| 1 | Announcing ncurses 5.5
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| 2 |
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| 3 | The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
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| 4 | curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
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| 5 | supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
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| 6 | and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
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| 7 | enhancements over BSD curses.
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| 8 |
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| 9 | In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
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| 10 | considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of Unix
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| 11 | releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses.
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| 12 |
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| 13 | The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for
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| 14 | some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD
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| 15 | and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any
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| 16 | ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!
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| 17 |
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| 18 | The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
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| 19 | a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
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| 20 | tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
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| 21 | manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
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| 22 |
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| 23 | The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
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| 24 | distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
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| 25 | It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
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| 26 |
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| 27 | Release Notes
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| 28 |
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| 29 | This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
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| 30 | through 5.4; very few applications will require recompilation,
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| 31 | depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
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| 32 | change-log since ncurses 5.4 release.
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| 33 |
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| 34 | Interface changes:
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| 35 | * terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
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| 36 | "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
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| 37 | * terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
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| 38 | still use ncurses 4.2).
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| 39 | * modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
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| 40 | initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
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| 41 | still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
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| 42 | compilers.
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| 43 | * modify parameter type in c++ binding for insch() and mvwinsch() to
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| 44 | be consistent with underlying ncurses library (was char, is
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| 45 | chtype).
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| 46 | * change NCursesWindow::err_handler() to a virtual function.
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| 47 | * form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
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| 48 | Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
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| 49 | FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw,
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| 50 | since that no longer points to an array of char. The
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| 51 | set_field_buffer() and field_buffer() functions translate to/from
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| 52 | the actual field data.
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| 53 | * add symbol to curses.h which can be used to suppress include of
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| 54 | stdbool.h, e.g.,
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| 55 | #define NCURSES_ENABLE_STDBOOL_H 0
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| 56 | #include <curses.h>
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| 57 |
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| 58 | * change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure
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| 59 | that libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason
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| 60 | for this is that the corresponding data which belongs to the
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| 61 | upper-level ncurses library has a different size in each model.
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| 62 | * winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
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| 63 | wide-character configuration.
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| 64 | * assume_default_colors() no longer requires that
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| 65 | use_default_colors() be called first.
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| 66 | * data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
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| 67 | * slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
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| 68 | multicolumn characters.
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| 69 | * start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
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| 70 | start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
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| 71 | * pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if
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| 72 | it corresponds to the default-color.
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| 73 | * unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond to
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| 74 | an unsigned char.
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| 75 |
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| 76 | New features and improvements:
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| 77 | * library
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| 78 | + environment variable NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS supports
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| 79 | miscellaneous terminal emulators which ignore alternate
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| 80 | character set escape sequences when in UTF-8 mode.
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| 81 | + modify initialization of key lookup table so that if an
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| 82 | extended capability (tic -x) string is defined, and its name
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| 83 | begins with 'k', ncurses will automatically treat it as a
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| 84 | key.
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| 85 | + change GPM initialization, using dl library to load it
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| 86 | dynamically at runtime.
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| 87 | + form, menu and panel libraries support debug-tracing.
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| 88 | * add NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html by Pradeep Padala (see
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| 89 | http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/).
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| 90 | * programs:
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| 91 | * infocmp:
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| 92 | + The -i option now matches 8-bit controls against its table
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| 93 | entries, e.g., so it can analyze the xterm-8bit entry.
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| 94 | + add "-x" option to infocmp like tic's "-x", for use in "-F"
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| 95 | comparisons. This modifies infocmp to only report extended
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| 96 | capabilities if the -x option is given, making this more
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| 97 | consistent with tic. Some scripts may break, since infocmp
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| 98 | previous gave this information without an option.
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| 99 | * tic:
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| 100 | + modify termcap-parsing to retain 2-character aliases at the
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| 101 | beginning of an entry if the "-x" option is used in tic.
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| 102 | + filter out long extended names when translating to termcap
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| 103 | format. Only two characters are permissible for termcap
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| 104 | capability names.
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| 105 | + correct translation of "%%" in terminfo format to termcap,
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| 106 | e.g., using "tic -C".
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| 107 | + modify the "-c -v" options to ignore delays when comparing
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| 108 | strings. Also modify it to ignore a canceled sgr string,
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| 109 | e.g., for terminals which cannot properly combine attributes
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| 110 | in one control sequence.
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| 111 | + add a check for improperly ended strings, i.e., where a
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| 112 | following line begins in column 1.
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| 113 | + add a check in tic for terminfo entries having an sgr0 but no
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| 114 | sgr string. This confuses Tru64 and HPUX curses when combined
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| 115 | with color, e.g., making them leave line-drawing characters
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| 116 | in odd places.
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| 117 | + add check (with debug configuration) that provides about the
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| 118 | runtime changes that would be made to sgr0 for termcap
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| 119 | applications.
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| 120 | * tset:
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| 121 | + add -c and -w options to allow user to suppress ncurses'
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| 122 | resizing of the terminal emulator window in the special case
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| 123 | where it is not able to detect the true size.
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| 124 |
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| 125 | Major bug fixes:
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| 126 | * improve logic in tgetent() which adjusts the termcap "me" string
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| 127 | to work with ISO-2022 string used in xterm-new. This is a feature
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| 128 | that was incompletely implemented in ncurses 5.3. ncurses attempts
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| 129 | to provide termcap clients with the portion of the sgr0 (termcap
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| 130 | "me") string that does not reset line-drawing.
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| 131 | * cells in the WINDOW which are continuations of a multicolumn
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| 132 | character are encoded differently, making repainting more
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| 133 | reliable.
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| 134 | * amend change to setupterm() in ncurses 5.4 (20030405) which would
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| 135 | reuse the value of cur_term if the same output was selected. This
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| 136 | now reuses it only when setupterm() is called from tgetent(),
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| 137 | which has no notion of separate SCREENs. Note that tgetent() must
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| 138 | be called after initscr() or newterm() to use this feature.
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| 139 | * make setcchar() now works when its wchar_t* parameter is pointing
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| 140 | to a string which contains more data than can be converted.
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| 141 | * win_wchnstr() now works for more than one cell.
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| 142 | * resizeterm() now processes all levels of window hierarchy.
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| 143 | * disable GPM mouse support when $TERM happens to be prefixed with
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| 144 | "xterm". Gpm_Open() would otherwise assert that it can deal with
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| 145 | mouse events in this case.
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| 146 | * add SP->_screen_acs_map[], used to ensure that mapping of missing
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| 147 | line-drawing characters is handled properly. For example,
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| 148 | ACS_DARROW is absent from xterm-new, and it was coincidentally
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| 149 | displayed the same as ACS_BTEE.
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| 150 |
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| 151 | Portability:
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| 152 | * configure script:
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| 153 | + new options:
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| 154 |
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| 155 | --enable-largefile
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| 156 | set compiler and linker flags to use largefile
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| 157 | support.
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| 158 |
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| 159 | --enable-ext-colors
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| 160 | Allow encoding of 256 foreground and background
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| 161 | colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
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| 162 | xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6
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| 163 | because it changes the size of cchar_t.
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| 164 |
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| 165 | --enable-ext-mouse
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| 166 | This defines NCURSES_MOUSE_VERSION 2, and modifies
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| 167 | the encoding of mouse events to support wheel mice,
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| 168 | which may transmit buttons 4 and 5. This works with
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| 169 | xterm and similar terminal emulators. This requires
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| 170 | ABI 6 because it changes the encoding of mouse
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| 171 | events.
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| 172 |
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| 173 | --with-chtype
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| 174 | overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of chtype
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| 175 |
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| 176 | --with-mmask-t
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| 177 | overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of mmask_t
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| 178 |
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| 179 | --without-xterm-new
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| 180 | Installs "xterm-old" as the "xterm" entry of the
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| 181 | terminfo database.
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| 182 |
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| 183 | + The --with-termlib option now accepts a value which sets the
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| 184 | name of the terminfo library. This would allow a packager to
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| 185 | build libtinfow.so renamed to coincide with libtinfo.so
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| 186 | + fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
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| 187 | o suppress $suffix in misc/run_tic.sh when
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| 188 | cross-compiling. This allows cross-compiles to use the
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| 189 | host's tic program to handle the "make install.data"
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| 190 | step.
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| 191 | o correct BUILD_CPPFLAGS substitution in
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| 192 | ncurses/Makefile.in, to allow cross-compiling from a
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| 193 | separate directory tree.
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| 194 | * library:
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| 195 | + add ifdef's for _LP64 in curses.h to avoid using wasteful
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| 196 | 64-bits for chtype and mmask_t, but add configure option
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| 197 | --disable-lp64 in case anyone used that configuration.
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| 198 | + modify C++ binding to use some C internal functions to make
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| 199 | it compile properly on Solaris (and other platforms).
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| 200 | + remove check in newwin() that prevents allocating windows
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| 201 | that extend beyond the screen (Solaris does this).
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| 202 | + check for nl_langinfo(CODESET), use it if available. This
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| 203 | replaces ad hoc tests of environment variables to check if
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| 204 | the terminal is setup for UTF-8 encoding. Applications which
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| 205 | do not call setlocale() should be corrected, to make them
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| 206 | work properly with UTF-8 encoding.
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| 207 | In particular, applications which assume (and do not call
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| 208 | setlocale()) that Latin-1 codes are printable will no longer
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| 209 | work in a UTF-8 locale since the ad hoc check of environment
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| 210 | variables to see if the locale was UTF-8 is not used when
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| 211 | nl_langinfo(CODESET) is available.
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| 212 | + use setlocale() to query the program's current locale rather
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| 213 | than using getenv(). This supports applications which rely
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| 214 | upon legacy treatment of 8-bit characters when the locale is
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| 215 | not initialized.
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| 216 |
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| 217 | Features of Ncurses
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| 218 |
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| 219 | The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
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| 220 | curses:
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| 221 | * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
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| 222 | documented).
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| 223 | * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
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| 224 | color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
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| 225 | recognition of keypad and function keys.
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| 226 | * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
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| 227 | windows with backing store, is included.
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| 228 | * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
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| 229 | flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
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| 230 | * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
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| 231 | through on-screen forms, is included.
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| 232 | * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
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| 233 | implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
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| 234 | SVr4 curses uses.
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| 235 | * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
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| 236 | for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
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| 237 | HP/UX and AIX ports.
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| 238 |
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| 239 | The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
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| 240 | * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
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| 241 | curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
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| 242 | level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
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| 243 | EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
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| 244 | support are implemented, including many function calls not
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| 245 | supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
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| 246 | documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
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| 247 | * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
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| 248 | corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
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| 249 | capability.
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| 250 | * Ada95 and C++ bindings.
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| 251 | * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2
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| 252 | console windows.
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| 253 | * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
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| 254 | * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
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| 255 | their data.
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| 256 | * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
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| 257 | default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
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| 258 | transparent colors.
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| 259 | * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
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| 260 | the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
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| 261 | or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
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| 262 | key code.
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| 263 | * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
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| 264 | * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
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| 265 | cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
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| 266 | or System V's.
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| 267 | * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
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| 268 | incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
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| 269 | to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
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| 270 | line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
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| 271 | powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
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| 272 | * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
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| 273 | screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
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| 274 | magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
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| 275 | beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
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| 276 | It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
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| 277 | would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
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| 278 | visual appearance of the screen.
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| 279 | * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
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| 280 | fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
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| 281 | types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
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| 282 | (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
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| 283 | must run in single-user mode).
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| 284 | * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
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| 285 | to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
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| 286 | sets.
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| 287 | * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
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| 288 | * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
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| 289 | entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
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| 290 | directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
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| 291 | system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
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| 292 | personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
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| 293 | terminfo directory.
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| 294 | * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
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| 295 | descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
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| 296 | generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
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| 297 | V.)
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| 298 | * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
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| 299 | other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
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| 300 | compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
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| 301 | user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
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| 302 | * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
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| 303 | from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
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| 304 | environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
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| 305 | converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
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| 306 | $HOME/.terminfo.
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| 307 | * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
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| 308 | when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
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| 309 | neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
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| 310 | to, but it's there.
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| 311 | * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
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| 312 | exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
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| 313 | * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
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| 314 | have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
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| 315 | prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
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| 316 | #undef.
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| 317 | * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
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| 318 | provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
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| 319 | interface.
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| 320 |
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| 321 | State of the Package
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| 322 |
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| 323 | Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
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| 324 | is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
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| 325 | `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
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| 326 | according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
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| 327 | and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
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| 328 |
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| 329 | The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
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| 330 | including (versions starting with those noted):
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| 331 |
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| 332 | cdk
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| 333 | Curses Development Kit
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| 334 | [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
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| 335 | [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
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| 336 |
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| 337 | ded
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| 338 | directory-editor
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| 339 | [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
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| 340 |
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| 341 | dialog
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| 342 | the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
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| 343 | basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
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| 344 | [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
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| 345 |
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| 346 | lynx
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| 347 | the character-screen WWW browser
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| 348 | [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
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| 349 |
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| 350 | Midnight Commander
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| 351 | file manager
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| 352 | [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
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| 353 |
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| 354 | mutt
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| 355 | mail utility
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| 356 | [9]http://www.mutt.org/
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| 357 |
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| 358 | ncftp
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| 359 | file-transfer utility
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| 360 | [10]http://www.ncftp.com/
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| 361 |
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| 362 | nvi
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| 363 | New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
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| 364 | later.
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| 365 | [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
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| 366 |
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| 367 | pinfo
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| 368 | Lynx-like info browser.
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| 369 | [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
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| 370 |
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| 371 | tin
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| 372 | newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/
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| 373 |
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| 374 | vh-1.6
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| 375 | Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
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| 376 | [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
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| 377 |
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| 378 | as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
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| 379 |
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| 380 | minicom
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| 381 | terminal emulator
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| 382 | [15]http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
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| 383 |
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| 384 | vile
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| 385 | vi-like-emacs
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| 386 | [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile/
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| 387 |
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| 388 | The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
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| 389 | (including a few games).
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| 390 |
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| 391 | Who's Who and What's What
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| 392 |
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| 393 | Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
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| 394 | Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer
|
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| 395 | wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done
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| 396 | by [17]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
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| 397 | Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
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| 398 | Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
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| 399 |
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| 400 | To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
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| 401 | bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
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|---|
| 402 | subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
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|---|
| 403 |
|
|---|
| 404 | This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
|
|---|
| 405 | and testing of this package.
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|---|
| 406 |
|
|---|
| 407 | Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
|
|---|
| 408 | available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
|
|---|
| 409 |
|
|---|
| 410 | Future Plans
|
|---|
| 411 |
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|---|
| 412 | * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
|
|---|
| 413 | support.
|
|---|
| 414 | * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
|
|---|
| 415 |
|
|---|
| 416 | We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
|
|---|
| 417 | working on them, please join the ncurses list.
|
|---|
| 418 |
|
|---|
| 419 | Other Related Resources
|
|---|
| 420 |
|
|---|
| 421 | The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
|
|---|
| 422 | terminal description file maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike the
|
|---|
| 423 | older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
|
|---|
| 424 | file.
|
|---|
| 425 |
|
|---|
| 426 | You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
|
|---|
| 427 | covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
|
|---|
| 428 |
|
|---|
| 429 | References
|
|---|
| 430 |
|
|---|
| 431 | 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
|
|---|
| 432 | 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
|
|---|
| 433 | 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
|
|---|
| 434 | 4. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
|
|---|
| 435 | 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
|
|---|
| 436 | 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
|
|---|
| 437 | 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
|
|---|
| 438 | 8. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
|
|---|
| 439 | 9. http://www.mutt.org/
|
|---|
| 440 | 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
|
|---|
| 441 | 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
|
|---|
| 442 | 12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
|
|---|
| 443 | 13. http://www.tin.org/
|
|---|
| 444 | 14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
|
|---|
| 445 | 15. http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
|
|---|
| 446 | 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
|
|---|
| 447 | 17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
|
|---|
| 448 | 18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
|
|---|
| 449 | 19. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
|
|---|
| 450 | 20. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
|
|---|
| 451 | 21. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
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|---|
