announce

ncurses-5.4

                            Announcing ncurses 5.4

   The  ncurses  (new  curses)  library  is  a free software emulation of
   curses  in  System  V  Release 4.0, and more. 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 GNU/Linux. It has been in use for
   some  time  with  OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD
   and  NetBSD  as  an  external  package.  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://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
   It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .

                                 Release Notes

   This  release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and
   5.3;  very  few  applications will require recompilation, depending on
   the  platform.  These  are  the  highlights  from the change-log since
   ncurses 5.3 release.

   Interface changes:
     * add  the  remaining  functions  for  X/Open  curses wide-character
       support.
          + pecho_wchar()
          + slk_wset()
       These  are  only  available if the library is configured using the
       --enable-widec option.
     * write  getyx()  and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
       getcurx(), etc.
     * simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
     * modify  ifdef's  in  curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__()
       for  g++,  since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses
       uses.
     * add  key_defined()  function,  to  tell  which keycode a string is
       bound to.

   New features and improvements:
     * library
          + implement  logic  in  lib_mouse.c  to handle position reports
            which  are  generated  when XFree86 xterm is initialized with
            private  modes  1002  or  1003.  These  are  returned  to the
            application  as the REPORT_MOUSE_POSITION mask, which was not
            implemented.
          + modify soft-key initialization to use A_REVERSE if A_STANDOUT
            would  not  be  shown when colors are used, i.e., if ncv#1 is
            set in the terminfo as is done in "screen".
          + add  configure  option for FreeBSD sysmouse, --with-sysmouse,
            and implement library support for that.
     * programs:
          + tack:
               o allow it to run from fallback terminfo data.
               o reset  colors  after  each  color  test, correct a place
                 where    exit_standout_mode    was   used   instead   of
                 exit_attribute_mode.
               o improve  bce  test  by  making  it set colors other than
                 black on white.
          + tic:
               o handle  a  case  where  an entry has no description, and
                 capabilities begin on the same line as the entry name.
               o allow a terminfo entry with a leading 2-character name.
               o improved  warnings  when  suppressing  items  to  fit in
                 termcap's 1023-byte limit.
               o add check for multiple "tc=" clauses in a termcap.
               o correct logic for resolving "use=" clauses allow infocmp
                 and tic to show cancelled capabilities.
               o check for incomplete line-drawing character mapping.
               o check for missing/empty/illegal terminfo name.
          + tput:
               o modify  tput  to  use  the  same  parameter  analysis as
                 tparm() does, to provide for user-defined strings, e.g.,
                 for  xterm  title,  a  corresponding capability might be
                 title=\E]2;%p1%s^G,
          + tset:
               o use  the  system's  default  values  for CKILL and other
                 default control characters.
               o correct  interchanged  defaults  for  kill and interrupt
                 characters, which caused it to report unnecessarily.

   Major bug fixes:
     * prevent  recursion  in  wgetch()  via wgetnstr() if the connection
       cannot  be  switched  between cooked/raw modes because it is not a
       TTY.
     * correct  a  case  in _nc_remove_string(), used by define_key(), to
       avoid  infinite loop if the given string happens to be a substring
       of other strings which are assigned to keys.
     * modify  logic  of acsc to use the original character if no mapping
       is defined, rather than a null.
     * several  improvements  for  handling  multi-cell  display  of wide
       characters.
          + modify  setcchar()  to allow converting control characters to
            complex characters.
          + correct  handling of multibyte characters in waddch_literal()
            which force wrapping because they are started too late on the
            line.
          + modify  setcchar()  to  allow  for wchar_t input strings that
            have more than one spacing character.
     * other fixes for wide-character support:
          + rewrote  lib_acs.c  to  allow  PutAttrChar() to decide how to
            render alternate-characters, i.e., to work with Linux console
            and UTF-8 locale.
          + implement  a  workaround  so  that  line-drawing  works  with
            screen's  crippled  UTF-8  support (tested with 3.9.13). This
            only  works with the wide-character support (--enable-widec);
            the  normal  library  will  simply suppress line-drawing when
            running in a UTF-8 locale in screen.
          + corrections to lib_get_wstr.c:
               o null-terminate   buffer   passed  to  setcchar(),  which
                 occasionally failed.
               o map    special    characters    such   as   erase-   and
                 kill-characters  into  key-codes  so  those will work as
                 expected even if they are not mentioned in the terminfo.
     * modify  setupterm()  to  check  if the terminfo and terminal-modes
       have  already  been  read.  This ensures that it does not reinvoke
       def_prog_mode()  when an application calls more than one function,
       such as tgetent() and initscr().
     * fix    form_driver()    cases    for   REQ_CLR_EOF,   REQ_CLR_EOL,
       REQ_DEL_CHAR,  REQ_DEL_PREV and REQ_NEW_LINE, which did not ensure
       the   cursor   was   at   the   editing   position  before  making
       modifications.
     * correct keybound(), which reported definitions in the wrong table,
       i.e., the list of definitions which are disabled by keyok().
     * fixes related to safe_sprintf.c:
          + correct  an  allocation  size  in  safe_sprintf.c for the "*"
            format code.
          + correct  safe_sprintf.c  to  not return a null pointer if the
            format happens to be an empty string.
          + make   return   value  from  _nc_printf_string()  consistent.
            Before,  depending on whether --enable-safe-sprintf was used,
            it might not be cached for reallocating.
     * other low-level improvements to the optimization code include:
          + if  the  output  is  a  socket or other non-tty device, use 1
            millisecond  for  the  cost  in  mvcur;  previously  it was 9
            milliseconds because the baudrate was not known.
          + modify lib_getch.c to avoid recursion via wgetnstr() when the
            input is not a tty and consequently mode-changes do not work.
          + fix  several  places  in tack/pad.c which tested and used the
            parameter- and parameterless strings inconsistently.
          + change several tputs() calls in scrolling code to use putp(),
            to enable padding which may be needed for some terminals.
          + improve  mvcur() by checking if it is safe to move when video
            attributes   are   set  (msgr),  and  if  not,  reset/restore
            attributes   within   that  function  rather  than  doing  it
            separately in the GoTo() function in tty_update.c.
          + use tputs() rather than putp() in a few cases in tty_update.c
            since the corresponding delays are proportional to the number
            of       lines      affected:      repeat_char,      clr_eos,
            change_scroll_region.
     * correct  line/column  reference in adjust_window(), needed to make
       special windows such as curscr track properly when resizing.
     * fix a potential recursion between napms() and _nc_timed_wait()
     * rewrote lib_insch.c, combining it with lib_insstr.c so both handle
       tab and other control characters consistently.
     * do  not  try  to open gpm mouse driver if standard output is not a
       tty; the gpm library does not make this check.

   Portability:
     * configure script:
          + new options:

              --with-abi-version option.
                      addresses  platforms  where packagers have diverged
                      from ncurses ABI numbering.

              --with-manpage-format=catonly
                      addresses   behavior  of  BSDI,  allow  install  of
                      man+cat   files   on  NetBSD,  whose  behavior  has
                      diverged by requiring both to be present.

              --with-manpage-aliases
                      extends  "--with-manpage-aliases"  to  provide  the
                      option   of  generating  ".so"  files  rather  than
                      symbolic links for manpage aliases.

              --with-rel-version
                      workaround  to force libtool on Darwin generate the
                      "same"  library  names  as with the "--with-shared"
                      option.  The  Darwin  ld program does not work well
                      with a zero as the minor-version value.

              --with-trace
                      simplifies defining TRACE to incorporate trace() in
                      libraries.

          + fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
               o allow BUILD_CC and related configure script variables to
                 be overridden from the environment.
               o use AC_CHECK_TOOL to get proper values for AR and LD for
                 cross compiling.
               o use $cross_compiling variable in configure script rather
                 than  comparing  $host_alias  and  $target  alias, since
                 "host"  is traditionally misused in autoconf to refer to
                 the target platform.
               o modify  run_tic.in to avoid using wrong shared libraries
                 when cross-compiling.
          + fixes for Mac OS X:
               o fix  a  redefinition  of $RANLIB in the configure script
                 when libtool is used.
               o modify  MKlib_gen.sh to avoid passing "#" tokens through
                 the  C  preprocessor.  This  works  around  Mac  OS  X's
                 preprocessor,  which  insists  on adding a blank on each
                 side of the token.
          + workarounds for broken tools:
               o add configure check for wchar_t and wint_t types, rather
                 than  rely on preprocessor definitions. Also work around
                 for  gcc  fixinclude  bug which creates a shadow copy of
                 curses.h if it sees these symbols apparently typedef'd.
               o modify  configure  script  to omit -Winline for gcc 3.3,
                 since that feature is broken.
               o several script fixes to work around the ironically named
                 POSIXLY_CORRECT feature of GNU sed 4.0.
               o modify  configure script to avoid using "head -1", which
                 does not work if POSIXLY_CORRECT (sic) is set.
               o update    configure    script   to   reflect   fix   for
                 AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL,  which  is  broken  in autoconf
                 2.5x for Mac OS X 10.2.3.
               o repair  check  for missing C++ compiler, which is broken
                 in autoconf 2.5x by hardcoding it to g++.
          + corrected  ifdef's  relating  to configure check for wchar_t,
            etc.
          + remove configure script check to allow -Wconversion for older
            versions of gcc
          + modify  configure  script to accommodate libtool 1.5, as well
            as  add an parameter to the "--with-libtool" option which can
            specify the pathname of libtool.
          + change  several  sed  scripts to avoid using "\+" since it is
            not  a  BRE  (basic  regular expression). One instance caused
            terminfo.5 to be misformatted on FreeBSD.
          + use  '%'  as  sed  substitute  delimiter in run_tic script to
            avoid problems with pathname delimiters such as ':' and '@'.
          + add  -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=500  if  needed  when  configuring  with
            "--enable-widec", to get mbstate_t declaration on HPUX 11.11.
     * library: