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Obtained from: ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses/
487 lines
24 KiB
Plaintext
487 lines
24 KiB
Plaintext
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Announcing ncurses 5.2
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The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
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curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
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supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
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and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
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enhancements over BSD curses.
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In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
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considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
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Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
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ncurses.
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The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily
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to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2
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Warp!
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The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
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a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
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tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
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manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
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The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
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distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
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It is also available at [2]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
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Release Notes
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This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and
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5.1; very few applications will require recompilation, depending on
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the platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since
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ncurses 5.1 release.
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Interface changes:
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* change type of ospeed variable back to short to match its use in
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legacy applications. It was altered after ncurses 4.2 to speed_t
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to repair a type mismatch which was introduced after 1.9.4 in
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1995. The principal users of termcap continued to use short, which
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is not the same size.
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NOTE: A few applications will have to be recompiled (about 1% of
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the programs in a typical Linux distribution, 10% of the programs
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that use ncurses). These are easy to identify with nm or strings.
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* remove a private function _nc_can_clear_with(), which was built
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with the configure --enable-expanded option but not used.
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* add several private functions (prefixed with "_nc_") for tracing
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chtype values in the debug library, and for better access and
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buffer limit checking.
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New features and improvements:
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* rewrote tgoto() to make it better support existing termcap
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applications which use hardcoded strings rather than obtain all of
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their information from the termcap file. If the string does not
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appear to be a terminfo string (i.e., does not refer to a "%p"
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parameter, or terminfo-style padding), and termcap support is
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configured, tgoto() will interpret it as termcap. Otherwise, as
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before, it will use tparm().
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* to ensure that the tgoto() changes work properly, added checks to
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tic which report capabilities that do not reference the expected
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number of parameters.
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* new configure script options:
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+ option --disable-root-environ adds runtime checks which tell
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ncurses to disregard $TERMINFO and similar environment
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variables if the current user is root, or running
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setuid/setgid.
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+ option --disable-assumed-color allows you to use the pre-5.1
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convention of default colors used for color-pair 0 to be
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configured (see assume_default_colors()).
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+ implement configure script options that transform installed
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program names, e.g., --program-prefix, including the manpage
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names and cross references.
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+ option --with-database allows you to specify a different
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terminfo source-file to install. On OS/2 EMX, the default is
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misc/emx.src, otherwise misc/terminfo.src
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+ option --with-default-terminfo-dir allows you to specify the
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default terminfo database directory.
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+ option --with-libtool allows you to build with libtool.
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NOTE: libtool uses a different notation for numbering shared
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library versions from the existing ncurses configuration.
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+ option --with-manpage-tbl causes the manpages to be
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preprocessed by tbl(1) prior to installation,
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+ option --without-curses-h causes the installation process to
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install curses.h as ncurses.h and make appropriate changes to
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headers and manpages.
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* modified configure script options:
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+ change symbol used by the --install-prefix configure option
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from INSTALL_PREFIX to DESTDIR (the latter has become common
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usage although the name is misleading).
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+ modify ld -rpath options (e.g., Linux, and Solaris) to use an
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absolute pathname for the build tree's lib directory,
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avoiding confusion with directories relative to the current
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one with the installed programs.
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+ modified misc/run_tic.in to use tic -o, to eliminate
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dependency on $TERMINFO variable for installs.
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* terminfo database:
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+ updated xterm terminfo entries to match XFree86 xterm patch
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#146.
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+ added amiga-vnc, Matrix Orbital, and QNX qansi to
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misc/terminfo.src.
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+ added os2 entry to misc/emx.src.
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+ add S0 and E0 extensions to screen's terminfo entry since
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otherwise the FreeBSD port makes it pass termcap equivalents
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to tgoto, which would be misinterpreted by older versions of
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ncurses.
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* improvements to program usability:
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+ modify programs to use curses_version() string to report the
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version of ncurses with which they are compiled rather than
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the NCURSES_VERSION string. The function returns the patch
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level in addition to the major and minor version numbers.
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+ modify tput program so it can be renamed or invoked via a
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link as 'reset' or 'init', producing the same effect as
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tput reset or tput init.
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+ add error checking to infocmp's -v and -m options to ensure
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that the option value is indeed a number.
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* improved performance:
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+ replace a lookup table in lib_vidattr.c used to decode
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no_color_video with a logic expression which is faster.
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Major bug fixes:
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* correct manlinks.sed script introduced in ncurses 5.1 to avoid
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using ERE "\+", which is not understood by standard versions of
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sed. This happens to work with GNU sed, but is not portable, and
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was the initial motivation for this release.
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* remove "hpux10.*" case from CF_SHARED_OPTS configure script macro.
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This differed from the "hpux*" case by using reversed symbolic
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links, which made the 5.1 version not match the configuration of
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5.0 shared libraries.
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* guard against corrupt terminfo data:
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+ modify tparm() to disallow arithmetic on strings, analyze the
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varargs list to read strings as strings and numbers as
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numbers.
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+ modify tparm()'s internal function spop() to treat a null
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pointer as an empty string.
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+ modify parse_format() in lib_tparm.c to ignore precision if
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it is longer than 10000.
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+ rewrote limit checks in lib_mvcur.c using new functions
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_nc_safe_strcat(), etc. Made other related changes to check
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lengths used for strcat() and strcpy().
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* corrections to screen optimization:
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+ added special case in lib_vidattr.c to reset underline and
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standout for devices that have no sgr0 defined.
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+ change handling of non_dest_scroll_region in tty_update.c to
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clear text after it is shifted in rather than before shifting
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out. Also correct row computation.
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+ modify rs2 capability in xterm-r6 and similar entries where
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cursor save/restore bracketed the sequence for resetting
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video attributes. The cursor restore would undo that.
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* UTF-8 support:
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+ when checking LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment
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variables for UTF-8 locale, ignore those which are set to an
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empty value, as per SUSV2.
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+ encode 0xFFFD in UTF-8 with 3 bytes, not 2.
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+ modify _nc_utf8_outch() to avoid sign-extension when checking
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for out-of-range value.
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* other library fixes:
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+ added checks for an empty $HOME environment variable, to
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avoid retrieving terminfo descriptions from ./.terminfo .
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+ change functions _nc_parse_entry() and postprocess_termcap()
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to avoid using strtok(), because it is non-reentrant.
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+ initialize fds[] array to 0's in _nc_timed_wait(); apparently
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poll() only sets the revents members of that array when there
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is activity corresponding to the related file.
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+ add a check for null pointer in Make_Enum_Type().
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+ fix a heap problem with the c++ binding.
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+ correct missing includes for <string.h> in several places,
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including the C++ binding. This is not noted by gcc unless we
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use the -fno-builtin option.
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* several fixes for tic:
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+ add a check for empty buffers returned by fgets() in
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comp_scan.c next_char() function, in case tic is run on a
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non-text file (fixes a core dump).
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+ modify tic to verify that its inputs are really files, in
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case someone tries to read a directory (or /dev/zero).
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+ correct an uninitialized parameter to open_tempfile() in
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tic.c which made "tic -I" give an ambiguous error message
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about tmpnam.
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+ correct logic in adjust_cancels(), which did not check both
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alternatives when reclassifying an extended name between
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boolean, number and string, causing an infinite loop in tic.
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* using new checks in tic for parameter counts in capability
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strings, found/fixed several errors both in the terminfo database
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and in the include/Caps file.
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+ modified several terminfo capability strings, including the
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definitions for setaf, setab, in include/Caps to indicate
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that the entries are parameterized. This information is used
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to tell which strings are translated when converting to
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termcap. This fixes a problem where the generated termcap
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would contain a spurious "%p1" for the terminfo "%p1%d".
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+ correct parameter counts in include/Caps for dclk as well as
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some printer-specific capabilities: csnm, defc, scs, scsd,
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smgtp, smglp.
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* various fixes for install scripts used to support configure
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--srcdir and --with-install-prefix.
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* correct several mismatches between manpage filename and ".TH"
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directives, renaming dft_fgbg.3x to default_colors.3x and
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menu_attribs.3x to menu_attributes.3x.
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Portability:
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* configure script:
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+ newer config.guess, config.sub, including changes to support
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OS/2 EMX. The configure script for OS/2 EMX still relies on a
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patch since there is no (working) support for that platform
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in the main autoconf distribution.
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+ make configure script checks on variables $GCC and $GXX
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consistently compare against 'yes' rather than test if they
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are nonnull, since either may be set to the corresponding
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name of the C or C++ compiler.
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+ change configure script to use AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM rather
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than AC_CANONICAL_HOST, which means that configure --target
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will set a default program-prefix.
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+ modify the check for big-core to force a couple of memory
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accesses, which may work as needed for older/less-capable
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machines (if not, there's still the explicit configure
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option).
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+ modify configure test for tcgetattr() to allow for old
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implementations, e.g., on BeOS, which only defined it as a
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macro.
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+ add configure check for filesystems (such as OS/2 EMX) which
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do not distinguish between upper/lowercase filenames, use
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this to fix tags rules in makefiles.
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+ add MKncurses_def.sh to generate fallback definitions for
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ncurses_cfg.h, to quiet gcc -Wundef warnings, modified
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ifdef's in code to consistently use "#if" rather than
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"#ifdef".
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+ change most remaining unquoted parameters of test in
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configure script to use quotes, for instance fixing a problem
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in the --disable-database option.
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+ modify scripts so that "make install.data" works on OS/2 EMX.
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+ modify scripts and makefiles so the Ada95 directory builds on
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OS/2 EMX.
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* library:
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+ replaced case-statement in _nc_tracebits() for CSIZE with a
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table to simplify working around implementations that define
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random combinations of the related macros to zero.
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+ improved OS/2 mouse support by retrying as a 2-button mouse
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if code fails to set up a 3-button mouse.
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+ added private entrypoint _nc_basename(), used to consolidate
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related code in progs, as well as accommodating OS/2 EMX
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pathnames.
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+ alter definition of NCURSES_CONST to make it non-empty.
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+ redefine 'TEXT' in menu.h for AMIGA, since it is reported to
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have an (unspecified) symbol conflict.
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* programs:
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+ modified progs/tset.c and tack/sysdep.c to build with sgttyb
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interface if neither termio or termios is available. Tested
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this with FreeBSD 2.1.5 (which does have termios - but the
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sgttyb does work).
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Features of Ncurses
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The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
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curses:
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* All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
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documented).
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* Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
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color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
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recognition of keypad and function keys.
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* An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
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windows with backing store, is included.
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* An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
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flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
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* An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
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through on-screen forms, is included.
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* Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
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implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
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SVr4 curses uses.
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* The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
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for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
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HP/UX and AIX ports.
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The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
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* The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
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curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
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level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
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EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
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support are implemented, including many function calls not
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supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
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documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
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* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
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corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
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capability.
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* Ada95 and C++ bindings.
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* Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2
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console windows.
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* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
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* The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
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their data.
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* The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
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default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
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transparent colors.
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* The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
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the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
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or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
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key code.
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* Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
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* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
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cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
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or System V's.
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* Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
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incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
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to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
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line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
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powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
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* Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
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screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
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magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
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beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
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It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
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would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
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visual appearance of the screen.
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* It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
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fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
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types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
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(this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
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must run in single-user mode).
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* The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
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to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
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sets.
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* A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
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* The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
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entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
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directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
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system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
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personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
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terminfo directory.
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* You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
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descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
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generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
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V.)
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* In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
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other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
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compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
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user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
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* A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
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from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
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environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
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converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
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$HOME/.terminfo.
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* Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
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when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
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neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
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to, but it's there.
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* The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
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exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
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* The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
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have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
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prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
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#undef.
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* An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
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provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
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interface.
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State of the Package
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Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
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is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
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`dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
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according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
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and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
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The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
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including (versions starting with those noted):
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cdk
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Curses Development Kit
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[3]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
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[4]http://dickey.his.com/cdk.
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ded
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directory-editor
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[5]http://dickey.his.com/ded.
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dialog
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the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
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basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
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[6]http://dickey.his.com/dialog.
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lynx
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the character-screen WWW browser
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[7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
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Midnight Commander 4.1
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file manager
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[8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
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mutt
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mail utility
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[9]http://www.mutt.org.
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ncftp
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file-transfer utility
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[10]http://www.ncftp.com.
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nvi
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New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
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later.
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[11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/.
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tin
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newsreader, supporting color, MIME
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[12]http://www.tin.org.
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taper
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tape archive utility
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[13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
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vh-1.6
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Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
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[14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
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as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
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minicom
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terminal emulator
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[15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
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vile
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vi-like-emacs
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[16]http://dickey.his.com/vile.
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The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
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(including a few games).
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Who's Who and What's What
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The original developers of ncurses are [17]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [18]Eric
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S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and
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[20]J<>rgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
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Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
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Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
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To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
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bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
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subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
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|
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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://dickey.his.com/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://dickey.his.com/ncurses
|
||
3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
|
||
4. http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html
|
||
5. http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html
|
||
6. http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html
|
||
7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
|
||
8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.2-20001021/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://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html
|
||
17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
|
||
18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
|
||
19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
|
||
20. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
|
||
21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
|
||
22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
|
||
23. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
|
||
24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
|
||
25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
|