[486] in linux-announce channel archive
ncurses 1.9.0 released
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lars Wirzenius)
Sat Apr 22 13:47:20 1995
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 1995 18:07:40 +0300
From: Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi, linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu
X-Mn-Key: announce
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
From: zmbenhal@netcom.com (Zeyd M. Ben-Halim)
Subject: ncurses 1.9.0 released
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Keywords: ncurses, terminals, video, user interface, full screen
Approved: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
Followup-to: comp.os.linux.development.apps
===============================================================================
ANNOUNCING NCURSES 1.9
===============================================================================
The ncurses library is a freeware emulation of System V Release 4.0 curses.
It uses terminfo format, supports color and multiple highlights and forms
characters, and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
enhancements over BSD curses.
The ncurses code was developed under Linux. It is highly portable, and
runs on all of the following platforms: 386BSD, SunOS, HP-UX, Ultrix,
NeXTSTEP 3.0, System V Release 4, BSDI BSD/OS, Apollo, AIX 3.2.5, Solaris
2.3, NeXTSTEP 3.2. It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX.
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), and a
termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
the library and tools.
The ncurses distribution is available at:
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses
FEATURES OF NCURSES
* 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.
* 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).
* 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 BSD curses quickch() routine.
* (PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM characters
through a new highlight, A_PCCHARSET. Also, ncurses will now
automatically load a nice set of forms characters when running on
PC-compatible consoles with no acsc capability specified.
* Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
for systems withould 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.
* An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document.
STATE OF THE PACKAGE
Numerous bugs present in earlier versions through 1.8.7 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 games and utilities,
including:
lynx-2.3.7 -- the character-screen WWW browser
bs-2.0 -- Battleships game with proper visual interface
greed-3.1 -- the game of Greed
nolan-1.1 -- the World's Smallest Political Quiz
vh-1.6 -- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
blue -- Blue Moon solitare game
u386mon -- System performance monitor for SVr4
nvi -- New vi alpha version 1.1.34
The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs.
WHO'S WHO AND WHAT'S WHAT
The primary maintainer of ncurses is Zeyd ben-Halim <zmbenhal@netcom.com>.
Unfortunately, he can only work on the package part time. As a result, since
1.8.1, much of the enhancement work and all the documentation has been done by
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>. However, requests for beta updates
and other queries should properly be directed to Zeyd.
There is an ncurses mailing list. It is a listserv list; to join, write
to listserv@netcom.com with a message containing the line
subscribe ncurses-list <name>@<host.domain>
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
testing of this package.
WHITHER BSD CURSES?
Keith Bostic, the maintainer of BSD curses, has undertaken that if ncurses
proves stable and usable with nvi, he will switch to ncurses for the nvi (new
vi) distribution and pronounce BSD curses officially dead.
It is therefore probable that the next re-packaging of 4.4BSD curses
will, in fact, use ncurses.
BSDI has said that they will cut over to ncurses if and when Keith gives the
word. Where BSDI goes, freeBSD and netBSD are likely to follow.
RELATED RESOURCES
This distribution now includes (and uses) a copy of the master terminfo
database maintained by Eric Raymond. This database (which is the
official descendant of the 4.4BSD termcap file) changes faster than this
code does, so you probably want to pick up new copies occasionally.
You can surf to a WWW page that carries the current terminfo master file,
and news about ncurses, at
http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html
===============================================================================
--
---
Zeyd M. Ben-Halim zmbenhal@netcom.com
NCURSES is available from ftp.netcom.com:pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses
Current version is 1.8.6
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