
                            Announcing ncurses 4.2
                                       
   The ncurses (new curses) library is a freeware emulation of System V
   Release 4.0 curses. It uses terminfo format, supports pads and color
   and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
   and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.
   
   In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
   considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
   Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
   ncurses.
   
   The ncurses code was developed under Linux. It should port easily to
   any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!
   
   The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
   a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
   tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
   manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
   
   The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
   distribution site [1]ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu. It is also
   available at [2]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
   
                              Features of ncurses
                                       
   The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
   curses:
   
     * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
       documented).
     * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
       color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
       recognition of keypad and function keys.
     * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
       windows with backing store, is included.
     * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
       flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
     * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
       through on-screen forms, is included.
     * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
       implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
       SVr4 curses uses.
     * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
       for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
       HP/UX and AIX ports.
       
   The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
   
     * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
       curses specification, XSI Curses (that is, it implements all BASE
       level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
       EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
       support are implemented, including many function calls not
       supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
       documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
     * Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
       corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
       capability.
     * (PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM
       characters 0-32 through the highlight A_ALTCHARSET.
     * Ada95 and C++ bindings.
     * Support for mouse event reporting under xterm.
     * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
     * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
       their data.
     * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
       default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
       transparent colors.
     * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
       the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
       or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
       key code.
     * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
     * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
       cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
       or System V's.
     * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
       incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
       to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
       line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
       powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
     * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
       screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
       magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
       beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
       It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
       would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
       visual appearance of the screen.
     * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
       fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
       types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
       (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
       must run in single-user mode).
     * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
       to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
       sets.
     * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
     * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
       entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
       directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
       system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
       personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
       terminfo directory.
     * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
       descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
       generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
       V.)
     * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
       other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
       compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
       user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
     * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
       from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
       environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
       converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
       $HOME/.terminfo.
     * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
       when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
       neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
       to, but it's there.
     * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
       exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
     * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
       have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
       prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
       #undef.
     * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
       provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
       interface.
       
                             State of the Package
                                       
   Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
   is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
   `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
   according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
   and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
   
   The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
   including:
   
   ded
          directory-editor [3]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded.
          
   dialog
          the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
          basis for similar applications on Linux.
          
   lynx-2.7
          the character-screen WWW browser
          
   Midnight Commander 4.1
          file manager
          
   mutt 0.88
          mail utility
          
   ncftp 2.0
          file-transfer utility
          
   nvi
          New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
          later.
          
   taper
          tape archive utility
          
   vh-1.6
          Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
          
   as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
   
   minicom-1.75
          terminal emulator
          
   tin-unoff
          tin 1.4 newsreader, supporting color, MIME
          [4]ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff.
          
   vile
          vi-like-emacs [5]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile.
          
   The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
   (including a few games).
   
Who's Who and What's What

   The original developers of ncurses are [6]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [7]Eric
   S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [8]Thomas Dickey and
   [9]Jürgen Pfeifer. [10]Florian La Roche acts as the maintainer for the
   Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
   Contact the current maintainers at [11]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
   
   To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
   bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
             subscribe <name>@<host.domain>

   This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
   and testing of this package.
   
   Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
   available at [12]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/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.
   [13]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
   
   You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
   covered in the terminfo file at [14]Richard Shuford's archive.

References

   1. ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu
   2. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
   3. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded
   4. ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff
   5. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile
   6. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
   7. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
   8. mailto:dickey@clark.net
   9. mailto:Juergen.Pfeifer@T-Online.de
  10. mailto:florian@gnu.org
  11. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
  12. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
  13. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
  14. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
