diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'ncurses-5.3/doc/html/announce.html')
-rw-r--r-- | ncurses-5.3/doc/html/announce.html | 436 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 436 deletions
diff --git a/ncurses-5.3/doc/html/announce.html b/ncurses-5.3/doc/html/announce.html deleted file mode 100644 index d352303..0000000 --- a/ncurses-5.3/doc/html/announce.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,436 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//EN"> -<!-- - $Id$ ---> -<HTML> -<HEAD> -<TITLE>Announcing ncurses 5.3 Pre-Release</TITLE> -<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org"> -</HEAD> -<BODY> - -<H1>Announcing ncurses 5.3</H1> - -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.<P> - -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.<P> - -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!<P> - -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.<P> - -The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at -the GNU distribution site -<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>. -<br>It is also available at -<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>. - -<H1>Release Notes</H1> - -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. -<p> -Interface changes: -<ul> - <li>change type for bool used in headers to <code>NCURSES_BOOL</code>, - which usually is the same as the compiler's definition for - <code>bool</code>. - - <li>add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support. - These are only available if the library is configured using the - <kbd>--enable-widec</kbd> option. Missing functions are - <ul> - <li>pecho_wchar() - <li>slk_wset() - </ul> - - <li>add environment variable <code>$NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS</code> to - modify the <code>assume_default_colors()</code> extension. - -</ul> -New features and improvements: -<ul> - <li>Improved support for termcap applications: - <ul> - <li>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. - - <li>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. - - <li>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. - - <li>add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are commented out - when translating to termcap. - - <li>modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to make it - work properly for termcap applications (patch by Andrey A Chernov). - - </ul> - - <li>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). - - <li>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. -</ul> -Major bug fixes: -<ul> - <li>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. - - <li>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(). - - <li>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. - - <li>modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not corrupt - the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within the resized - window. - - <li>altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window - cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent. - - <li>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. - - <li>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. - - <li>add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in - the overwrite logic. - - <li>add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs. - - <li>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). -</ul> - -Portability: -<ul> - <li>configure script: - <ul> - <li>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. - - <li>correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and move it - to the experimental section (cf: 20011208). - - <li>modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, or with - fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and toe. - - <li>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. - - <li>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. - - <li>add several configure script options to aid with cross-compiling: - --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, --with-build-ldflags, and - --with-build-libs. - - <li>add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to similar - terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x - - <li>add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in transition - to 5.3 change to ospeed type. - </ul> - - <li>library: - <ul> - <li>implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the %n - conversion to help parse the input data. - - <li>various fixes to build/work with different implementations of - vsscanf(). - - <li>add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on - platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., Solaris. - - <li>finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin. - - <li>add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in curses.h - </ul> - - <li>programs: - <ul> - <li>modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic links on - platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS. - - <li>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. - - <li>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". - </ul> -</ul> - -<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1> - -The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses: - -<UL> -<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented). -<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color, -forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad -and function keys. -<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting -a stack of windows with backing store, is included. -<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting -a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included. -<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting -data collection through on-screen forms, is included. -<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation -are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses. -<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo -entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> -versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL> - -The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4: - -<UL> -<LI>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). -<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner -of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability. -<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings. -<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows. -<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package. -<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving -their data. -<LI>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. -<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE> -and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> 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. -<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm. -<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a -cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's -or System V's. -<LI>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. -<LI>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. -<LI>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). -<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the -ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and -AT&T extension sets. -<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided. -<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo -entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory -if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory. -This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries -without giving up access to the system terminfo directory. -<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled -descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this -generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.) -<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to -other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to -compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's -$HOME/.terminfo directory. -<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) 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. -<LI>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. -<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to -see exactly what terminal types are available on the system. -<LI>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>. -<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides -a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface. -</UL> - -<H1>State of the Package</H1> - -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.<P> - -The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications -including (versions starting with those noted): -<DL> -<DT> cdk -<DD> Curses Development Kit -<br> -<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/cdk.html">http://invisible-island.net/cdk</A>. -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a> -<DT> ded -<DD> directory-editor -<br> -<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html">http://invisible-island.net/ded</A>. -<DT> dialog -<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis -for similar applications on GNU/Linux. -<br> -<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html">http://invisible-island.net/dialog</A>. -<DT> lynx -<DD> the character-screen WWW browser -<br> -<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>. -<DT> Midnight Commander -<DD> file manager -<br> -<A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>. -<DT> mutt -<DD> mail utility -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>. -<DT> ncftp -<DD> file-transfer utility -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com">http://www.ncftp.com</A>. -<DT> nvi -<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later. -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>. -<DT> tin -<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>. -<DT> taper -<DD> tape archive utility -<br> -<A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/">http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/</A>. -<DT> vh-1.6 -<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>. -</DL> -as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone: -<DL> -<DT> minicom -<DD> terminal emulator -<br> -<A HREF="http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>. -<DT> vile -<DD> vi-like-emacs -<br> -<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/vile.html">http://invisible-island.net/vile</A>. -</DL> -<P> - -The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including -a few games). - -<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2> - -The original developers of ncurses are <A -HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and -<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>. -Ongoing work is being done by -<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A> -and -<A HREF="http://www.familiepfeifer.de/Contact.aspx?Lang=en">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>. -<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A> -acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the -copyright on ncurses. -Contact the current maintainers at -<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>. -<P> - -To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to -<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line: -<PRE> - subscribe <name>@<host.domain> -</PRE> - -This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and -testing of this package.<P> - -Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at -<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses</A>. - -<H2>Future Plans</H2> -<UL> -<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support. -<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows. -</UL> -We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working -on them, please join the ncurses list. - -<H2>Other Related Resources</H2> - -The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format -terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond. -<A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P> - -You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics -not covered in the terminfo file at -<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's -archive</A>. -</BODY> -</HTML> -<!-- -# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS -# Local Variables: -# mode:html -# case-fold-search:nil -# fill-column:70 -# End: ---> |