diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'ncurses-5.3/ANNOUNCE')
| -rw-r--r-- | ncurses-5.3/ANNOUNCE | 391 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 391 deletions
diff --git a/ncurses-5.3/ANNOUNCE b/ncurses-5.3/ANNOUNCE deleted file mode 100644 index e39a0be..0000000 --- a/ncurses-5.3/ANNOUNCE +++ /dev/null @@ -1,391 +0,0 @@ - - Announcing ncurses 5.3 - - The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of - curses in System V Release 4.0, 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 SYSV-curses - enhancements over BSD curses. - - In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he - considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of - Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to - ncurses. - - The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for - some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD - and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any - ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp! - - The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including - a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), - tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full - manual pages are provided for the library and tools. - - The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU - distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses. - It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses. - - Release Notes - - This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and - 5.2; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on - the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since - ncurses 5.2 release. - - Interface changes: - * change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which - usually is the same as the compiler's definition for bool. - * add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character - support. These are only available if the library is configured - using the --enable-widec option. Missing functions are - + pecho_wchar() - + slk_wset() - * add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the - assume_default_colors() extension. - - New features and improvements: - * Improved support for termcap applications: - + add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions - that do not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated - termcaps. This makes hds200 fit. - + modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the - alternate character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the - copy of the termcap "me" string which it will return to - eliminate that part. In particular, 'screen' would lose track - of line-drawing characters. - + add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about - missing acsc string. This happens in configurations where raw - termcap information is processed; tic already does this and - other checks. - + add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are - commented out when translating to termcap. - + modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to - make it work properly for termcap applications (patch by - Andrey A Chernov). - * add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications - such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes - Debian #131263, cf: 20011215). - * correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is - compiled with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making - it slightly incompatible with itself. In either case, the - background color is the last field. - - Major bug fixes: - * rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated - _nc_scroll_window(), to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is - larger than the size of the scrolling region, then the scrolling - region will be cleared. - * modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is - encountered. Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently - rather than mixing with write(). - * move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop - with callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise - initialized the tty modes before saving them. - * modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not - corrupt the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within - the resized window. - * altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window - cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent. - * correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in - tput, which did not exit with an error when told to put a string - not in the current terminfo entry. - * modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is - running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it - returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without - picking up extraneous trailing blanks. - * add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in - the overwrite logic. - * add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs. - * modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl() - mode is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual - terminal mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it - is useful to allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to - avoid staircasing effects after spawning a process which writes - messages (for lynx 2.8.4). - - Portability: - * configure script: - + modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used - by default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in - attempt to work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL - notes. - + correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and - move it to the experimental section (cf: 20011208). - + modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, - or with fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and - toe. - + modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile. - In that case, do not use the build's tic to install the - terminfo database. - + modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that - are different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's - C++ compilers on Solaris and IRIX. - + add several configure script options to aid with - cross-compiling: --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, - --with-build-ldflags, and --with-build-libs. - + add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to - similar terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x - + add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in - transition to 5.3 change to ospeed type. - * library: - + implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the - %n conversion to help parse the input data. - + various fixes to build/work with different implementations of - vsscanf(). - + add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on - platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., - Solaris. - + finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin. - + add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in - curses.h - * programs: - + modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic - links on platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS. - + modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that - linking aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not - succeed because the source and destination differ only by - case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0 on cygwin. - + modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for - basename of argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2 - which have case-independent filenames and/or program - suffixes, e.g., ".ext". - - Features of Ncurses - - The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) - curses: - * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are - documented). - * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, - color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic - recognition of keypad and function keys. - * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of - windows with backing store, is included. - * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but - flexible interface for menu programming, is included. - * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection - through on-screen forms, is included. - * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) - implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format - SVr4 curses uses. - * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries - for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the - HP/UX and AIX ports. - - The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: - * 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, but not all EXTENDED features). Most - EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character - support are implemented, including many function calls not - supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is - documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only). - * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost - corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character - capability. - * Ada95 and C++ bindings. - * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 - console windows. - * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. - * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving - their data. - * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's - default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of - transparent colors. - * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control - the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, - or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given - key code. - * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm. - * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a - cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's - or System V's. - * 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 quickch() routine. - * 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. - * 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). - * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability - to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension - sets. - * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. - * The ncurses 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. - * 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.) - * 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. - * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition - from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP - environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and - converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under - $HOME/.terminfo. - * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in - when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is - neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have - to, but it's there. - * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see - exactly what terminal types are available on the system. - * 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 - #undef. - * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document - provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming - interface. - - State of the Package - - Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library - is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many - `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe - according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks - and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester. - - The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications - including (versions starting with those noted): - - cdk - Curses Development Kit - [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk. - [4]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html - - ded - directory-editor - [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded. - - dialog - the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the - basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux. - [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog. - - lynx - the character-screen WWW browser - [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release. - - Midnight Commander - file manager - [8]www.gnome.org/mc/. - - mutt - mail utility - [9]http://www.mutt.org. - - ncftp - file-transfer utility - [10]http://www.ncftp.com. - - nvi - New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and - later. - [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/. - - tin - newsreader, supporting color, MIME - [12]http://www.tin.org. - - taper - tape archive utility - [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/. - - vh-1.6 - Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File - [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html. - - as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: - - minicom - terminal emulator - [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html. - - vile - vi-like-emacs - [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile. - - The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs - (including a few games). - -Who's Who and What's What - - The original developers of ncurses are [17]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [18]Eric - S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and - [20]Jürgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the - Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses. - Contact the current maintainers at [22]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 and patches to the current release are made - available at [23]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses. - -Future Plans - - * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization - support. - * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. - - We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in - working on them, please join the ncurses list. - -Other Related Resources - - The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format - terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond. - [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo. - - You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not - covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive. - -References - - 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses - 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses - 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html - 4. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html - 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html - 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html - 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/ - 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20021012/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/ - 9. http://www.mutt.org/ - 10. http://www.ncftp.com/ - 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/ - 12. http://www.tin.org/ - 13. http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/ - 14. http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html - 15. http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html - 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html - 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com - 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html - 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com - 20. http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en - 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com - 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org - 23. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses - 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo - 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html |