| 1 | -- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.45 2005/08/20 20:53:04 tom Exp $
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| 2 |
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| 3 | SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
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| 4 |
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| 5 | Known Problems:
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| 6 |
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| 7 | + libtool does not work with GNAT.
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| 8 |
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| 9 | + The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
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| 10 | develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
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| 11 | lib_mvcur.c.
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| 12 |
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| 13 | + Magic cookie support does not work, since the logic does not take into
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| 14 | account refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not adjust the current
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| 15 | location when a cookie is emitted.
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| 16 |
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| 17 | + Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
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| 18 | screen between calls to refresh().
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| 19 |
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| 20 | + SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
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| 21 | For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
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| 22 | activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
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| 23 | displayed.
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| 24 |
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| 25 | + The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
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| 26 | specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
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| 27 | terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
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| 28 | point. This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
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| 29 |
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| 30 | + The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation. Some
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| 31 | C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
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| 32 |
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| 33 | + The resizeterm() function does not handle ripped-off lines such as that done
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| 34 | for the slk_XXX functions.
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| 35 |
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| 36 | Portability (or lack thereof):
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| 37 |
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| 38 | + Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
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| 39 | trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
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| 40 | termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
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| 41 | problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see this problem if you
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| 42 | are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
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| 43 | BSDI. For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
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| 44 | ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
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| 45 |
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| 46 | + In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
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| 47 | interface for handling variadic argument lists. Linux doesn't have
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| 48 | varargs.h, it has the newer X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So these
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| 49 | functions use stdargs instead. This is unlikely to be a problem unless
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| 50 | you're building ncurses on a System V old enough to only have varargs.h.
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| 51 | (Solaris 2.5.1 uses the stdarg.h binding as well).
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| 52 |
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| 53 | + If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
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| 54 | a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work. You lose. (It
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| 55 | should work on any System V, however). If you want to fix this, add an
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| 56 | implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
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| 57 |
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| 58 | + The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers, mainly with
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| 59 | configure script problems with vsscanf().
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| 60 |
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| 61 | + terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
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| 62 | utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the
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| 63 | groff package.
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| 64 |
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| 65 | Untested features:
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| 66 |
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| 67 | + The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
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| 68 |
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| 69 | + The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
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| 70 | for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
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| 71 | label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
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| 72 | lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
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| 73 |
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| 74 | LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
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| 75 |
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| 76 | 1. Extended COSE conformance
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| 77 |
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| 78 | There is an XPG4 standard recently released which describes a superset
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| 79 | of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
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| 80 | We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
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| 81 | supporting internationalization.
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| 82 |
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| 83 | 2. DOS port
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| 84 |
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| 85 | Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
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| 86 | It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
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| 87 | a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
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| 88 | port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
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| 89 | result of this would be a DOS port.
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| 90 |
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| 91 | 3. X port
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| 92 |
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| 93 | It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
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| 94 | maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
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| 95 | automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
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| 96 | properly.
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| 97 |
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| 98 | 4. Unused capabilities
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| 99 |
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| 100 | The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
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| 101 |
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| 102 | A. Status-line capabilities:
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| 103 |
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| 104 | Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
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| 105 | Numerics: width_status_line.
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| 106 | Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
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| 107 |
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| 108 | System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
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| 109 | any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
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| 110 | shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
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| 111 | decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
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| 112 | alone.
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| 113 |
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| 114 | B. Printer capabilities:
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| 115 |
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| 116 | Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
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| 117 | row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
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| 118 | lpi_changes_res.
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| 119 | Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
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| 120 | max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
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| 121 | micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
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| 122 | output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
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| 123 | wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
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| 124 | String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
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| 125 | set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
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| 126 | ... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
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| 127 |
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| 128 | Curses doesn't use these.
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| 129 |
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| 130 | C. Printer-control capabilities:
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| 131 |
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| 132 | Boolean: prtr_silent.
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| 133 | Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
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| 134 |
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| 135 | Curses doesn't use these.
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| 136 |
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| 137 | D. Dialer strings:
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| 138 |
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| 139 | Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
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| 140 | fixed_pause, wait_tone.
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| 141 |
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| 142 | Curses doesn't use these.
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| 143 |
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| 144 | E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
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| 145 |
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| 146 | Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
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| 147 | Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
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| 148 |
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| 149 | These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
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| 150 | window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
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| 151 | something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
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| 152 |
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| 153 | F. Unused VDT capabilities:
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| 154 |
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| 155 | Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
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| 156 | move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
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| 157 | needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
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| 158 | Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
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| 159 | Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
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| 160 | enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
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| 161 | display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
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| 162 | enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
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| 163 | scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
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| 164 |
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| 165 | These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
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| 166 |
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| 167 | i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
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| 168 | insert_mode is on.
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| 169 |
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| 170 | ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
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| 171 | Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.
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