391 <LI>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN curses
392 specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE level features,
393 but not all EXTENDED features). Most EXTENDED-level features not directly
394 concerned with wide-character support are implemented, including many
395 function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all
396 calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
397 <LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
398 of 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 and OS/2 console windows.
401 <LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
402 <LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
404 <LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to
405 use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
406 achieving the effect of transparent colors.
407 <LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE>
408 and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow
409 you to better control the use of function keys,
410 e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
411 or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key code.
412 <LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
413 <LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
414 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
416 <LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates
417 a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal
418 use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion
419 for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than
420 the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
421 <LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
422 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic-
423 cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and
424 after the end would step on a non-space character. It will
425 automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
426 possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
428 <LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
429 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
430 when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
431 for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode).
432 <LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
433 ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
434 AT&T extension sets.
435 <LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
436 <LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
437 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
438 if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
439 This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
440 without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
441 <LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
442 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
443 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
444 <LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
445 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
446 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
447 $HOME/.terminfo directory.
448 <LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
449 transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a
450 TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
451 and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.
452 <LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
453 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither
454 fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
456 <LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
457 see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
458 <LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
459 point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
460 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
462 <LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
463 a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
466 <H1>State of the Package</H1>
468 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
469 library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
470 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
471 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and
472 arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P>
474 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
475 including (versions starting with those noted):
478 <DD> Curses Development Kit
480 <A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
482 <A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html">http://dickey.his.com/cdk</A>.
484 <DD> directory-editor
486 <A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html">http://dickey.his.com/ded</A>.
488 <DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
489 for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
491 <A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html">http://dickey.his.com/dialog</A>.
493 <DD> the character-screen WWW browser
495 <A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
496 <DT> Midnight Commander 4.1
499 <A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
503 <A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>.
505 <DD> file-transfer utility
507 <A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com">http://www.ncftp.com</A>.
509 <DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
511 <A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>.
513 <DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
515 <A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>.
517 <DD> tape archive utility
519 <A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/">http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/</A>.
521 <DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
523 <A HREF="http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>.
525 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
528 <DD> terminal emulator
530 <A HREF="http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>.
534 <A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html">http://dickey.his.com/vile</A>.
538 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
541 <H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
543 The original developers of ncurses are <A
544 HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and
545 <A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
546 Ongoing work is being done by
547 <A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
549 <A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
550 <A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
551 acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
552 copyright on ncurses.
553 Contact the current maintainers at
554 <A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>.
557 To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
558 <CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line:
560 subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
563 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
564 testing of this package.<P>
566 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
567 <A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
569 <H2>Future Plans</H2>
571 <LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
572 <LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
574 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
575 on them, please join the ncurses list.
577 <H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
579 The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
580 terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
581 <A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P>
583 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
584 not covered in the terminfo file at
585 <A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
590 # The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
593 # case-fold-search:nil