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674 lines
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674 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
Announcing ncurses 6.4
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Overview
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The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
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curses in System V Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo
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format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms
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characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
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enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of X/Open
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Curses.
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In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
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considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of unix
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releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses.
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Since 1995, ncurses has been ported to many systems:
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* It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel (aside
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from some embedded applications).
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* It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and
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MacOS.
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* It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The first of
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these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.
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* It is used (though usually not as the system curses) on all of the
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vendor unix systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO, Solaris,
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Tru64.
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* It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming unix.
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The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
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* captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
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* clear, utility for clearing the screen
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* infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
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* tabs, set tabs on a terminal
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* tic, the terminfo compiler
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* toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
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* tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
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scripts
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* tset, to initialize the terminal
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Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
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The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
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https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
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https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
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It is also available at the GNU distribution site
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https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
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Release Notes
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These notes are for ncurses 6.4, released December 31, 2022.
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This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
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through 6.3; providing extensions to the application binary interface
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(ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the
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ncurses 5 ABI, the reason for the release is to reflect improvements
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to the ncurses 6 ABI and the supporting utility programs.
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There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this
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announcement.
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The most important bug-fixes/improvements dealt with robustness
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issues. The release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are
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focused on new features and improvements to existing features since
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ncurses 6.3 release.
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Library improvements
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New features
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There are no new features in this release.
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Other improvements
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These are improvements to existing features:
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* modify delscreen to more effectively delete all windows on the
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given screen.
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* modify wnoutrefresh to call pnoutrefresh if its parameter is a
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pad, rather than treating it as an error, and modify new_panel to
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permit its window-parameter to be a pad
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* modify curses_trace() to show the trace-mask as symbols, e.g.,
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TRACE_ORDINARY, DEBUG_LEVEL(3).
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* improve checks for valid mouse events when an intermediate mouse
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state is not part of the mousemask specified by the caller
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* allow extended-color number in opts parameter of wattr_on.
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* improve _tracecchar_t2 formatting of base+combining character.
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* trim out some unwanted linker options from ncurses*config and .pc
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files seen in Fedora 36+.
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* improve shell-scripts with shellcheck
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* improve use of "trap" in shell scripts, using a script.
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* modify make-tar.sh scripts to make timestamps more predictable.
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These are corrections to existing features:
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* modify misc/gen-pkgconfig.in to allow for the case where the
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library directory does not yet exist, since this is processed
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before doing an install
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* set trailing null on string passed from winsnstr to wins_nwstr.
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* modify waddch_literal to allow for double-width base character
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when merging a combining character
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Program improvements
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Several improvements were made to the utility programs:
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infocmp
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+ rewrite canonical_name function of infocmp to ensure buffer
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size
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+ improve readability of long parameterized expressions with
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the infocmp "-f" option by allowing split before a "%p"
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marker.
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+ modify verbose-option of infocmp, tic, toe to enable
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debug-tracing if that is configured.
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tabs
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limit tab-stop values to max-columns
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tic
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add consistency check in tic for u6/u7/u8/u9 and NQ
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capabilities.
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tput
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corrected use of original tty-modes in init/reset subcommands
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Examples
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Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the
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ncurses-examples. Most of this activity aimed at improving the
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test-packages:
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* add minimal -h (usage) and -V (version) getopt logic to all
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ncurses-examples programs.
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* fix an error in "@" command in test/ncurses.c F-menu
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* add curses_trace to ifdef's for START_TRACE in test/test.priv.h
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* improve pthread-configuration for test/worm.c
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* add setlocale call to several test-programs.
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* workaround in test/picsmap.c for use of floating point for rgb
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values by ImageMagick 6.9.11, which appears to use the wrong upper
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limit.
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* use static libraries for AdaCurses test-package for Mageia, since
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no gprbuild package is available.
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* install Ada95 sample programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
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script to invoke those.
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* install ncurses-examples programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
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script to invoke those.
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There are other new demo/test programs and reusable examples:
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test/combine
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demonstrate combining characters
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test/test_delwin
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demonstrate deleting a window
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test/test_mouse
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observe mouse events in the raw terminal or parsed ncurses
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modes
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test/test_unget_wch
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demonstrate the unget_wch and unget functions
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Terminal database
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There are several new terminal descriptions:
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* mosh
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* mosh-256color
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* teken-16color
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* teken-sc
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* teken-vt
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* xgterm
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There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were
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updates to several descriptions:
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* make description-fields distinct
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* fix errata in description fields
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* add/use several building-blocks:
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+ aixterm+sl
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+ ansi+cpr
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+ apollo+vt132
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+ decid+cpr
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+ ncr260vp+sl
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+ wyse+sl
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+ x10term+sl
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+ xterm+acs
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+ xterm+alt47
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while others affected specific descriptions. These were retested, to
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take into account changes by their developers:
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* kitty
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* teken
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while these are specific fixes based on reviewing documentation, user
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reports, or warnings from tic:
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att610+cvis0
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amended note as per documentation for att610, att620, att730
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kon, kon2, jfbterm
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revise to undo "linux2.6" change to smacs/rmacs/enacs
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st-0.6
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add dim, ecma+strikeout
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foot+base
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add xterm+sl-alt
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dec+sl
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correct dsl in dec+sl
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mintty and tmux
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correct setal in mintty/tmux entries, add to vte-2018
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nsterm
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modify nsterm to use xterm+alt1049
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putty
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modify putty to use xterm+alt1049
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vte-2018
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add blink and setal
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A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities):
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* use ansi+enq and decid+cpr in cases where the terminal probably
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supported the u6-u9 extension
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* remove u6-u9 from teken-2018
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* use NQ to flag entries where the terminal does not support query
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and response
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* add/use bracketed+paste to help identify terminals supporting this
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xterm feature
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* modify samples for xterm mouse 1002/1003 modes to use 1006 mode,
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and also provide for focus in/out responses
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* xterm patch #371 supports DEC-compatible status-line. add dec+sl
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to xterm-new, per xterm #371, add xterm-p371, add xterm-p370, for
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use in older terminals, and set "xterm-new" to "xterm-p370" (to
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ease adoption).
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Documentation
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As usual, this release
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* improves documentation by describing new features,
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* attempts to improve the description of features which users have
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found confusing
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* fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described
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in the NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
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In addition to providing background information to explain these
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features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
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clarifications, etc.:
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* Corrections:
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+ remove a stray '/' from description of %g in terminfo(5).
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+ correct/improve font-formatting in curs_getch.3x, as well as
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other manual pages.
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* New/improved history and portability sections:
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+ add portability notes for delscreen and delwin in manual.
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+ improve curs_slk.3x discussion of extensions and portability
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* Other improvements:
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+ improve curs_bkgd.3x, explaining that bkgdset can affect
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results for bkgd
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+ add note on portable memory-leak checking in curs_memleaks.3x
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+ expanded description in resizeterm.3x
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+ add section on releasing memory to curs_termcap.3x and
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curs_terminfo.3x manpages.
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+ add clarification of the scope of dynamic variables in
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terminfo(5).
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+ improve formatting of ncurses-intro.html and hackguide.html
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+ improve curs_clear.3x links to other pages
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+ update ncurses-howto, making documentation fixes along with
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corrections to example programs.
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+ use newer version 1.36 of gnathtml for generating Ada html
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files.
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+ update external links in Ada95.html
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There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to
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existing pages).
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Interesting bug-fixes
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While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses 6.4,
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only a few (the reason for this release) were both important and
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interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues which did not
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affect compatibility across releases. Since those are detailed in the
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NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.
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The interesting bugs were those dealing with memory leaks and buffer
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overflows. Although the utilities are designed for text files (which
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they do properly), some choose to test them with non-text files.
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* Text files contain no embedded nulls. Also, they end with a
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newline. Feeding tic non-text files exposed a few cases where the
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program did not check for those issues. As a result, further
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processing of the input found limit-checks whose assumptions were
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invalid.
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* Fixing the limit-checks (first) found a problem with tic managing
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the list of strings in a terminal description. In merging two
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terminal descriptions (i.e., the "use=" feature), tic was not
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allocating a complete copy. A quick repair for that introduced a
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memory leak.
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* The checks for non-text files are improved (i.e., embedded nulls
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in the input file will cause tic to reject it rather than
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attempting to process it).
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* The string allocations in tic are likewise improved.
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Configuration changes
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Major changes
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There are no major changes. No new options were added. Several
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improvements were made to configure checks.
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Configuration options
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There are a few new/modified configure options:
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--with-abi-version
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add ABI 7 defaults to configure script.
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--with-caps
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add warning in configure script if file specified for
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"--with-caps" does not exist.
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--with-manpage-format
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bzip2 and xz compression are now supported
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--with-xterm-kbs
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add check/warning in configure script if option
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"--with-xterm-kbs" is missing or inconsistent
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Portability
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Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure
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script:
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* amend configure option's auto-search to account for systems where
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none of the directories known to pkg-config exist
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* corrected regex needed for older pkg-config used in Solaris 10
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* improve handling of --with-pkg-config-libdir option, allowing for
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the case where either $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR or the option value has a
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colon-separated list of directories
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* if the --with-pkg-config-libdir option is not given, use
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${libdir}/pkgconfig as a default
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* improve search-path check for pkg-config, e.g., for Debian testing
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which installs pkg-config with architecture-prefixes.
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* build-fix for cross-compiling to MingW, conditionally add -lssp
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* improve configure check for getttynam
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* fixes to build with dietlibc:
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+ add configure check for fpathconf
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+ add configure check for math sine/cosine, needed in
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test/tclock, and eliminate pow() from test/hanoi
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+ use wcsnlen as an alternative to wmemchr if it is not found
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* modify configure macro CF_BUILD_CC to check if the build-compiler
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works, rather than that it is different from the cross-compiler,
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e.g., to accommodate a compiler which can be used for either
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purpose with different flags
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* modify configure/scripts to work around interference by GNU grep
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3.8
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Here are some of the other portability fixes:
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* change man_db.renames to template, to handle ncurses*-config
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script with the --extra-suffix configure option.
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* update CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro, adding variants "gnueabi" and
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"gnueabihf" to get _DEFAULT_SOURCE special case, as well as adding
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GNU libc suffixes for "abi64", "abin32", "x32" to distinguish it
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from other libc flavors.
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* work around musl's nonstandard use of feature test macros by
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adding a definition for NCURSES_WIDECHAR to the generated ".pc"
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and *-config files.
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* use "command -v" rather than "type" in Ada95/gen/Makefile.in to
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fix a portability issue.
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_________________________________________________________________
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Features of ncurses
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The ncurses package is fully upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V
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Release 4) curses:
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* All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
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* ncurses supports all of the for SVr4 curses features including
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keyboard mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
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automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.
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* ncurses provides these SVr4 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open
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Curses):
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+ the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
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backing store.
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+ the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
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interface for menu programming.
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+ the form library, supporting data collection through
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on-screen forms.
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* ncurses's terminal database is fully compatible with that used by
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SVr4 curses.
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+ ncurses supports user-defined capabilities which it can see,
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but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
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same terminal database.
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+ It can be optionally configured to match the format used in
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related systems such as AIX and Tru64.
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+ Alternatively, ncurses can be configured to use hashed
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databases rather than the directory of files used by SVr4
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curses.
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* The ncurses utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
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entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as
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the HP-UX and AIX ports.
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The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
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* The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
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curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
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level features, and most EXTENDED features). It includes many
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function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of
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all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
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* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
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corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
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capability.
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* Ada95 and C++ bindings.
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* Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD
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and OS/2 console windows.
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* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
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* The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving
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their data.
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* The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's
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default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
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transparent colors.
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* The functions keyok and define_key allow you to better control the
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use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by
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defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key
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code.
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* Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
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* Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
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* Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
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* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
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cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
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or System V's.
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* Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
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incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
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to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
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line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
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powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch routine.
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* Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
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screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
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magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
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beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
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It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
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would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
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visual appearance of the screen.
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* It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
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fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
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types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
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(this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
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must run in single-user mode).
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* The tic/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability to
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translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
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sets.
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* A BSD-like tset utility is provided.
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* The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
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entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
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directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
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system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
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personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
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terminfo directory.
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* You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
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descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
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generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
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V.)
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* In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
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other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
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compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
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user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
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* The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
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exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
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* The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
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has a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
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prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
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#undef.
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* Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading
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section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
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Applications using ncurses
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The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
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(including a few games). These are available separately as
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ncurses-examples
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The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
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applications including:
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aptitude
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FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
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https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude
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cdk
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Curses Development Kit
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https://invisible-island.net/cdk/
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ded
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directory-editor
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https://invisible-island.net/ded/
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|
|
dialog
|
|
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
|
|
basis for similar install/configure applications on many
|
|
systems.
|
|
|
|
https://invisible-island.net/dialog/
|
|
|
|
lynx
|
|
the text WWW browser
|
|
|
|
https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
|
|
|
|
mutt
|
|
mail utility
|
|
|
|
http://www.mutt.org/
|
|
|
|
ncftp
|
|
file-transfer utility
|
|
|
|
https://www.ncftp.com/
|
|
|
|
nvi
|
|
New vi uses ncurses.
|
|
|
|
https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi
|
|
|
|
ranger
|
|
A console file manager with VI key bindings in Python.
|
|
|
|
https://ranger.github.io/
|
|
|
|
tin
|
|
newsreader, supporting color, MIME
|
|
|
|
http://www.tin.org/
|
|
|
|
vifm
|
|
File manager with vi like keybindings
|
|
|
|
https://vifm.info/
|
|
|
|
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
|
|
|
|
minicom
|
|
terminal emulator for serial modem connections
|
|
|
|
https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
|
|
|
|
mosh
|
|
a replacement for ssh.
|
|
|
|
https://mosh.org/
|
|
|
|
tack
|
|
terminfo action checker
|
|
|
|
https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
|
|
|
|
tmux
|
|
terminal multiplexor
|
|
|
|
https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki
|
|
|
|
vile
|
|
vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap or
|
|
curses interfaces.
|
|
|
|
https://invisible-island.net/vile/
|
|
|
|
and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:
|
|
|
|
emacs
|
|
text editor
|
|
|
|
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
|
|
|
|
less
|
|
The most commonly used pager (a program that displays text
|
|
files).
|
|
|
|
http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/
|
|
|
|
screen
|
|
terminal multiplexor
|
|
|
|
https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
|
|
|
|
vim
|
|
text editor
|
|
|
|
https://www.vim.org/
|
|
|
|
Development activities
|
|
|
|
Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses,
|
|
written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
|
|
Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
|
|
|
|
Ongoing development work is done by Thomas E. Dickey. Thomas E. Dickey
|
|
has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which
|
|
held a copyright on ncurses for releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following
|
|
the release of ncurses 6.1, effective as of release 6.2, copyright for
|
|
ncurses reverted to Thomas E. Dickey (see the ncurses FAQ for
|
|
additional information).
|
|
|
|
Contact the current maintainers at
|
|
|
|
bug-ncurses@gnu.org
|
|
|
|
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
|
|
|
|
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
|
|
|
|
containing the line:
|
|
|
|
subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
|
|
|
|
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
|
|
and testing of this package.
|
|
|
|
Beta versions of ncurses are made available at
|
|
|
|
https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/ and
|
|
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ .
|
|
|
|
Patches to the current release are made available at
|
|
|
|
https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ and
|
|
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ .
|
|
|
|
There is an archive of the mailing list here:
|
|
|
|
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also https)
|
|
|
|
Related resources
|
|
|
|
The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may
|
|
be interesting by themselves:
|
|
* ncurses licensing
|
|
* Symbol versioning in ncurses
|
|
* Comments on ncurses versus slang (S-Lang)
|
|
* Comments on OpenBSD
|
|
* tack - terminfo action checker
|
|
* tctest - termcap library checker
|
|
* Terminal Database
|
|
|
|
Other resources
|
|
|
|
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
|
|
terminal description file once maintained by Eric Raymond . Unlike the
|
|
older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
|
|
file, which also provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
|
|
X/Open specification.
|
|
|
|
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
|
|
covered in the terminfo file at Richard Shuford's archive . The
|
|
collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been useful.
|
|
|
|
* Overview
|
|
* Release Notes
|
|
+ Library improvements
|
|
o New features
|
|
o Other improvements
|
|
+ Program improvements
|
|
o Utilities
|
|
o Examples
|
|
+ Terminal database
|
|
+ Documentation
|
|
+ Interesting bug-fixes
|
|
+ Configuration changes
|
|
o Major changes
|
|
o Configuration options
|
|
+ Portability
|
|
* Features of ncurses
|
|
* Applications using ncurses
|
|
* Development activities
|
|
* Related resources
|
|
* Other resources
|