announce.html

ncurses 库 可能有用酒用 没用就算了 我觉得还可以用

                cross-compiling from a separate directory tree.

            </ul>

          </ul>

        <li>library:
          <ul>

            <li>add ifdef's for _LP64 in curses.h to avoid using wasteful
                64-bits for chtype and mmask_t, but add configure option
                --disable-lp64 in case anyone used that configuration.

            <li>modify C++ binding to use some C internal functions to make it
                compile properly on Solaris (and other platforms).

            <li>remove check in newwin() that prevents allocating windows that
                extend beyond the screen (Solaris does this).

            <li>check for <code>nl_langinfo(CODESET)</code>, use it if available.
	        This replaces ad hoc tests of environment variables to
		check if the terminal is setup for UTF-8 encoding.
		Applications which do not call <code>setlocale()</code>
		should be corrected, to make them work properly with
		UTF-8 encoding.
		<br>
		<strong>In particular, applications which assume (and
		do not call <code>setlocale()</code>) that
		Latin-1 codes are printable will no longer work in
		a UTF-8 locale since the ad hoc check of environment
		variables to see if the locale was UTF-8 is not used
		when <code>nl_langinfo(CODESET)</code> is available.</strong>

            <li>use setlocale() to query the program's current locale rather
                than using getenv().  This supports applications which rely
                upon legacy treatment of 8-bit characters when the locale is
                not initialized.

          </ul>
</ul>

<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>

The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:

<UL>
<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
and function keys.
<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL>

The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:

<UL>
<LI>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).
<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows.
<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to
use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
achieving the effect of transparent colors.
<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE>
and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> 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.
<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization.  The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
or System V's.
<LI>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.
<LI>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.
<LI>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).
<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
AT&amp;T extension sets.
<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
<LI>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.
<LI>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.)
<LI>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.
<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) 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.
<LI>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.
<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
<LI>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
<CODE>#undef</CODE>.
<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
</UL>

<H1>State of the Package</H1>

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.<P>

The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
including (versions starting with those noted):
<DL>
<DT> cdk
<DD> Curses Development Kit
<br>
<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/cdk/">http://invisible-island.net/cdk/</A>
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/">http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/</a>
<DT> ded
<DD> directory-editor
<br>
<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/ded/">http://invisible-island.net/ded/</A>
<DT> dialog
<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
<br>
<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/dialog/">http://invisible-island.net/dialog/</A>
<DT> lynx
<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
<br>
<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release/</A>
<DT> Midnight Commander
<DD> file manager
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/</A>
<DT> mutt
<DD> mail utility
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</A>
<DT> ncftp
<DD> file-transfer utility
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com/">http://www.ncftp.com/</A>
<DT> nvi
<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>
<br>
<DT> pinfo
<DD> Lynx-like info browser.
<A HREF="http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/">http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/</A>
<DT> tin
<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
<A HREF="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</A>
<DT> vh-1.6
<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>
</DL>
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
<DL>
<DT> minicom
<DD> terminal emulator
<br>
<A HREF="http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>
<DT> vile
<DD> vi-like-emacs
<br>
<A HREF="http://invisible-island.net/vile/">http://invisible-island.net/vile/</A>
</DL>
<P>

The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
a few games).

<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>

Zeyd Ben-Halim
started it from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis.
Eric S. Raymond
continued development.
J&uuml;rgen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
Ongoing work is being done by
<A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">Thomas Dickey</A>.
Thomas Dickey
acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation,
which holds the copyright on ncurses.
Contact the current maintainers at
<A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail]</A>.
<P>

To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
<CODE>[e-mail]</CODE> containing the line:
<PRE>
             subscribe &lt;name&gt;@&lt;host.domain&gt;
</PRE>

This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
testing of this package.<P>

Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
<A HREF="ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/</A>&nbsp;.

<H2>Future Plans</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
</UL>
We need people to help with these projects.  If you are interested in working
on them, please join the ncurses list.

<H2>Other Related Resources</H2>

The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
terminal description file maintained by
<A HREF="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric Raymond</A>&nbsp;.
Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided
in the same file.<P>

You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
not covered in the terminfo file at
<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
archive</A>&nbsp;.
</BODY>
</HTML>
<!--
# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
# Local Variables:
# mode:html
# case-fold-search:nil
# fill-column:70
# End:
-->