githubmirror/ncurses

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2 959 строк97 KB
Thomas E. Dickey
ncurses 6.1 - patch 20180127
28 янв 2018, 04:02
28 янв 2018, 04:02d66080c
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  <title>Announcing ncurses 6.1</title>
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<body>
  <h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses 6.1</h1>

  <h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>

  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
  library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
  Release 4.0 (SVr4), 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 SVr4-curses
  enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
  X/Open Curses.</p>

  <p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
  that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
  keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
  BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
  "main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>

  <p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
  ported to many systems:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
    (aside from some embedded applications).</li>

    <li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
    and OSX.</li>

    <li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
    first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>

    <li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
    curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
    "main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
    Solaris, Tru64.</li>

    <li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
    <span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
  including</p>

  <ul>
    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
    captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion tool</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html"><span class="part-name">
    clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the screen</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
    infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html"><span class="part-name">
    tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
    tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
    toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo entries</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html"><span class="part-name">
    tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities
    in shell scripts</li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><span class="part-name">
    tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
  </ul>

  <p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>

  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
  available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">homepage</a>:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <p><a href=
    "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
    or<br>
    <a href=
    "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
  </blockquote>

  <p>It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution
  site</p>

  <blockquote>
    <p><a href=
    "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
  </blockquote>

  <h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
  Notes</a></h2>

  <p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
  6.1, released <strong>January 27, 2018</strong>.</p>

  <p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.0; providing
  extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
  the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
  "main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the intent of the release is to
  provide extensions to the <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
  <strong>6</strong> ABI:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>improve integration of <span class="part-name">tput</span>
      and <span class="part-name">tset</span></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>provide support for extended numeric capabilities.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
  this announcement.</p>

  <p>The release notes also mention some bug-fixes, but are focused
  on new features and improvements to existing features since
  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 6.0 release.</p>

  <h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library
  improvements</a></h3>

  <h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New
  features</a></h4>

  <p>The improved integration of <span class=
  "part-name">tput</span> and <span class="part-name">tset</span>
  made only small changes to the libraries. However, supporting
  extended numeric capabilities required a few changes:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>The <code>TERMINAL</code> structure in
      <code>&lt;term.h&gt;</code> is now opaque. Doing that allowed
      making the structure larger, to hold the extended numeric
      data.</p>

      <p>A few applications required changes during development of
      <span class="main-name">ncurses&nbsp;6.1</span> because those
      applications misused the members of that structure, e.g.,
      directly modifying it rather than using <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-def_prog_mode_-def_shell_mode">
      def_prog_mode</a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Having made <code>TERMINAL</code> opaque (and because none
      of the library functions use anything except a pointer to
      <code>TERMINAL</code>), it was possible to increase the size
      of the structure, adding to the end.</p>

      <p>Existing applications which were linked to the
      <span class="part-name">ncurses&nbsp;6.0</span> high-level
      (<em>ncurses</em>, <em>ncursesw</em>) and low-level
      (<em>tinfo</em>, <em>tinfo</em>) libraries should not require
      re-linking since the binary interface did not change, nor did
      the structure offsets with <code>TERMINAL</code> change.</p>

      <p>A few applications use the inner <code>TERMTYPE</code>
      structure's offsets to refer to terminfo capabilities within
      that structure. Again, those do not require modification
      because their offsets within <code>TERMINAL</code> did not
      change.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>When configured for wide-characters, i.e.,
      &ldquo;ncursesw&rdquo; the <code>TERMINAL</code> structure is
      extended.</p>

      <p>The new data in <code>TERMINAL</code> holds the same
      information as <code>TERMTYPE</code>, but with larger numbers
      (&ldquo;int&rdquo; versus &ldquo;short&rdquo;). It is named
      <code>TERMTYPE2</code>.</p>

      <p>The library uses this structure internally in preference
      to <code>TERMTYPE</code>, referring to <code>TERMTYPE</code>
      only to initialize it for applications that use the
      capabilities defined in <code>&lt;term.h&gt;</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>When configured for 8-bit (narrow) characters, the
      <code>TERMTYPE2</code> structure is not used.</p>
    </li>

    <li>The updated application binary interface is 6.1.20171230
    (used for new <a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">versioned
    symbols</a>), although the interface changes were developed
    several months previously.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>The motivation for making this extension came from noticing
  that <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html#bsd42-numeric-caps">
  termcap applications</a> could (though not <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-slang.html#cause_numbers">
  realistically</a>) use larger numbers than would fit in 16-bits,
  and the fact that the number of color pairs for a 256-color xterm
  could not be expressed in terminfo (i.e., 32767 versus 65536).
  Also, a few terminals support direct-colors, which could use the
  extension.</p>

  <p>Generally speaking, applications that use internal details of
  a library are unsupported. There was exactly one exception for
  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>: the <span class=
  "main-name">tack</span> program <em>used</em> the internal
  details of <code>TERMINAL</code>, because it provides an
  ncurses-specific feature for interactively modifying a terminfo
  description and writing the updated description to a text-file.
  It was possible to not only separate <span class=
  "main-name">tack</span> from these <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html#portable">internal
  details of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a>, but to
  generalize it so that the program works with Unix curses
  (omitting the ncurses-specific feature). That was released as
  <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack/CHANGES.html#index-t20170726">
  <span class="main-name">tack</span>&nbsp;1.08</a> in July
  2017.</p>

  <p>While making changes to <span class="main-name">tack</span> to
  eliminate its dependency upon <span class=
  "main-name">ncurses</span> internals, the publicly-visible
  details of those internals were reviewed, and some symbols were
  moved to private header files, while others were marked
  explicitly as <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> internals.
  Future releases of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> may
  eliminate some of those symbols (such as those used by
  <span class="main-name">tack</span>&nbsp;1.07) because they are
  neither part of the API or the ABI.</p>

  <p>Using the <code>TERMTYPE2</code> extended numeric
  capabilities, it is possible to support both color pair values
  and color values past 32767. Taking compatibility into account,
  developers readily understand that neither function signatures
  nor structure offsets change. Also, existing functions have to
  operate with the extended numbers. Most of that work is internal
  to the library. For the external interfaces, a hybrid approach
  was used:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>X/Open Curses defined function prototypes such as
      <code>wattr_set</code> with an unused parameter, for
      &ldquo;future&rdquo; use. After 25 years, the future is here:
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> uses the parameter to
      augment color pair values as described in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-EXTENSIONS">
      manual page</a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Other functions such as those defining color pairs did not
      have a corresponding <em>reserved</em> parameter. For those,
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> defines extended
      versions such as <code>init_extended_pair</code> (versus
      <code>init_pair</code>), <code>init_extended_color</code>
      (versus <code>init_color</code>).</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
  extensions) are provided in this release:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>Several new functions simplify management of large sets of
      color pairs: <code>reset_color_pairs</code>,
      <code>alloc_pair</code>, <code>find_pair</code> and
      <code>free_pair</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>New "RGB" extension capability for direct-color support is
      used to improve performance of
      <code>color_content</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The internal <code>colorpair_t</code> is now a struct,
      eliminating an internal 8-bit limit on colors</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Allocation for <code>SCREEN</code>'s color-pair table
      starts small, grows on demand up to the limit given in the
      terminal description.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p><code>setcchar</code> and <code>getcchar</code> now treat
      a negative color-pair as an error.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
  improvements</a></h4>

  <p>These are new or revised features:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify <code>c++/etip.h.in</code> to accommodate
      deprecation of throw and throws in c++17</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add new function <code>unfocus_current_field</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add option to preserve leading whitespace in form
      fields</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add a macro for <code>is_linetouched</code> and adjust the
      function's return value to make it possible for most
      applications to check for an error-return.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add build-time utility <code>report_offsets</code> to help
      show when the various configurations of tinfo library are
      compatible or not.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>drop two symbols obsoleted in 2004:
      <code>_nc_check_termtype</code>, and
      <code>_nc_resolve_uses</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>move <code>_nc_tracebits</code>, <code>_tracedump</code>
      and <code>_tracemouse</code> to <code>curses.priv.h</code>,
      since they are not part of the suggested ABI6.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>mark some structs in form/menu/panel libraries as
      potentially opaque without modifying API/ABI.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>ifdef'd header-file definition of <code>mouse_trafo</code>
      with <code>NCURSES_NOMACROS</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>remove initialization-check for calling <code>napms</code>
      in the term-driver configuration; none is needed.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>trace</code> to avoid overwriting existing
      file</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify <code>make_hash</code> to allow building with
      address-sanitizer, assuming that <code>--disable-leaks</code>
      is configured.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>move <code>SCREEN</code> field for <code>use_tioctl</code>
      data before the ncursesw fields, and limit that to the
      sp-funcs configuration to improve termlib compatibility</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify db-iterator:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>ignore zero-length files in db-iterator; these are
          useful for instance to suppress
          <code>$HOME/.terminfo</code> when not wanted.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>modify <code>update_getenv</code> to ensure that
          environment variables which are not initially set will be
          checked later if an application happens to set them</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>_nc_outc_wrapper</code> to use the standard
      output if the screen was not initialized, rather than
      returning an error.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve checks for low-level terminfo functions when the
      terminal has not been initialized.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>set_curterm</code> to update
      <code>ttytype[]</code> data used by longname/p&gt;</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>_nc_get_screensize</code> to allow for
      <code>use_env</code> and <code>use_tioctl</code> state to be
      per-screen when sp-funcs are configured, better matching the
      behavior when using the term-driver configuration.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>remove an early-return from <code>_nc_do_color,</code>
      which can interfere with data needed by <code>bkgd</code>
      when <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> is configured
      with extended colors</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>incorporate <code>A_COLOR</code> mask into
      <code>COLOR_PAIR</code>, in case user application provides an
      out-of-range pair number</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify logic for <code>endwin</code>-state to be able to
      detect the case where the screen was never initialized, using
      that to trigger a flush of <span class=
      "main-name">ncurses'</span> buffer for <code>mvcur</code>,
      e.g., in the sample program <span class=
      "part-name">dots_mvcur</span> for the term-driver
      configuration.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>fixes for writing extended color pairs in
      <code>putwin</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify no-leaks code for <code>lib_cur_term.c</code> to
      account for the <code>tgetent</code> cache.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>amend handling of the <code>repeat_char</code> capability
      in <code>EmitRange</code> to avoid scope creep: translate the
      character to the alternate character set when the alternate
      character set is enabled, and do not use
      <code>repeat_char</code> for characters past 255.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve wide-character implementation of
      <code>myADDNSTR</code> in <code>frm_driver.c</code>, which
      was inconsistent with the normal implementation.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>winnstr</code> and <code>winchnstr</code> to
      return error if the output pointer is null, as well as adding
      a null pointer check of the window pointer for better
      compatibility with other implementations.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>setupterm</code> to save original tty-modes
      so that <code>erasechar</code> works as expected. Also modify
      <code>_nc_setupscreen</code> to avoid redundant calls to get
      original tty-modes.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>wattr_set</code> and <code>wattr_get</code>
      to return <code>ERR</code> if <em>win</em>-parameter is null,
      as documented.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct order of initialization for traces in
      <code>use_env</code> and <code>use_tioctl</code> versus first
      <code>_tracef</code> calls.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct parameters for <code>copywin</code> call in
      <code>_nc_Synchronize_Attributes</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>flush the standard output in <code>_nc_flush</code> for
      the case where <code>SP</code> is zero, e.g., when called via
      <code>putp</code>. This fixes a scenario where
      &ldquo;tput&nbsp;flash&rdquo; did not work after changes in
      20130112.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>amend internal use of <code>tputs</code> to consistently
      use the number of lines affected, e.g., for insert/delete
      character operations. While merging terminfo source early in
      1995, several descriptions used the
      &ldquo;<code>*</code>&rdquo; proportional delay for these
      operations, prompting a change in <code>doupdate</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct return-value of extended <code>putwin</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>double-width multibyte characters were not counted
      properly in <code>winsnstr</code> and
      <code>wins_nwstr</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>amend fix for <code>_nc_ripoffline</code> from 20091031 to
      make <code>test/ditto.c</code> work in threaded
      configuration.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>_nc_viscbuf2</code> and
      <code>_tracecchar_t2</code> to trace wide-characters as a
      whole rather than their multibyte equivalents.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>minor fix in <code>wadd_wchnstr</code> to ensure that each
      cell has nonzero width.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>move <code>PUTC_INIT</code> calls next to
      <code>wcrtomb</code> calls, to avoid carry-over of error
      status when processing Unicode values which are not
      mapped.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add missing assignment in <code>lib_getch.c</code> to make
      <code>notimeout</code> work</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
  improvements</a></h3>

  <p>While reviewing user feedback, it became apparent that the
  differences between <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html#h3-reset---reinitialization">
  <span class="part-name">reset</span></a> (an alias for
  <span class="part-name">tset</span>) and &ldquo;<span class=
  "part-name">tput reset</span>&rdquo; were confusing:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>one (<a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html">tset</a>)
    updated the terminal modes, but used only part of the terminfo
    capabilities for initialization, while</li>

    <li>the other (<a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html"><span class="part-name">tput</span></a>)
    used all of the terminal capabilities while neglecting the
    terminal modes.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>On further investigation, it turned out that the differences
  were largely an accident due to the way those programs had
  evolved.</p>

  <p>This release eliminates the unnecessary differences, using the
  same approach for <span class="part-name">tput</span>'s
  <em>init</em> (initialization), <em>reset</em> and <em>clear</em>
  operations as the separate <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html#h3-reset---reinitialization">
  reset</a> and <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html"><span class="part-name">
  clear</span></a> programs. Doing this does not change the
  command-line options; existing scripts are unaffected.</p>

  <p>These are the user-visible changes for the three programs
  (<span class="part-name">tput</span>, <span class=
  "part-name">tset</span> and <span class=
  "part-name">clear</span>):</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>add the terminal-mode parts of &ldquo;<span class=
      "part-name">reset</span>&rdquo; (aka <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span>) to the &ldquo;<code>tput
      reset</code>&rdquo; command, making the two almost the same
      except for window-size.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve <span class="part-name">tput</span>'s check for
      being called as &ldquo;init&rdquo; or &ldquo;reset&rdquo; to
      allow for transformed names.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add &ldquo;clear&rdquo; as a possible link/alias to
      <span class="part-name">tput</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>amend changes for <span class="part-name">tput</span> to
      reset tty modes to &ldquo;sane&rdquo; if the program is run
      as &ldquo;reset&rdquo;, like <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span>. Likewise, ensure that <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span> sends either reset- or
      init-strings.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <code>-x</code> option to <span class=
      "part-name">clear</span>/<span class="part-name">tput</span>
      to make the <code>E3</code> extension optional</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add functionality of
      &ldquo;<code>tset&nbsp;-w</code>&rdquo; to <span class=
      "part-name">tput</span>, like the
      &ldquo;<code>-c</code>&rdquo; feature this is not optional in
      <span class="part-name">tput</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add options <code>-T</code> and <code>-V</code> to
      <span class="part-name">clear</span> command for
      compatibility with <span class="part-name">tput</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>drop long-obsolete &ldquo;<code>-n</code>&rdquo; option
      from <span class="part-name">tset</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">tset</span>'s assignment to
      <code>TERM</code> in its output to reflect the name by which
      the terminal description is found, rather than the primary
      name. That was an unnecessary part from the initial
      conversion of <span class="part-name">tset</span> from
      termcap to terminfo. The termcap library in 4.3BSD did this
      to avoid using the short 2-character name</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>remove a restriction in <span class=
      "part-name">tput</span>'s support for termcap names which
      omitted capabilities normally not shown in termcap
      translations</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add usage message to <span class="part-name">clear</span>
      command</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve usage messages for <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span> and <span class=
      "part-name">tput</span>.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Other user-visible improvements and new features include:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">tic</span>/<span class=
      "part-name">infocmp</span> display of numeric values to use
      hexadecimal when they are "close" to a power of two, making
      the result more readable.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add &ldquo;<code>-W</code>&rdquo; option to <span class=
      "part-name">tic</span>/<span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
      to force long strings to wrap.</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>This is in addition to the
          &ldquo;<code>-w</code>&rdquo; option which attempts to
          fit capabilities into a given line-length.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>If &ldquo;<code>-f</code>&rdquo; option splits line,
          do not further split it with
          &ldquo;<code>-W</code>&rdquo;.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>Begin a new line when adding
          &ldquo;<code>use=</code>&rdquo; after a wrapped line.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add &ldquo;<code>-q</code>&rdquo; option to <span class=
      "part-name">infocmp</span> to suppress the
      &ldquo;<code>Reconstructed from</code>&rdquo; comment from
      the header, and a corresponding option to <span class=
      "part-name">tic</span> to suppress all comments from the
      &ldquo;<code>tic -I</code>&rdquo; output.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Sorted options in usage message for <span class=
      "part-name">infocmp</span>, to make it simpler to see unused
      letters.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Updated usage message for <span class=
      "part-name">tic</span>, adding &ldquo;<code>-0</code>&rdquo;
      option.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">infocmp</span>/<span class=
      "part-name">tic</span> &ldquo;<code>-Q</code>&rdquo; option,
      which allows one to dump the compiled form of the terminal
      entry, in hexadecimal or base64:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>A &ldquo;<code>b64:</code>&rdquo; prefix in the
        <code>TERMINFO</code> variable tells the terminfo reader to
        use base64 according to RFC-3548 as well as RFC-4648
        url/filename-safe format.</li>

        <li>A &ldquo;<code>hex:</code>&rdquo; prefix tells the
        terminfo reader to accept hexadecimal data as generated by
        &ldquo;<code>infocmp -0qQ1</code>&rdquo;.</li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Other less-visible improvements and new features include:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify utility headers such as <code>tic.h</code> to make
      it clearer which are externals that are used by <span class=
      "main-name">tack</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add &ldquo;<code>reset</code>&rdquo; to list of programs
      whose names might change in manpages due to
      program-transformation configure options.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify &ldquo;<code>-T</code>&rdquo; option of
      <span class="part-name">clear</span> and <span class=
      "part-name">tput</span> to call <code>use_tioctl</code> to
      obtain the operating system's notion of the screensize if
      possible.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add check in <span class="part-name">tput</span> for
      init/reset operands to ensure those use a terminal.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify programs <span class="part-name">clear</span>,
      <span class="part-name">tabs</span>, <span class=
      "part-name">tput</span> and <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span> to pass the actual tty file
      descriptor to setupterm rather than the standard output or
      error, making padding work.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>change <span class="part-name">tset</span>'s
      initialization to allow it to get settings from the standard
      input as well as <code>/dev/tty</code>, to be more effective
      when output or error are redirected.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>amend check in <span class="part-name">tput</span>,
      <span class="part-name">tabs</span> and <span class=
      "part-name">clear</span> to allow those to use the
      database-only features in <span class="part-name">cron</span>
      if a &ldquo;<code>-T</code>&rdquo; option gives a suitable
      terminal name.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve error message from <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span>/<span class="part-name">reset</span>
      when both stderr/stdout are redirected to a file or pipe.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Several of the less apparent features deal with translation of
  terminfo to termcap (and the reverse), with corresponding checks
  by <span class="part-name">tic</span>:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify check in <code>fmt_entry</code> to handle a
      cancelled reset string. Make similar fixes in other parts of
      <code>dump_entry.c</code> and <code>tput.c</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct read of terminfo entry in which all strings are
      absent or explicitly cancelled. Before this fix, the result
      was that all were treated as only absent.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">infocmp</span> to suppress
      mixture of absent/cancelled capabilities that would only show
      as &ldquo;<code>NULL, NULL</code>&rdquo;, unless the
      &ldquo;<code>-q</code>&rdquo; option is used, e.g., to show
      &ldquo;<code>-, @</code>&rdquo; or &ldquo;<code>@,
      -</code>&rdquo;.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct a warning from <span class="part-name">tic</span>
      about keys which are the same, to skip over missing/cancelled
      values.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add check in <span class="part-name">tic</span> for use of
      bold, etc., video attributes in the color capabilities,
      accounting whether the feature is listed in
      <code>ncv</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add check in <span class="part-name">tic</span> for
      unnecessary use of &ldquo;<code>2</code>&rdquo; to denote a
      shifted special key.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve check in <span class="part-name">tic</span> for
      delays by also warning about beep/flash when a delay is not
      embedded, or if those use the VT100 reverse video escape
      without using a delay.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve checks in <code>trim_sgr0</code>, comp_parse.c and
      parse_entry.c, for cancelled string capabilities.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add check in <span class="part-name">tic</span> for some
      syntax errors of delays, as well as use of proportional
      delays for non-line capabilities.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add check in <span class="part-name">tic</span> for
      conflict between <code>ritm</code>, <code>rmso</code>,
      <code>rmul</code> versus <code>sgr0</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add check in <code>_nc_parse_entry</code> for invalid
      entry name, setting the name to
      &ldquo;<code>invalid</code>&rdquo; to avoid problems storing
      entries.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve <code>_nc_tparm_analyze</code>, using that to
      extend the checks made by <span class="part-name">tic</span>
      for reporting inconsistencies between the expected number of
      parameters for a capability and the actual.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>remove <span class="part-name">tic</span> warning about
      &ldquo;<code>^?</code>&rdquo; in string capabilities, which
      was marked as an extension; however all Unix implementations
      support this and X/Open Curses does not address it. On the
      other hand, <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html#bsd42-ctl-question">
      BSD termcap</a> did not support this feature (until the
      <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html#freebsd-ctl-question">
      mid-1990s</a>).</p>

      <p>in <code>_nc_infotocap</code>, added a check to ensure
      that terminfo &ldquo;<code>^?</code>&rdquo; is not written to
      termcap.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>sscanf</code> calls in
      <code>_nc_infotocap</code> for patterns
      &ldquo;<code>%{number}%+%c</code>&rdquo; and
      &ldquo;<code>%'char'%+%c</code>&rdquo; to check that the
      final character is really &ldquo;<code>c</code>&rdquo;,
      avoiding a case in icl6404 which cannot be converted to
      termcap.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>in <code>_nc_tic_expand</code> and
      <code>_nc_infotocap</code>, improved string-length check when
      deciding whether to use &ldquo;<code>^X</code>&rdquo; or
      &ldquo;<code>\xxx</code>&rdquo; format for control
      characters, to make the output of <span class=
      "part-name">tic</span>/<span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
      more predictable.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>limited termcap &ldquo;<code>%d</code>&rdquo; width to 2
      digits on input, and use &ldquo;<code>%2</code>&rdquo; in
      preference to &ldquo;<code>%02</code>&rdquo; on output.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct terminfo/termcap conversion of
      &ldquo;<code>%02</code>&rdquo; and
      &ldquo;<code>%03</code>&rdquo; into
      &ldquo;<code>%2</code>&rdquo; and
      &ldquo;<code>%3</code>&rdquo;; the result repeated the last
      character.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>

  <p>Along with the library and utilities, many improvements were
  made to the <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>.</p>

  <p>These changes were made to demonstrate new extensions in
  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">demo_new_pair</span> program,
      to demonstrate <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/new_pair.3x.html#h3-alloc_pair">
      <code>alloc_pair</code></a>, <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/new_pair.3x.html#h3-find_pair">
      <code>find_pair</code></a> and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/new_pair.3x.html#h3-free_pair">
      <code>free_pair</code></a> functions.</p>

      <p>This program iterates over the possible color
      combinations, allocating or initializing color pairs. For
      best results, choose screen-width dividing evenly into the
      number of colors. e.g.,</p>

      <blockquote>
        <table summary="sample layouts for demo_new_pair">
          <tr>
            <td><code>32x64,32x128</code>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>

            <td>256 colors</td>
          </tr>

          <tr>
            <td><code>24x44,24x88</code></td>

            <td>88 colors</td>
          </tr>

          <tr>
            <td><code>32x64,24x128</code></td>

            <td>16 colors</td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </blockquote>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">extended_color</span> program,
      like the older <span class="part-name">color_set</span>
      program, but using the extended color functions, with and
      without the SP-functions interface.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">picsmap</span> program to fill
      in some testing issues not met by <span class=
      "part-name">dots</span>, using this as the third example in a
      comparison of the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-slang.html#compare_picsmap">
      ncurses versus slang</a> libraries.</p>

      <p>The program can directly read X bitmap and pixmap files,
      displaying a picture. It can read other image files using
      <span class="part-name">ImageMagick</span>'s <span class=
      "part-name">convert</span> program to translate the image
      into text.</p>

      <p>For 16-, 88- and 256-color terminal descriptions,
      <span class="part-name">picsmap</span> can load a palette
      file which tells it which color palette entries to use. For
      direct-colors, the terminal descriptions use the
      <code>RGB</code> extension capability.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>There are other new example programs and a few scripts:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">dots_xcurses</span> program to
      illustrate a different approach used for extended colors
      which can be contrasted with <span class=
      "part-name">dots_curses</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">list_keys</span> program show
      function keys for one or more terminal descriptions. It uses
      <span class="main-name">ncurses'</span>s convention of
      modifiers for special keys, based on xterm.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">padview</span> program, to
      compare pads with direct updates in the <span class=
      "part-name">view</span> program.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">sp_tinfo</span> program to
      exercise the SP-functions extension of the low-level terminfo
      library.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add test-programs for <code>termattrs</code> and
      <code>term_attrs</code> functions.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">test_sgr</span> program to
      exercise all combinations of the sgr capability.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">tput-colorcube</span> demo
      script, imitating xterm's 88- and 256-color scripts using
      <span class="part-name">tput</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add <span class="part-name">tput-initc</span> script to
      demonstrate how <span class="part-name">tput</span> may be
      used to initialize a color palette from a data file.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both
  new features as well as options added to make the set of programs
  more consistent.</p>

  <p>The <span class="part-name">ncurses</span> program is the
  largest; a proportionately large number of changes were made to
  it:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify a/A screens to make exiting on an escape character
      depend on the start of keypad and timeout modes, to allow
      better testing of function-keys.</p>

      <p>add &ldquo;<code>t</code>&rdquo; toggle for
      <code>notimeout</code> function.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify layout of b/B screens to allow for additional
      annotation on the right margin; some terminals with partial
      support did not display well.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify c/C screens to allow for extended color pairs.</p>

      <p>add z/Z <em>zoom</em> feature to make extended color pairs
      easier to test.</p>

      <p>modify test-screens to take advantage of wide screens,
      reducing the number of lines used for 88- and 256-colors.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify &ldquo;<code>d</code>&rdquo; edit-color screen to
      optionally read xterm color palette directly from terminal,
      as well as handling <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> and
      screen-repainting with control/L and control/R.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add examples to &ldquo;<code>F</code>&rdquo; screen for
      <code>WACS_D_PLUS</code> and <code>WACS_T_PLUS</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve &ldquo;<code>g</code>&rdquo; screen, correcting
      ifdef which made the legend not reflect changes to keypad-
      and scroll-modes. Added check for return-value of
      <code>putwin</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>make &ldquo;<code>s</code>&rdquo; test easier to
      understand which subtests are available</p>

      <p>add a corresponding &ldquo;<code>S</code>&rdquo;
      wide-character overlap test-screen.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add &ldquo;<code>v</code>&rdquo; screen to show
      <code>baudrate</code> and other values.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>These changes were made to the other examples:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">blue</span> program to use
      Unicode values for card-glyphs when available, as well as
      improving the check for CP437 and CP850.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve <span class="part-name">demo_menus</span> program,
      allowing mouse-click on the menu-headers to switch the active
      menu. This requires a new extension option
      <code>O_MOUSE_MENU</code> to tell the menu driver to put
      mouse events which do not apply to the active menu back into
      the queue so that the application can handle the event.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct logic in <span class=
      "part-name">demo_terminfo</span> program for
      &ldquo;<code>-f</code>&rdquo; option</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">ditto</span> program to
      allow <code>$XTERM_PROG</code> environment variable to
      override "xterm" as the name of the program to run in the
      threaded configuration.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add several options to the &ldquo;<em>dots</em>&rdquo;
      test-programs.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">filter</span> program:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>illustrate an alternative to <code>getnstr</code>, that
        polls for input while updating a clock on the right margin
        as well as responding to window size-changes.</li>

        <li>adapt logic used in <a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/dialog/"><span class=
        "main-name">dialog</span></a> <a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/dialog/manpage/dialog.html#h3-Common-Options">
        &ldquo;<code>--keep-tite</code>&rdquo; option</a> for
        <span class="part-name">filter</span> program as the "-a"
        option. When set, <span class="part-name">filter</span>
        attempts to suppress the alternate screen.</li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">knight</span> program to
      provide the "slow" solution for small screens using
      &ldquo;<code>R</code>&rdquo;, noting that Warnsdorf's method
      is easily done with &ldquo;<code>a</code>&rdquo;.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify the <span class="part-name">savescreen</span>
      program to add test patterns that exercise 88-, 256-, etc.,
      colors.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add options to <span class="part-name">test_arrays</span>,
      for selecting termcap vs terminfo, etc.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify the <span class="part-name">view</span>
      program:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>expand tabs using the ncurses library rather than in
        the test-program.</li>

        <li>eliminate the &ldquo;<code>-n</code>&rdquo; option by
        simply reading the whole file.</li>

        <li>implement page up/down commands.</li>

        <li>remove the very old <code>SIGWINCH</code> example; just
        use <code>KEY_RESIZE</code>.</li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve animation in <span class="part-name">xmas</span>
      program by adding a time-delay in <code>blinkit</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify several test-programs which call
      <code>use_default_colors</code> to consistently do this only
      if the &ldquo;<code>-d</code>&rdquo; option is given.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify the install-rule for ncurses-examples to put the
      data files in the data directory, e.g.,
      <code>/usr/share/ncurses-examples</code>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify several test programs to use new
      <code>popup_msgs</code> function, adapted from the
      help-screen used in the <code>edit_field</code> program.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify test data for xterm palettes to use the newer
      color4/color12 values.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve the <span class="part-name">tracemunch</span>
      script:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>show screenXX pointers and thread identifiers as
        names.</li>

        <li>chang address-parameters of <code>add_wch</code>,
        <code>color_content</code> and <code>pair_content</code> to
        dummy parameters.</li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal
  database</a></h3>

  <p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <p><code>dumb-emacs-ansi</code>, <code>dvtm</code>,
    <code>dvtm-256color</code>, <code>fbterm</code>,
    <code>iterm2</code>, <code>linux-m1</code> <em>minitel
    entries</em>, <code>putty-noapp</code>, <code>viewdata</code>,
    and <code>vt100+4bsd</code> <em>building-block</em>.</p>

    <p><code>xterm+noalt</code>, <code>xterm+titlestack</code>,
    <code>xterm+alt1049</code>, <code>xterm+alt+title</code>
    <em>building blocks</em> and <code>xterm+direct</code>,
    <code>xterm+indirect</code>, <code>xterm-direct</code>. from
    <a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_331">xterm
    patch #331</a>.</p>

    <p>several other &ldquo;<code>-direct</code>&rdquo;
    descriptions to address the differences of other terminal
    emulators versus <code>xterm-direct</code>.</p>
  </blockquote>

  <p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
  were updates to several descriptions:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>use <code>xterm+sm+1006</code> in several terminal
    descriptions which were validated as supporting the extended
    mouse feature for their respective terminal emulators.</li>

    <li>corrected <em>sgr</em>/<em>sgr0</em> strings in a few cases
    reported by <span class="part-name">tic</span>, making those
    correspond to the non-<em>sgr</em> settings where they differ,
    but otherwise use ECMA-48 consistently.</li>

    <li>add 0.1sec mandatory delay to <em>flash</em> capabilities
    using the VT100 reverse-video control</li>
  </ul>

  <p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
  retested, to take into account new/undocumented changes by their
  developers:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <p><code>iterm</code>, <code>minitel</code>, <code>st</code>,
    <code>viewdata</code>, <code>nsterm</code></p>
  </blockquote>

  <p>while these are specific fixes based on user reports, or
  warnings from <span class="part-name">tic</span>:</p>

  <dl>
    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_A_N_S_I__S_Y_S__I_S_O_6429__E_C_M_A-48__Capabilities">
    <code>ansi</code> <em>building blocks</em></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>restored <em>rmir</em>/<em>smir</em> in
        <code>ansi+idc</code> to better match original
        <code>ansiterm+idc</code>, add alias
        <code>ansiterm</code></li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-icl6404">
    <code>icl6402</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>corrected missing comma-separator between string
        capabilities in <code>icl6402</code> and
        <code>m2-nam</code></li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-interix">
    <code>interix</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>updated using <span class="main-name">tack</span> and
        SFU with Windows 7 Ultimate.</li>

        <li>used <code>^?</code> for <em>kdch1</em></li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_Linux_consoles">
    <code>linux</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>made <code>linux3.0</code> entry the default
        <strong><code>linux</code></strong> entry</li>

        <li>modify <code>linux2.6</code> entry to improve
        line-drawing so that the <code>linux3.0</code> entry can be
        used in non-UTF-8 mode</li>

        <li>omitted selection of ISO-8859-1 for G0 in enacs
        capability from linux2.6 entry, to avoid conflict with the
        user-defined mapping. The reset feature uses ISO-8859-1 in
        any case.</li>

        <li>modify <em>flash</em> capability for <code>linux</code>
        and <code>wyse</code> entries to put the delay between the
        reverse/normal escapes rather than after</li>

        <li>modify <code>linux-16color</code> to not mask dim,
        standout or reverse with the <em>ncv</em> capability</li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_Open_B_S_D_consoles">
    <code>pccon</code> <em>entries</em></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>fixed some inconsistencies in the
        <code><em>pccon*</em></code> entries</li>

        <li>add bold to <code>pccon+sgr+acs</code> and
        <code>pccon-base</code></li>

        <li>add keys f12-f124 to <code>pccon+keys</code></li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_Tmux">
    <code>tmux</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>corrected <em>sgr</em> string, which used
        <code>screen</code>'s "standout" code rather than the
        standard code.</li>

        <li>add settings corresponding to <code>xterm-keys</code>
        option to reflect upcoming change to make that option
        <em>"on"</em> by default</li>

        <li>uncanceled <em>Ms</em></li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_D_E_C__V_T100_and_compatibles">
    <code>vt100</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>modify <code>vt100</code> <em>rs2</em> string to reset
        vt52 mode and scrolling regions</li>

        <li>corrected <em>rs2</em> string for
        <code>vt100-nam</code></li>

        <li>made minor fixes for <code>vt100+4bsd</code>, e.g.,
        delay in <em>sgr</em> for consistency</li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_G_N_O_M_E__V_T_E_">
    <code>vte</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>moved SGR 24 and 27 from <code>vte-2014</code> to
        <code>vte-2012</code></li>

        <li>add a few capabilities fixed in recent <em>VTE</em>
        development</li>
      </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_X_T_E_R_M">
    <code>xterm</code></a></dt>

    <dd>
      <ul>
        <li>add <em>rep</em> to <code>xterm-new</code>, available
        since <a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_32">
        late 1996</a>.</li>

        <li>modify <code>xterm+256color</code> and
        <code>xterm+256setaf</code> to use correct number of color
        pairs.</li>

        <li>modify <em>rs1</em> for <code>xterm-16color</code>,
        <code>xterm-88color</code> and <code>xterm-256color</code>
        to reset palette using <em>oc</em> string as in
        <code>linux</code> entry.</li>

        <li>add <em>rs1</em> capability to
        <code>xterm-256color</code></li>

        <li>add <em>oc</em> capability to
        <code>xterm+256color</code>, allowing palette reset for
        <span class="main-name">xterm</span></li>

        <li>add <em>op</em> to <code>xterm+256setaf</code></li>

        <li>modify <code>xterm-r5</code>, <code>xterm-r6</code> and
        <code>xterm-xf86-v32</code> to use <code>xterm+kbs</code>
        to match <a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_272">
        xterm #272</a>, reflecting packager's changes</li>

        <li>used ANSI reply for <em>u8</em> in
        <code>xterm-new</code>, to reflect vt220-style responses
        that could be returned.</li>

        <li>made <code>xterm-pcolor</code> <em>sgr</em> consistent
        with other capabilities</li>
      </ul>
    </dd>
  </dl>

  <p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
  capabilities):</p>

  <ul>
    <li>add <em>rmxx</em>/<em>smxx</em> ECMA-48 strikeout extension
    to <code>tmux</code> and <code>xterm-basic</code></li>

    <li>used <em>RGB</em> capability in new <em>*-direct</em>
    entries to denote direct-color feature.</li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
  "h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>

  <p>As usual, this release</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>attempts to improve the description of features which
      users have found confusing</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
      described in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html">NEWS</a>
      file but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>In particular,</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>Since the underlying features for <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html#h2-HISTORY">
      <span class="part-name">tset</span></a>, <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html#h2-HISTORY">
      <span class="part-name">tput</span></a>, and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html#h2-HISTORY">
      <span class="part-name">clear</span></a> have been better
      integrated, the documentation now includes information on how
      those tools evolved.</p>

      <p>In addition to explaining the improved integration of the
      tools, the manual pages made it easier to see how the tools
      are similar and how they are different.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The <code>addch</code> manual page has additional
      information on <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      portability</a> and differences from other
      implementations.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The discussion of color-pairs in the <em>attributes</em>
      manual page is improved in its <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-HISTORY">
      history section</a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The documentation of the <code>chtype</code>,
      <code>cchar_t</code> types and the attribute values which can
      be stored in those types, in particular the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-HISTORY">
      history</a> and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      portability</a> sections of the <em>attributes</em> manual
      page, has been improved.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve discussion of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_mouse.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      portability</a> in the <em>mouse</em> manual.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The <em>pad</em> manual page has a section on the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_pad.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      origin and portability</a> of pads.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Differences between SVr4 and X/Open Curses soft-keys are
      discussed in a new section on <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_slk.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      portability</a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>There are updated/improved notes on portability in the
      <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      resizeterm</a> and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/wresize.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      wresize</a> manual pages.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>In addition to providing background information to explain
  these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
  clarifications, etc.:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>add note in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">
      <em>addch</em></a> manual about line-drawing when it depends
      upon UTF-8.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve discussion of line-drawing characters in the
      <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_add_wch.3x.html">
      <em>add_wch</em></a> manual.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>explain in <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html#h2-DESCRIPTION">
      <span class="part-name">clear</span></a>'s manual page that
      it writes to the standard output.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve description of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-endwin">
      <em>endwin</em></a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve discussion of field validation in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_driver.3x.html">
      <em>form driver</em></a> manual page.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>clarify the use of <code>wint_t</code> vs
      <code>wchar_t</code> in <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html#h2-RETURN-VALUE">
      <em>get_wstr</em></a> manual page.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>clarify in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_getch.3x.html#h3-Predefined-key-codes">
      <em>getch</em></a> manual that the keypad mode affects an
      application's ability to read <code>KEY_MOUSE</code> codes,
      but does not affect <code>KEY_RESIZE</code>.</p>

      <p>trim some obsolete/incorrect wording about
      <code>EINTR</code> from the <em>getch</em> manual page</p>

      <p>improve manual pages for <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_getch.3x.html#h3-Keypad-Mode">
      <em>getch</em></a> and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_get_wch.3x.html#h2-DESCRIPTION">
      <em>get_wch</em></a> to point out that they might return
      user-defined values which have no predefined names in
      <code>&lt;curses.h&gt;</code></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve description of the <code>-R</code> option in the
      <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
      infocmp</span></a> manual page</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>clarify in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h2-NOTES">
      <em>resizeterm</em></a> manual page how
      <code>KEY_RESIZE</code> is pushed onto the input stream.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>document return value of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_extend.3x#h2-RETURN-VALUE">
      <code>use_extended_names</code></a></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>document differences in <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      <code>ESCDELAY</code></a> versus AIX's implementation in the
      <em>variables</em> manual page.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The <code>_nc_free_tinfo</code> function is now documented
      in the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">
      <em>memory-leaks</em></a> manual page, because it could be
      used in <span class="main-name">tack</span> for memory-leak
      checking.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add a note to the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
      tic</span></a> manual page about -W versus -f options.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve <em>terminfo manual</em> description of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Terminfo-Capabilities-Syntax">
      terminfo syntax</a>.</p>

      <p>improve terminfo manual page discussion of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Line-Graphics">
      control- and graphics- characters</a>.</p>

      <p>improve <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Color-Handling">
      color-handling</a> section in terminfo manual page</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>clarify description in <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
      <span class="part-name">tput</span></a> manual page regarding
      support for termcap names</p>

      <p>update <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html#h3-Aliases">
      <span class="part-name">tput</span></a> manual page to
      reflect changes to manipulate terminal modes by sharing
      functions with <span class="part-name">tset</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>clarify in manual pages that the optional verbose option
      level of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html#h2-OPTIONS">
      <span class="part-name">tic</span></a> and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html#h3-Other-Options">
      <span class="part-name">infocmp</span></a> is available only
      when <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> is configured for
      tracing.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve manual page description of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><em>tset/reset</em></a>
      versus window-size.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve description of <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_termcap.3x.html#h3-FORMATTING-CAPABILITIES">
      <em>tgoto</em></a> parameters</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>There are new manual pages:</p>

  <ul>
    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/user_caps.5.html"><em>
    user_caps</em></a> documents the terminfo extensions used by
    <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>.</li>

    <li>
      <p><a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/scr_dump.5.html"><em>
      scr_dump</em></a> documents the screen-dump format.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
  the information is presented:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>Made minor fixes to manpage <em>NAME/SYNOPSIS</em>
      sections to consistently use rule that either all functions
      which are prototyped in <em>SYNOPSIS</em> are listed in the
      <em>NAME</em> section, or the manual-page name is the sole
      item listed in the <em>NAME</em> section. The latter is used
      to reduce clutter, e.g., for the top-level library manual
      pages as well as for certain feature-pages such as <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_sp_funcs.3x.html">
      <em>SP-funcs</em></a> and <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_threads.3x.html">
      <em>threading</em></a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve manual pages for utilities with respect to POSIX
      versus X/Open Curses.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve organization of the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html"><em>
      attributes</em></a> and <a href=
      "/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html"><em>color</em></a> manual
      pages.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
  bug-fixes</a></h3>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>modify <span class="part-name">toe</span> to not exit if
      unable to read a terminal description, e.g., if there is a
      permission problem.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct 20100515 change for weak signals versus
      sigprocmask</p>
    </li>

    <li>work around Ada tool-breakage in Debian 9 and later by
    invoking <code>gprconfig</code> to specify the C compiler to be
    used by <code>gnatmake</code>, and conditionally suppressing
    <code>Library_Options</code> line for static libraries.</li>

    <li>
      <p>There were, as well, several bug-fixes to handle illegal
      input for <span class="part-name">tic</span>. Because those
      did not correspond to useful terminal descriptions, most
      users are unaffected.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
  "h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>

  <h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
  changes</a></h4>

  <p>This release provides a new binary format for terminal
  descriptions that use extended numeric capabilities. Applications
  built with the wide-character <em>ncursesw</em> library can use
  these extended numbers.</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>This includes utilities such as <span class=
      "part-name">tic</span> and <span class=
      "part-name">infocmp</span>, because (as noted in <a href=
      "#h4-new-library"><em>New features</em></a>), the feature
      relies upon an extension to the low-level <em>tinfo</em>
      library.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>A few software packagers use a configuration option of
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> which allows the
      low-level <em>tinfo</em> library to be shared between the
      high-level <em>ncurses</em> and <em>ncursesw</em> libraries.
      This new feature was designed to work in that configuration
      as well.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Other applications (i.e., using the 8-bit <em>ncurses</em>
  library) which read the extended terminal descriptions see those
  numeric capabilities set to the maximum value for a signed 16-bit
  number.</p>

  <p>Older versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'
  <span class="part-name">tic</span> accept out-of-range numeric
  capabilities, storing those as the maximum value for a signed
  16-bit number. Other implementations of curses (mentioned in the
  discussion of <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-slang.html#compare_picsmap">
  <span class="part-name">picsmap</span></a>) give zero for these
  out-of-range capabilities.</p>

  <h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
  "h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>

  <p>These changes provide support for <span class=
  "main-name">tack</span> 1.08, released in <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack/CHANGES.html#index-t20170726">
  July 2017</a>:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>add <code>--without-tack</code> configure option to refine
      <code>--with-progs</code> configure option. Normally
      <span class="main-name">tack</span> is built outside the
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> tree, but a few
      packagers combine it during the build. If
      <code>term_entry.h</code> is installed, there is no advantage
      to in-tree builds.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>adjust configure-script to define
      <code>HAVE_CURSES_DATA_BOOLNAMES</code> symbol needed for
      <span class="main-name">tack</span> 1.08 when built in-tree.
      Rather than relying upon internal "_nc_" functions,
      <span class="main-name">tack</span> now uses the boolean,
      number and string capability name-arrays provided by
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> and SVr4 Unix curses.
      It still uses <code>term_entry.h</code> for the definitions
      of the extended capability arrays.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add dependency upon ncurses_cfg.h to <span class=
      "part-name">tic</span>'s header-files; any program using
      <span class="part-name">tic</span>-library will have to
      supply this file. Legacy <span class="main-name">tack</span>
      versions supply this file; ongoing <span class=
      "main-name">tack</span> development has dropped the
      dependency upon <span class="part-name">tic</span>-library
      and new releases will not be affected.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>Other changes to the configure-script and generated files
  include</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>add configure options to disable checks for form, menu and
      panel libraries so that ncurses-examples can be built with
      non-SVr4 curses implementations.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add configure option <code>--enable-opaque-curses</code>
      for <em>ncurses</em> library and similar options for the
      other libraries.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add configure option <code>--disable-wattr-macros</code>
      for use in cases where one wants to use the same headers for
      ncurses5/ncurses6 development, by suppressing the
      <em>wattr*</em> macros which differ due to the introduction
      of extended colors</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify configure macro for shared-library rules to use
      <code>-Wl,-rpath</code> rather than <code>-rpath</code> to
      work around a bug in <span class="part-name">scons</span></p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve ncurses-examples' configure script to define as
      needed <code>NCURSES_WIDECHAR</code> for platforms where
      <code>_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED</code> does not work. Also
      modified the test program to ensure that if building with
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>, that the
      <code>cchar_t</code> type is checked, since that is normally
      (since <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20111030">20111030</a>)
      ifdef'd depending on this test.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify configure script to handle the case where
      <span class="part-name">tic</span>-library is renamed, but
      the <code>--with-debug</code> option is used by itself
      without normal or shared libraries</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify editing script which generates resulting.map to
      work with the clang configuration on recent FreeBSD, which
      gives an error on an empty "local" section.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve configure check for setting the
      <code>WILDCARD_SYMS</code> variable; on ppc64 the variable is
      in the <strong><em>Data</em></strong> section rather than
      <strong><em>Text</em></strong>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>correct result of configure option
      <code>--without-fallbacks</code>, which caused FALLBACK_LIST
      to be set to "no"</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify <code>--with-pkg-config-libdir</code> option to
      make it possible to install &ldquo;.pc&rdquo; files even if
      <span class="part-name">pkg-config</span> is not found. Limit
      this change, to suppress the actual install if it is not
      overridden to a valid directory at install time.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>disallow &ldquo;no&rdquo; as a possible value for
      <code>--with-shlib-version</code> option, overlooked in
      cleanup-changes for <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20000708">20000708</a>.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="h3-portability" id=
  "h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>

  <p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
  configure script:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>improve configure script's <code>CF_CC_ENV_FLAGS</code>
      macro to allow for compiler wrappers such as <span class=
      "part-name">ccache</span>. This change moves only the
      preprocessor, optimization and warning flags to
      <code>CPPFLAGS</code> and <code>CFLAGS</code>, leaving the
      residue in <code>CC</code>. That happens to work for
      <span class="part-name">gcc</span>'s various
      &ldquo;model&rdquo; options, but may require tuning for other
      compilers.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify ncurses-examples' configure script to use
      <span class="part-name">pkg-config</span> for the extra
      form/menu/panel libraries, to be more consistent with the
      handling of the curses/ncurses library.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add configuration checks to build with <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-netbsd.html">NetBSD
      curses</a>, which for example lacks <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_env">
      <code>use_env</code></a>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>change ncurses-examples to use <code>attr_t</code> vs
      <code>chtype</code> to follow X/Open documentation more
      closely since Solaris xpg4-curses uses different values for
      <code>WA_<em>xxx</em></code> vs <code>A_<em>xxx</em></code>
      that rely on attr_t being an unsigned short. Tru64 aka OSF1,
      HPUX, AIX did as <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> does,
      equating the two sets.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify several test programs to reflect that <span class=
      "main-name">ncurses</span> honors existing signal handlers in
      initscr, while other implementations do not.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add configure check for <code>openpty</code> to
      ncurses-examples' configure script, for <span class=
      "part-name">ditto</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>improve check for working <code>poll</code> function by
      using <code>posix_openpt</code> as a fallback in case there
      is no valid terminal on the standard input</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify ncurses-examples' configure script to check for
      <span class="part-name">pthread</span> dependency of
      <em>ncursest</em> or <em>ncursestw</em> library when building
      the <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> examples, e.g., in
      case weak symbols are used.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add checks in ncurses-examples' configure script for some
      functions neither in 4.3BSD curses, nor based on X/Open
      Curses:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>modify a loop limit in firework.c to work around
          absense of limit checks in some libraries.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>fill the last row of a window with
          &ldquo;<code>?</code>&rdquo; in firstlast if waddch does
          not return <code>ERR</code> on the lower-right
          corner.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>build-fixes for the Portland Group (PGI) compilers</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>accept whitespace in <span class=
          "part-name">sed</span> expression for generating
          expanded.c</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>modify configure check that g++ compiler warnings are
          not used.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>add configure check for -fPIC option needed for shared
          libraries.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify configure script for clang as used on FreeBSD, to
      work around clang's differences in exit codes vs gcc.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>fixes for configure/build using clang on OSX</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>do not redefine &ldquo;inline&rdquo; in
          <code>ncurses_cfg.h</code>; this was originally to solve
          a problem with gcc/g++, but is aggravated by clang's
          misuse of symbols to pretend it is gcc.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>add braces to configure script to prevent unwanted
          addition of &ldquo;<code>-lstdc++</code>&rdquo; option to
          the <code>CXXLIBS</code> symbol.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>improve/update test-program used for checking
          existence of stdc++ library.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>if <code>$CXXLIBS</code> is set, the linkage test uses
          that in addition to <code>$LIBS</code>.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>fixes for OS/2:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>use button instead of <code>kbuf[0]</code> in
          EMX-specific part of <code>lib_mouse.c</code></p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>support building with <span class=
          "part-name">libtool</span> on OS/2</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>use stdc++ library with OS/2 kLIBC</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>clear configure script's <code>cf_XOPEN_SOURCE</code>
          for OS/2, to work with its header files</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add &ldquo;newer&rdquo; baudrate symbols to the <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_termattrs.3x.html#h3-baudrate">
      <code>baudrate</code></a> function in the ncurses library as
      well as to a corresponding table in <span class=
      "part-name">tset</span>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>modify ncurses-examples <span class=
      "part-name">savescreen</span> to work with AIX and HPUX.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>define <code>WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN</code> for MinGW port,
      making builds faster.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>add a configure check for <em>wcwidth</em> versus the
      <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> line-drawing
      characters, to use in special-casing systems such as Solaris.
      Solaris, however, requires a special case that maps Unicode
      line-drawing characters into the acsc string for non-Unicode
      locales. Solaris also has a misconfigured wcwidth which marks
      all of the line drawing characters as double-width.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>string-hacks (non-standard):</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>fix configure script to record when
          <code>strlcat</code> is found on OpenBSD.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>add <code>--enable-string-hacks</code> option to
          ncurses-examples' configure script.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>completed string-hacks for <em>sprintf</em>, etc.,
          including the ncurses-examples programs.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>make <code>--enable-string-hacks</code> option work
          with Debian by checking for the "bsd" library and its
          associated "&lt;bsd/string.h&gt;" header.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>workaround for Debian's antique/unmaintained version of
      mawk:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>see Debian #65617, which was fixed in <span class=
          "main-name">mawk</span>'s upstream releases in <a href=
          "https://invisible-island.net/mawk/CHANGES.html#t20090727">
          2009</a>.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>related fixes when building link_test.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <hr>

  <h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>

  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
  upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
      documented).</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
      for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
      forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
      of keypad and function keys.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
      add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
          backing store.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
          interface for menu programming.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>the form library, supporting data collection through
          on-screen forms.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
      is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>

      <ul>
        <li>
          <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
          user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
          hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
          <em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
          used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
        </li>

        <li>
          <p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
          can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
          directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
      options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
      less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
      as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
  many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>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, and most EXTENDED
      features). It includes many function calls not supported
      under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is documented
      so you can use the SVr4 subset only).</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
      can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
      your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
      FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
      package.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
      windows, preserving their data.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
      <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
      of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
      "main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
      than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
      and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
      features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
      than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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
      <code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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).</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
      tic</span></a>/<a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a>
      utility provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
      has the ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX,
      IBM and AT&amp;T extension sets.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>A BSD-like <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><span class="part-name">
      tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 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.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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.)</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
      toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see exactly what
      terminal types are available on the system.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>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>.</p>
    </li>

    <li>
      <p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">
      Additional Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
      "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html"><span class="main-name">
      ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online documentation).</p>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
  <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>

  <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
  includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
  These are available separately as <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>

  <p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
  applications including:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <dl>
      <dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>Curses Development Kit</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/cdk/">https://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
        </p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">ded</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>directory-editor</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/ded/">https://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
        and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
        many systems.</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/dialog/">https://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>the text WWW browser</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>mail utility</p>

        <p><a href=
        "http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>file-transfer utility</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
        </p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
        <em>Python</em>.</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">tin</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>

        <p><a href=
        "http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>

        <p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
      </dd>
    </dl>
  </blockquote>

  <p>as well as some that use <span class=
  "main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <dl>
      <dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">tack</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>terminfo action checker</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>terminal multiplexor</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">vile</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap
        or curses interfaces.</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://invisible-island.net/vile/">https://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></p>
      </dd>
    </dl>
  </blockquote>

  <p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <dl>
      <dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>text editor</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">less</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
        displays text files).</p>

        <p><a href=
        "http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">screen</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>terminal multiplexor</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
      </dd>

      <dt><span class="part-name">vim</span></dt>

      <dd>
        <p>text editor</p>

        <p><a href=
        "https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
      </dd>
    </dl>
  </blockquote>

  <h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
  activities</a></h2>

  <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
  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 development work is done by
  <a href="mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas Dickey</a>.
  Thomas Dickey also acts as the maintainer for the Free Software
  Foundation, which holds the <a href=
  "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html">copyright
  on ncurses</a>.</p>

  <p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>

  <blockquote>
    <a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
  </blockquote>

  <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>

  <blockquote>
    <a href=
    "mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
  </blockquote>containing the line:

  <blockquote>
    <p><code>subscribe</code>
    <em>&lt;name&gt;@&lt;host.domain&gt;</em></p>
  </blockquote>

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

  <p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> and
  patches to the current release are made available at</p>

  <blockquote>
    <p><a href=
    "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
    and<br>
    <a href=
    "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
  </blockquote>

  <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>

  <blockquote>
    <p><a href=
    "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
    (also <a href=
    "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
  </blockquote>

  <h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
  resources</a></h2>

  <p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
  which may be interesting by themselves:</p>

  <ul>
    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html"><span class="main-name">
    ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol
    versioning in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-slang.html">Comments
    on <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
    "main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">tack &ndash;
    terminfo action checker</a></li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html">tctest
    &ndash; termcap library checker</a></li>

    <li><a href=
    "https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database">
    Terminal Database</a></li>
  </ul>

  <h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
  resources</a></h2>

  <p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
  terminfo-format terminal description file once 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, which also provides
  several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open
  specification.</p>

  <p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
  not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
  "http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
  Richard Shuford's archive</a>&nbsp;.</p>

  <div class="nav">
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>

      <li>
        <a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>

        <ul>
          <li>
            <a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>

            <ul>
              <li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>

              <li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
              improvements</a></li>
            </ul>
          </li>

          <li>
            <a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>

            <ul>
              <li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>

              <li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
            </ul>
          </li>

          <li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>

          <li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>

          <li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
          bug-fixes</a></li>

          <li>
            <a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>

            <ul>
              <li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>

              <li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
              options</a></li>
            </ul>
          </li>

          <li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
        </ul>
      </li>

      <li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
      "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>

      <li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
      "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>

      <li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>

      <li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>

      <li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</body>
</html>