2180 lines
66 KiB
HTML
2180 lines
66 KiB
HTML
<!--
|
|
$Id: announce.html.in,v 1.99 2020/10/19 08:18:12 tom Exp $
|
|
****************************************************************************
|
|
* Copyright 2018-2019,2020 Thomas E. Dickey *
|
|
* *
|
|
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
|
|
* copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
|
|
* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
|
|
* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
|
|
* distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
|
|
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
|
|
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
|
|
* *
|
|
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
|
|
* in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
|
|
* *
|
|
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
|
|
* OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
|
|
* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
|
|
* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
|
|
* DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
|
|
* OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
|
|
* THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
|
|
* *
|
|
* Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
|
|
* holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
|
|
* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
|
|
* authorization. *
|
|
****************************************************************************
|
|
-->
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta name="generator" content=
|
|
"HTML Tidy for HTML5 for Linux version 5.2.0">
|
|
|
|
<title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
|
|
<link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
|
|
"text/html; charset=us-ascii">
|
|
<style type="text/css">
|
|
p,li { max-width:700px; }
|
|
dd { max-width:630px; }
|
|
*.main-name {
|
|
font-style: italic;
|
|
font-variant: small-caps;
|
|
}
|
|
*.part-name {
|
|
font-family: "Andale Mono", "Monotype.com", monospace;
|
|
font-size: 12pt;
|
|
font-weight: bold;
|
|
}
|
|
*.demo-name {
|
|
font-family: "Andale Mono", "Monotype.com", monospace;
|
|
font-size: 10pt;
|
|
}
|
|
</style>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
|
|
library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
|
|
Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo format, supports
|
|
pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and
|
|
function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
|
|
enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
|
|
X/Open Curses.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
|
|
that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
|
|
keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
|
|
BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
|
|
ported to many systems:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
|
|
(aside from some embedded applications).</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
|
|
and MacOS.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
|
|
first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
|
|
curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
|
|
"main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
|
|
Solaris, Tru64.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
|
|
<span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
|
|
including</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
|
|
tool</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
|
|
screen</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
|
|
entries</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
|
|
capabilities in shell scripts</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
|
|
available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/">homepage</a>:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
|
|
or<br>
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a> .</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution
|
|
site</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
|
|
Notes</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
|
|
@VERSION@, released <strong>February 12, 2020</strong>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
|
|
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.1; providing
|
|
extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
|
|
the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
|
|
to reflect improvements to the <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
|
|
programs.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
|
|
this announcement.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
|
|
bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with user-defined capabilities
|
|
in terminal descriptions. The release notes also mention some
|
|
other bug-fixes, but are focused on new features and improvements
|
|
to existing features since <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
|
|
6.1 release.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are several new features:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_EDGE_INSERT_STAY</a>
|
|
tells the form library to optionally delay cursor movement on
|
|
a field edge/boundary</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_INPUT_FIELD</a>
|
|
extension to form library allows a dynamic field to shrink if
|
|
the new limit is smaller than the current field size.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>added <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_curses</a> and
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_terminfo</a> to
|
|
replace internal symbols for leak-checking.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>added <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_trace.3x.html#h3-Functions">curses_trace</a>,
|
|
to replace trace().</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
|
|
extensions) are provided in this release:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>mouse decoding now handles shift/control/alt logic when
|
|
decoding xterm's 1006 mode</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>ncurses now defines a limit for <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html">wgetnstr</a>, <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html">wgetn_wstr</a> when
|
|
length is negative or “too large”.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>reordered loop-limit checks in <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_insstr.3x.html">winsnstr</a> in case the
|
|
string has no terminating null and only the number of
|
|
characters is used.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>there is now no buffer-size limit when reading the
|
|
<a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
|
|
variable.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>the <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
|
|
variable may be interpreted as a fallback to a terminfo
|
|
entry</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
|
|
mvcur</tt></a> now decides whether to use hard-tabs, using
|
|
<strong><tt>xt</tt></strong>, <strong><tt>tbc</tt></strong>
|
|
and <strong><tt>hts</tt></strong> as clues.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>extended colors are improved by modifying an internal call
|
|
to <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
|
|
vid_puts</tt></a> to pass extended color pairs e.g., from
|
|
<tt>tty_update.c</tt> and <tt>lib_mvcur.c</tt></p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p id="getenv-fixes">the initialization functions now avoid
|
|
relying upon persistent data for the result from <a href=
|
|
"#getenv-check"><tt>getenv</tt></a></p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>scrolling is improved:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>a limit check in <tt>newline_forces_scroll</tt> handles
|
|
the case where the row is inside scroll-margins, but not at
|
|
the end.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improved loop limits in <tt>_nc_scroll_window</tt>
|
|
handle a case where the scrolled data is a pad which is
|
|
taller than the window.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
|
|
improvements</a></h4>
|
|
|
|
<p>These are revised features:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>used “<tt>const</tt>” in some prototypes
|
|
rather than <tt>NCURSES_CONST</tt> where X/Open Curses was
|
|
updated to do this, e.g., <tt>wscanw</tt>, <tt>newterm</tt>,
|
|
the terminfo interface. Also use “<tt>const</tt>”
|
|
for consistency in the termcap interface, which was withdrawn
|
|
by X/Open Curses in Issue 5 (2007). As of Issue 7, X/Open
|
|
Curses still lacks “<tt>const</tt>” for certain
|
|
return values, e.g., <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-keyname_key_name">keyname</a>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd"><tt>wbkgd</tt></a>
|
|
and <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgrnd.3x.html#h3-bkgrnd"><tt>wbkgrnd</tt></a>
|
|
to improve compatibility with SVr4 curses, changing the way
|
|
the window rendition is updated when the background character
|
|
is modified</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improved terminfo write/read by modifying the fourth item
|
|
of the extended header to denote the number of valid strings
|
|
in the extended string table (see <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">term(5)</a>).</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified the initialization checks for mouse so that the
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
|
|
block will work with terminal descriptions not mentioning
|
|
<em>xterm</em>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>deprecated <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t970831">safe-sprintf</a>, since the
|
|
<tt>vsnprintf</tt> function, which does what was needed, was
|
|
standardized long ago.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>marked <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY"><tt>vwprintw</tt></a>
|
|
and <tt>vwscanw</tt> as deprecated; recommend using <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html"><tt>vw_printw</tt></a>
|
|
and <tt>vw_scanw</tt>, respectively.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>added deprecation warnings for internal functions called
|
|
by older versions of <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack</a>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>removed unused <tt>_nc_import_termtype2</tt> function.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>check parameter of <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_escdelay</a>,
|
|
return ERR if negative.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>check parameter of <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_tabsize</a>, return
|
|
ERR if not greater than zero</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>correct a status-check in _nc_read_tic_entry() so that if
|
|
reading a hex/b64 <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>,
|
|
and the <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERM"><tt>$TERM</tt></a>
|
|
does not match, fall-through to the compiled-in search
|
|
list.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>amend check for <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities"><tt>
|
|
repeat_char</tt></a> to handle a case where setlocale() was
|
|
called after <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_initscr.3x.html"><tt>initscr</tt></a></p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>move macro for <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_touch.3x.html"><tt>is_linetouched</tt></a>
|
|
inside <strong><tt>NCURSES_NOMACROS</tt></strong>
|
|
<em><tt>ifndef</tt></em>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>use <tt>_nc_copy_termtype2</tt> rather than direct
|
|
assignment in <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization">setupterm</a>,
|
|
in case it is called repeatedly using fallback terminfo
|
|
descriptions</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improve workaround for Solaris wcwidth versus line-drawing
|
|
characters</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add checks in <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html"><tt>repair_subwindows</tt></a>
|
|
to keep the current position and scroll-margins inside the
|
|
resized subwindow.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>correct a buffer-limit in <tt>write_entry.c</tt> for
|
|
systems that use caseless filenames.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improved build-time utility <em>report_offsets</em>:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add categories, e.g., "w" for wide-character, "t" for
|
|
threads to make the report more readable. Reorganized the
|
|
structures reported to make the categories more
|
|
apparent.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add <tt>NCURSES_GLOBALS</tt> and
|
|
<tt>NCURSES_PRESCREEN</tt> to report to show how similar
|
|
the different <em>libtinfo</em> configurations are.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified some header files to ensure that those include
|
|
necessary files except for the previously-documented
|
|
cases</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>added some traces in initialization to show whether a
|
|
fallback entry is used.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>made minor optimization to reduce calls to
|
|
_nc_reserve_pairs</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>fix a special case in <tt>PutAttrChar</tt> where a cell is
|
|
marked as alternate-character set, but the terminal does not
|
|
actually support the given graphic character. This would
|
|
happen in an older terminal such as <em>vt52</em>, which
|
|
lacks most line-drawing capability.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>corrected flag for "seq" method of db 1.8.5 interface,
|
|
needed by toe on some of the BSDs.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modify comparison in make_hash.c to correct a special case
|
|
in collision handling for Caps-hpux11</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add extended_slk_color{,_sp} symbols to the appropriate
|
|
package/*.{map,sym} files</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modify lib_setup to avoid calling pthread_self() without
|
|
first verifying that the address is valid, i.e., for weak
|
|
symbols</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add a couple of broken-linker symbols to the list of
|
|
versioned symbols to help with link-time optimization versus
|
|
weak symbols.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
|
|
improvements</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<p id="h4-utilities">Several improvements were made to the utility programs:</p>
|
|
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">clear</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>improved logic for clearing with the <em>E3</em>
|
|
extension, in case the terminal scrolls content onto its
|
|
saved-lines before actually clearing the display, by
|
|
clearing the saved-lines after clearing the display</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>omit filtering of “<tt>OTxx</tt>” names
|
|
which are used for obsolete capabilities, when the output
|
|
is sorted by long-names. This change helps when making a
|
|
table of the short/long capability names.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">tic</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>added check for consistent alternate character set
|
|
capabilities.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>added check for paired <tt>indn</tt>/<tt>rin</tt>.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>added check for terminals with <tt>parm_dch</tt> vs
|
|
<tt>parm_ich</tt>.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>added check for the case where
|
|
<tt>setf</tt>/<tt>setb</tt> are given using different
|
|
strings, but provide identical results to
|
|
<tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setab</tt>.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>corrected check for <tt>ich1</tt>.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>changed a too-large terminal entry from a fatal error
|
|
to a warning.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">toe</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>ignores any hex/b64 <tt>$TERMINFO</tt> value in the
|
|
list of terminfo databases.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">tset</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>replace check in <span class="part-name">reset</span>
|
|
command for obsolete “<tt>pt</tt>” capability
|
|
using <tt>tbc</tt> and <tt>hts</tt> capabilities as
|
|
clues</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>modify <span class="part-name">reset</span> to allow
|
|
for tabstops at intervals other than 8.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>change <span class="part-name">reset</span>'s behavior
|
|
for margins to simply clear soft-margins if possible,
|
|
rather than clearing and then setting them according to the
|
|
terminal's width.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">tput</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>add “<tt>x</tt>” to <tt>getopt</tt> string
|
|
so that “<tt>tput -x clear</tt>”
|
|
works.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
|
|
<p>Several changes were made to the generated ncurses*config
|
|
scripts and the analogous “<tt>.pc</tt>” files to
|
|
reduce differences between the configurations they report:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified the ncurse*-config and pc-files to more closely
|
|
match for the <tt>-I</tt> and <tt>-l</tt> options.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>filtered out linker-specs from the <tt>--libs</tt>
|
|
report.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>amended the ncurses*-config and pc-files to take into
|
|
account the rpath hack which differed between those
|
|
files.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified generated ncurses*config and ncurses.pc,
|
|
ncursesw.pc, etc., to list helper libraries such as gpm for
|
|
static linking.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
|
|
|
|
<p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
|
|
to the <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. Most of
|
|
this activity aimed at improving the test-packages. A few changes
|
|
are more generally useful, e.g., for the main ncurses
|
|
test-program, and for analyzing traces using the
|
|
<em>tracemunch</em> script:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improve recovery from error when reading command-character
|
|
in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>, showing the relevant error
|
|
message and not exiting on EINTR.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>, by keeping track of
|
|
<tt>TERMINAL*</tt> values, and if tracing was first turned on
|
|
after initialization, attempt to show distinct screen, window
|
|
and terminal names anyway.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modify <em>tracemunch</em> to accept filename parameters
|
|
in addition to use as a pipe/filter.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>update <em>tracemunch</em> to work with <em>perl
|
|
5.26.2</em>, which changed the rules for escaping regular
|
|
expressions.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add some checks in <em>tracemunch</em> for undefined
|
|
variables.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modify <tt>TurnOn</tt>/<tt>TurnOff</tt> macros (in
|
|
lib_vidattr.c and lib_vid_attr.c) to avoid expansion of
|
|
“<tt>CUR</tt>” in trace.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
|
|
examples:</p>
|
|
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">color_content</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>Demonstrate the <tt>color_content</tt> and
|
|
<tt>extended_color_content</tt> functions.</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">demo_tabs</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>A simple demo of tabs in curses.</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">dump_window</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>A portable curses screen-dump, used to compare ncurses
|
|
screen contents with Solaris.</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">pair_content</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>Demonstrate the <tt>pair_content</tt> and
|
|
<tt>extended_pair_content</tt> functions.</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">report_hashing</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>Check hash-tables used for terminfo and termcap names.</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">parse_rgb</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>Sample implementation of the ncurses RGB extension from
|
|
<a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>, used
|
|
in <em>picsmap</em> and <em>savescreen</em> programs.</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
|
|
<p>A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both
|
|
new features as well as options added to make the set of programs
|
|
more consistent.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add “<tt>-l</tt>” option to test/background,
|
|
to dump screen contents in a form that lets different curses
|
|
implementations be compared.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>add “<tt>@</tt>” command to test/ncurses
|
|
F-test, to allow rapid jump to different character pages.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>added enum, regex examples to test/demo_forms</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>amend Scaled256() macro in test/picsmap.c to cover the
|
|
full range 0..1000</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>corrected pathname used in Ada95 sample programs for
|
|
<tt>explain.txt</tt>, to work with test-packages, and used an
|
|
awk script to split the resulting pathname when it would be
|
|
too long for a single line.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>ignore interrupted system-call in test/ncurses's
|
|
command-line, e.g., if the terminal were resized.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improved ifdef's for <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable, to help
|
|
with AIX/HPUX ports.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote style="word-break:keep-all">
|
|
<p><tt>alacritty</tt>, <tt>domterm</tt>, <tt>kitty</tt>,
|
|
<tt>mintty</tt>, <tt>mintty-direct</tt>, <tt>ms-terminal</tt>,
|
|
<tt>n7900</tt>, <tt>nsterm-build309</tt>,
|
|
<tt>nsterm-direct</tt>, <tt>screen5</tt>, <tt>ti703</tt>,
|
|
<tt>ti707</tt>, <tt>ti703-w</tt>, <tt>ti707-w</tt>
|
|
<tt>vscode</tt>, <tt>vscode-direct</tt>, <tt>xterm-mono</tt>,
|
|
<tt>xterm.js</tt></p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
|
|
were updates to several descriptions:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>use <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_rep"><tt>ansi+rep</tt></a>
|
|
in a dozen places</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add rs1 to konsole, mlterm</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>improve several flash capabilities with trailing mandatory
|
|
delays</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>drop <tt>ich1</tt> from <tt>rxvt-basic</tt>, <tt>Eterm</tt>
|
|
and <tt>mlterm</tt> to improve compatibility with old
|
|
non-curses programs</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add/use <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_keypad"><tt>xterm+keypad</tt></a>
|
|
in <tt>xterm-new</tt></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>use <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl-twm"><tt>xterm+sl-twm</tt></a>
|
|
for consistency, nine places</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>improve <em>xm</em> example in <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11mouse">xterm+x11mouse</a>
|
|
and <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006">xterm+sm_1006</a>.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
|
|
retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><tt>terminator</tt>, <tt>st</tt></p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
|
|
documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
|
|
"part-name">tic</span>:</p>
|
|
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-adds200">adds200</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>fix typo</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-gnome-256color">gnome-256color</a>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>base entry on "gnome", not "vte", for consistency</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-interix">interix</a>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>trim unnecessary setf/setb</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux-16color">linux-16color</a>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>accommodate <a href=
|
|
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2019-10/msg00061.html">
|
|
Linux console driver</a> incompatibility introduced in
|
|
early 2018</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm-256color">nsterm-256color</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>add nsterm-build309 to replace nsterm-256color,
|
|
assigning the latter as an alias of nsterm, to make mouse
|
|
work with nsterm-256color</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent40">regent40</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>renumber function-keys to match manual</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent60">regent60</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>add cd (clr_eos)</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>corrected acsc</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add shifted function-keys</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi950">tvi950</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>added function-key definitions to agree with Televideo
|
|
950 manual</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>corrected acsc</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>remove bogus kf0</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add bel</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi955">tvi955</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>fix typo</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vi200">vi200</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>add acsc string, including right/down-arrow</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>corrected acsc</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a> and
|
|
<a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy60">wy60</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>add shifted function-keys as kF1 to kF16</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11hilite">xterm+x11hilite</a>:</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>eliminate unused <em>p5</em> parameter.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
|
|
<p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
|
|
capabilities):</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>use <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
|
|
(aka “SGR 1006 mouse”) for konsole-base and
|
|
putty</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add <em><tt>Smol/Rmol</tt></em> user-defined capability to
|
|
<tt>tmux</tt> and <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add <em><tt>Smulx</tt></em> user-defined capability to
|
|
<tt>tmux</tt>, <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
|
|
"h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>As usual, this release</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>attempts to improve the description of features which
|
|
users have found confusing</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
|
|
described in the <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
|
|
but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>In addition to providing background information to explain
|
|
these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
|
|
clarifications, etc.:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Corrections:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>correct error-returns listed in manual pages for a few
|
|
form functions</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>corrected prototypes in several manpages using script
|
|
to extract those in compilable form.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>fix typo in <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">term.5</a>,
|
|
improve explanation of format</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Clarify in manual pages that <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwprintw</a>
|
|
and <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scanw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwscanw</a>
|
|
are obsolete.<br>
|
|
They have not been part of X/Open Curses since 2007.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">curs_addch.3x</a>
|
|
gives some background for ACS symbols.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getcchar.3x</a>
|
|
explains a difference between ncurses and X/Open
|
|
Curses.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getstr.3x</a>
|
|
gives historical/portability background for the length
|
|
parameter of <tt>wgetnstr</tt>.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_slk.3x.html">curs_slk.3x</a> lists a
|
|
few differences between SVr4 curses and X/Open Curses for
|
|
soft-keys.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo.3x</a>
|
|
explains that the initial implementation of terminfo in
|
|
SVr2 was mostly replaced by other developers in SVr3.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp.1</a>
|
|
explains that the initial version of terminfo had no tool
|
|
for decompiling descriptions. That came later, with SVr3,
|
|
with a different developer.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html">tabs.1</a> tells more
|
|
than you wanted to know about the tool.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic.1</a> explains
|
|
that the initial version of terminfo had a rudimentary tool
|
|
(based on termcap) for compiling entries. The tool used
|
|
with Unix was developed by others for SVr3.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">toe.1</a> explains
|
|
the origin of this tool.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Improvements for <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>mention <tt>meml</tt>, <tt>memu</tt> and
|
|
<tt>box1</tt></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>expanded description of <tt>XM</tt></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add a clarification regarding the <tt>RGB</tt>
|
|
capability.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>mention user_caps.5 in the tic and infocmp manual
|
|
pages.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Other improvements:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_add_wch.3x.html#h3-Line-Graphics">curs_add_wch.3x</a>
|
|
adds note about Unicode terminology for the line-drawing
|
|
characters.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_color.3x.html#h2-RETURN-VALUE">curs_color.3x</a>
|
|
improves discussion of error returns and extensions.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_mouse.3x.html">curs_mouse.3x</a>
|
|
explains how the <tt>kmous</tt> and <tt>XM</tt>
|
|
capabilities are used for xterm-mouse input.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_refresh.3x.html#h3-wnoutrefresh_doupdate">
|
|
curs_refresh.3x</a> improves documentation regarding the
|
|
virtual and physical screens.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html">curs_util.3x</a>
|
|
mentions a difference between SVr4 and X/Open Curses for
|
|
<tt>unctrl.h</tt></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_variables.3x</a>
|
|
improves description of the <em>init_tabs</em> capability
|
|
and <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
|
|
ncurses.3x</a> improves documentation regarding
|
|
feature-test macros in curses.h</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h3-resize_term">resizeterm.3x</a>
|
|
about top-level windows which touch the screen's
|
|
borders.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html#h3-Terminal-Size">tput.1</a>
|
|
clarifies how <em>tput</em> determines the terminal
|
|
size.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
|
|
are to existing pages).</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
|
|
the information is presented. For instance, the generated
|
|
terminfo.5 file uses a different table layout, allowing it to use
|
|
space on wide terminals more effectively.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
|
|
bug-fixes</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
|
|
6.2, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
|
|
and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
|
|
which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
|
|
are detailed in the NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The interesting bugs were in tic/infocmp's handling of
|
|
user-defined capabilities. These were not recent bugs. Initially
|
|
it was a simple problem:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>The user-defined capabilities can be any type (boolean,
|
|
number or string), but once given a type all uses of the name
|
|
must conform to that type—unless some special support for
|
|
a particular multi-typed name is built into ncurses.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>One of simpleterm's contributors copied some definitions
|
|
for using <em>tmux</em>'s user-defined capabilities in
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/06f8cf8ca87a81db15816658c40b2afcd1ad5332.html">
|
|
late in 2016</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<pre class="demo-name">
|
|
diff --git a/st.info b/st.info
|
|
@@ -185,7 +185,10 @@ st| simpleterm,
|
|
tsl=\E]0;,
|
|
xenl,
|
|
vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,
|
|
-
|
|
+# Tmux unofficial extensions, see TERMINFO EXTENSIONS in tmux(1)
|
|
+ Se,
|
|
+ Ss,
|
|
+ Tc,
|
|
|
|
st-256color| simpleterm with 256 colors,
|
|
use=st,
|
|
</pre>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Later, in (referring to a version from <a href=
|
|
"https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/c0882f2ed1d7a2dd0fa2efa52157e6fc6fde3652.html">
|
|
mid-2017</a>), a user asked to have it updated in
|
|
ncurses.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>However, it had an error from the change in late 2016. The
|
|
terminal description made what <em>tmux</em> expected to be
|
|
<strong>string</strong> actually a
|
|
<strong>boolean</strong>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Over the years, there were problems with each of
|
|
simpleterm's terminal descriptions. I repaired those, and
|
|
usually dealt with the problem.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The difference in this case was that when compiling the
|
|
terminal database, <em>tic</em> may have in memory the
|
|
definitions for more than one terminal description (so that
|
|
it can resolve “<tt>use=</tt>” clauses). Seeing
|
|
two different types for the same name, in certain situations
|
|
it would incorrectly merge the symbol tables for the two
|
|
terminal descriptions.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>On simpleterm's side, their bug was finally fixed in
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/83866428de031300eab03fbb116bcf7d2b1d4f60.html">
|
|
late 2019</a>, three years after the bug was created.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>For ncurses, the elapsed time to fix this bug was less than
|
|
three years. Someone reported a problem with the terminal
|
|
description a few weeks after releasing ncurses 6.1 (in <a href=
|
|
"https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1264">tmux #1264</a>), and
|
|
the terminal description was updated that week (ncurses patch
|
|
<a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t20180224">20180224</a>):</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<pre class="demo-name">
|
|
20180224
|
|
+ modify _nc_resolve_uses2() to detect incompatible types when merging
|
|
a "use=" clause of extended capabilities. The problem was seen in a
|
|
defective terminfo integrated from simpleterm sources in 20171111,
|
|
compounded by repair in 20180121.
|
|
+ correct Ss/Ms interchange in st-0.7 entry (tmux #1264) -TD
|
|
</pre>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>The larger part of that change added a check to prevent a
|
|
simple merge of terminal descriptions where the same user-defined
|
|
name was used with different types. But it raised some
|
|
questions:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Was there a reliable way to manage terminal descriptions
|
|
which used the same extended name in different ways?</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Should ncurses provide a registry of well-known extended
|
|
names, with their types?</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Since the correction to <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database"><tt>terminfo.src</tt></a>
|
|
could have been readily adopted by packagers, there was nothing
|
|
more to be done from ncurses' standpoint on that part. But
|
|
improving ncurses to prevent issues like that is the reason for
|
|
making a release.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Nothing more (constructive) was mentioned with regard to
|
|
simpleterm. But a few problems were found in the handling of
|
|
user-defined capabilities:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Forward-references to user-defined capabilities in a
|
|
“<tt>use=</tt>” clause did not allocate new data
|
|
for each use. In <em>tic</em>, successive compilation of
|
|
terminal entries could add user-defined capabilities to the
|
|
wrong terminal entry.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>This was not noticed before, since xterm's terminal
|
|
descriptions were the main users of the feature, and almost
|
|
all of the uses of the building-blocks which contained
|
|
user-defined capabilities were backward-references.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>There is one (documented) case where ncurses 6.1 supports
|
|
a user-defined capability that could be any type (i.e.,
|
|
“RGB”). The check added in February 2018 to guard
|
|
against mismatches did not handle all of the combinations
|
|
needed.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Both of these issues dated from the original implementation of
|
|
user-defined capabilities. Fixing them does not change the
|
|
terminal database, but a older <em>tic</em> without the fixes
|
|
will not be able to handle terminfo sources which rely upon those
|
|
fixes. Starting in June 2019, the download link for the terminfo
|
|
source file was capped at that date. The development sources have
|
|
an up-to-date copy of the file, for people with a legitimate need
|
|
for it.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The “<tt>-c</tt>” (check) option of <em>tic</em>
|
|
is not very useful if it cannot offer advice on parameters needed
|
|
for user-defined capabilities. The various <em>Caps</em> files
|
|
were reorganized to reduce redundancy, and in the common portion
|
|
(<a href=
|
|
"https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots/blob/master/include/Caps-ncurses">Caps-ncurses</a>),
|
|
a registry of user-defined capabilities is provided for use by
|
|
<em>tic</em>. While users can still define their own custom
|
|
capabilities, <em>tic</em> will not offer any advice when their
|
|
parameters do not match.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>In ncurses 6.2, <em>tic</em> makes a special check to allow
|
|
any type for <em>RGB</em>, but its being able to do this relies
|
|
upon fixes made in the ncurses library in mid-2019.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
|
|
"h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
|
|
changes</a></h4>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are no major changes. Several new options were added to
|
|
ease integration of packages with systems using different
|
|
versions of <em>GNAT</em> and <em>ncurses</em>. Also,
|
|
improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
|
|
"h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are a few new/modified configure options:</p>
|
|
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-config-suffix</tt>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>helps work around a filename conflict with Debian packages
|
|
versus test-packages.</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-ada-libname</tt>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>allows one to rename the “AdaCurses” library
|
|
(at least one packager prefers a lowercase name).</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-fallbacks</tt>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>now ensures there is a value, and adds the fallback
|
|
information to top-level Makefile summary.</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-pcre2</tt>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>check for pcre-posix library to help with MinGW port.</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-tic-path</tt> and<br></dt>
|
|
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-infocmp-path</tt>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>help work around problems building fallback source using
|
|
pre-6.0 tic/infocmp.</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><tt>--with-versioned-syms</tt>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>option value can now be a relative pathname.</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
|
|
configure script:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>ignore <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>
|
|
as a default value in configure script if it came from the
|
|
<tt>infocmp</tt> <strong><tt>-Q</tt></strong> option.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>distinguish gcc from icc and clang when the
|
|
<tt>--enable-warnings</tt> option is not used, to avoid
|
|
unnecessary warnings about unrecognized inline options</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>consistently prepend new libraries as they are found
|
|
during configuration, rather than relying upon the linker to
|
|
resolve order dependencies of libraries.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified configure scripts to reduce relinking/ranlib
|
|
during library install :</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>use “<tt>install -p</tt>” when available,
|
|
to avoid need for ranlib of static libraries.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>scripts which use
|
|
“<tt>--disable-relink</tt>;” add a 1-second
|
|
sleep to work around tools which use whole-second
|
|
timestamps, e.g., in <tt>utime</tt> rather than the actual
|
|
file system resolution.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p id="getenv-check">add configure check for <a href=
|
|
"#getenv-fixes"><tt>getenv</tt></a> to work around
|
|
implementation shown in Emscripten which overwrites the
|
|
previous return value on each call.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Use that to optionally suppress <tt>START_TRACE</tt>
|
|
macro, whose call to <tt>getenv</tt> may not work
|
|
properly</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>change target configure level for <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>
|
|
to 600 to address use of <tt>vsscanf</tt> and
|
|
<tt>setenv</tt>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>reduce use of <tt>_GNU_SOURCE</tt> for current glibc where
|
|
<tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> combines with
|
|
<tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Allow for Cygwin's newlib when checking for the
|
|
_DEFAULT_SOURCE symbol.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>MidnightBSD is now checked for the
|
|
<tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>-related definitions.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>If the check for <tt>va_copy</tt> or <tt>__va_copy</tt>
|
|
fails,</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>configure now tries copying the pointers for
|
|
<tt>va_list</tt>, or as an array.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>alternatively, it checks for
|
|
<tt>__builtin_va_copy</tt>(), which could be used with AIX
|
|
<tt>xlc</tt> in <em>c89</em> mode.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>several changes to support a port to Ultrix 3.1:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>check if "b" binary feature of fopen works</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>check for missing feature of locale.h</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add fallback for strstr() in test-programs</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>add fallback for STDOUT_FILENO in test-programs</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The <em>test/configure</em> script (used for <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html"><em>ncurses-examples</em></a>)
|
|
is improved:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>work around non-ncurses termcap.h file, e.g., in
|
|
Slackware.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>check for <a href=
|
|
"/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h3-TABSIZE"><tt>TABSIZE</tt></a>
|
|
variable.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>checks for the X11/Intrinsic.h header, accommodate
|
|
recent MacOS changes which largely emptied
|
|
<tt>/usr/include</tt>.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>added dummy "check" rule in top-level and test-Makefile to
|
|
simplify building test-packages for ArchLinux.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>dropped library-dependency on psapi for MinGW port, since
|
|
win_driver.c defines <tt>PSAPI_VERSION</tt> to 2, making it
|
|
use <tt>GetProcessImageFileName</tt> from kernel32.dll</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>made build-fixes for configuration using --program-suffix
|
|
with Ada95, noticed with MacOS but applicable to other
|
|
platforms without libpanelw, etc.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>modified ncurses/Makefile.in to fix a case where
|
|
Debian/testing changes to the ld --as-needed configuration
|
|
broke ncurses-examples test packages.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>used <tt>_WIN32</tt>/<tt>_WIN64</tt> in preference to
|
|
<tt>__MINGW32__</tt>/<tt>__MINGW64__</tt> symbols to simplify
|
|
building with Microsoft Visual C++, since the former are
|
|
defined in both compiler configurations.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<hr>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
|
|
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
|
|
upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
|
|
documented).</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
|
|
for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
|
|
forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
|
|
of keypad and function keys.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
|
|
add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
|
|
backing store.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
|
|
interface for menu programming.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>the form library, supporting data collection through
|
|
on-screen forms.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
|
|
is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
|
|
user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
|
|
hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
|
|
<em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
|
|
used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
|
|
can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
|
|
directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
|
|
options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
|
|
less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
|
|
as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
|
|
many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
|
|
X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it
|
|
implements all BASE level features, and most EXTENDED
|
|
features). It includes many function calls not supported
|
|
under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is documented
|
|
so you can use the SVr4 subset only).</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
|
|
can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
|
|
your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
|
|
FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
|
|
package.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
|
|
windows, preserving their data.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
|
|
use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
|
|
achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
|
|
<code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
|
|
of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
|
|
than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
|
|
and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
|
|
features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
|
|
than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
|
|
incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that
|
|
enables it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling,
|
|
line-insertion, and line-deletion for screen-line movements.
|
|
This algorithm is more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses
|
|
<code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
|
|
The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight
|
|
if the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before
|
|
the beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
|
|
character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
|
|
when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
|
|
without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
|
|
pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
|
|
those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap
|
|
file is accessible (this may be useful for support of
|
|
screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
|
|
mode).</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> utility
|
|
provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has the
|
|
ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
|
|
AT&T extension sets.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>A BSD-like <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> library and
|
|
utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from
|
|
$HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
|
|
if it exists and the user has no write access to the system
|
|
directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
|
|
personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the
|
|
system terminfo directory.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>You may specify a path of directories to search for
|
|
compiled descriptions with the environment variable
|
|
TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
|
|
TERMINFO under stock System V.)</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
|
|
just to other entries in the same source file (as in System
|
|
V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
|
|
directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
|
|
"part-name">toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see
|
|
exactly what terminal types are available on the system.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
|
|
entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
|
|
(and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
|
|
disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
|
|
Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html"><span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online
|
|
documentation).</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
|
|
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
|
|
includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
|
|
These are available separately as <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
|
|
applications including:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>Curses Development Kit</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="@WEBSITE@/cdk/">@WEBSITE@/cdk/</a><br>
|
|
</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>directory-editor</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="@WEBSITE@/ded/">@WEBSITE@/ded/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
|
|
and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
|
|
many systems.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="@WEBSITE@/dialog/">@WEBSITE@/dialog/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>the text WWW browser</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>mail utility</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>file-transfer utility</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
|
|
<em>Python</em>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>as well as some that use <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>terminfo action checker</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>terminal multiplexor</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
|
|
termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="@WEBSITE@/vile/">@WEBSITE@/vile/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>text editor</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
|
|
displays text files).</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>terminal multiplexor</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
|
|
<dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
|
|
</dt>
|
|
|
|
<dd>
|
|
<p>text editor</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
|
|
activities</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
|
|
from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
|
|
Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of
|
|
the form and menu libraries.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
|
|
"mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
|
|
E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
|
|
Foundation, which holds a <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html">copyright on ncurses</a> 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 <a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">ncurses FAQ</a> for
|
|
additional information).</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
containing the line:
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><code>subscribe</code>
|
|
<em><name>@<host.domain></em></p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
|
|
development and testing of this package.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
|
|
made available at</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/</a>
|
|
and<br>
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a> .</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/</a>
|
|
and<br>
|
|
<a href=
|
|
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/</a> .</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p><a href=
|
|
"http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
|
|
(also <a href=
|
|
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
|
|
resources</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
|
|
which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
|
|
in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-slang.html">Comments on
|
|
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
|
|
"main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack – terminfo action
|
|
checker</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tctest.html">tctest – termcap
|
|
library checker</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href=
|
|
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal
|
|
Database</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
|
|
resources</a></h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
|
|
terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
|
|
<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
|
|
Raymond</a> . 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.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
|
|
not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
|
|
"http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
|
|
Richard Shuford's archive</a> . The collection of computer
|
|
manuals at <a href=
|
|
"http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
|
|
useful.</p>
|
|
|
|
<div class="nav">
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
|
|
improvements</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
|
|
options</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
|
|
"main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|