This is a binary package of ncurses-4.2.  Some binary packages may need
this for compatibility.  Note that if you install this, you will link with
this version of ncurses when compiling.  If you'd rather link with the
version in the D series, then reinstall that one after installing this.

The original announcement for ncurses-4.2 follows.

---

                           Announcing ncurses 4.2

  The ncurses (new curses) library is a freeware emulation of System V
  Release 4.0 curses. It uses terminfo format, supports pads and color
  and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
  and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.

  In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
  considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
  Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
  ncurses.

  The ncurses code was developed under Linux. It should port easily to
  any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!

  The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
  a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
  tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
  manual pages are provided for the library and tools.

  The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
  distribution site [1]ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu. It is also
  available at [2]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.

                             Features of ncurses

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

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

  The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:

    * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
      curses specification, XSI Curses (that is, it implements all BASE
      level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
      EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
      support are implemented, including many function calls not
      supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
      documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
    * Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
      corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
      capability.
    * (PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM
      characters 0-32 through the highlight A_ALTCHARSET.
    * Ada95 and C++ bindings.
    * Support for mouse event reporting under xterm.
    * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
    * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
      their data.
    * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
      default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
      transparent colors.
    * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
      the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
      or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
      key code.
    * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
    * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
      cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
      or System V's.
    * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
      incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
      to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
      line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
      powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
    * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
      screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
      magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
      beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
      It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
      would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
      visual appearance of the screen.
    * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
      fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
      types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
      (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
      must run in single-user mode).
    * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
      to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
      sets.
    * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
    * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
      entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
      directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
      system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
      personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
      terminfo directory.
    * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
      descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
      generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
      V.)
    * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
      other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
      compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
      user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
    * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
      from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
      environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
      converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
      $HOME/.terminfo.
    * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
      when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
      neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
      to, but it's there.
    * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
      exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
    * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
      have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
      prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
      #undef.
    * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
      provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
      interface.

                            State of the Package

  Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
  is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
  `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
  according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
  and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.

  The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
  including:

  ded
         directory-editor [3]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded.

  dialog
         the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
         basis for similar applications on Linux.

  lynx-2.7
         the character-screen WWW browser

  Midnight Commander 4.1
         file manager

  mutt 0.88
         mail utility

  ncftp 2.0
         file-transfer utility

  nvi
         New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
         later.

  taper
         tape archive utility

  vh-1.6
         Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File

  as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:

  minicom-1.75
         terminal emulator

  tin-unoff
         tin 1.4 newsreader, supporting color, MIME
         [4]ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff.

  vile
         vi-like-emacs [5]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile.

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

Who's Who and What's What

  The original developers of ncurses are [6]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [7]Eric
  S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [8]Thomas Dickey and
  [9]J�rgen Pfeifer. [10]Florian La Roche acts as the maintainer for the
  Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
  Contact the current maintainers at [11][email protected].

  To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
  [email protected] containing the line:
            subscribe <name>@<host.domain>

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

  Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
  available at [12]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.

Future Plans

    * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
      support.
    * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.

  We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
  working on them, please join the ncurses list.

Other Related Resources

  The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
  terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
  [13]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.

  You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
  covered in the terminfo file at [14]Richard Shuford's archive.

References

  1. ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu
  2. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
  3. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded
  4. ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff
  5. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile
  6. mailto:[email protected]
  7. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
  8. mailto:[email protected]
  9. mailto:[email protected]
 10. mailto:[email protected]
 11. mailto:[email protected]
 12. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
 13. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
 14. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html

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