
                           ANNOUNCING NCURSES 1.9.4
                                       
Overview of ncurses 1.9.4

   The ncurses library is a freeware emulation of System V Release 4.0
   curses. It uses terminfo format, supports color and multiple
   highlights and forms characters, and function-key mapping, and has all
   the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.
   
   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.
   
   The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
   a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
   tput(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages
   are provided for the library and tools.
   
   The ncurses distribution is available at:
   ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses. It is also carried on
   the GNU distribution site at ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu.
   
                              FEATURES OF NCURSES
                                       
     * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
       documented).
       
     * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
       color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
       recognition of keypad and function keys.
       
     * Unlike SVr4 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
       corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
       capability.
       
     * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
       curses specification, XSI Curses (that is, it implements all BASE
       level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
       EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
       support are implemented, including many function calls not
       supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
       documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
       
     * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
       cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
       or System V's.
       
     * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
       incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
       to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
       line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
       powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
       
     * An emulation of the System V Release 4 panels library, supporting
       a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
       
     * An emulation of the System V Release 4 menus library, supporting a
       uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
       
     * (PC-clone boxes only) Support for access to the IBM PC ROM
       characters through a new highlight, A_PCCHARSET.
       
     * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in for
       systems withould a terminfo tree. This feature is neither fast nor
       cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to, but it's
       there.
       
     * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document.
       
                             STATE OF THE PACKAGE
                                       
   Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
   is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
   `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
   according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
   and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
   
   The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of games and
   utilities, including:
   
   lynx-2.4
          the character-screen WWW browser
          
   bs-2.0
          Battleships game with proper visual interface
          
   greed-3.1
          the game of Greed
          
   nolan-1.1
          the World's Smallest Political Quiz
          
   vh-1.6
          Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
          
   blue   Blue Moon solitare game
          
   u386mon
          System performance monitor for SVr4
          
   nvi    New vi alpha version 1.1.34
          
   The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs.
   
Who's Who and What's What

   The primary maintainer of ncurses is Zeyd Ben-Halim. Unfortunately, he
   can only work on the package part time. As a result, since 1.8.1, much
   of the enhancement work and all the documentation has been done by
   Eric S. Raymond. However, requests for beta releases and other queries
   should properly be directed to Zeyd.
   
   There is an ncurses mailing list. It is a majordomo list; to join,
   write to listserv@netcom.com with a message containing the line
   

             subscribe ncurses-list <name>@<host.domain>

   This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
   and testing of this package.
   
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.
   
The terminfo/termcap database

   This distribution now includes (and uses) a copy of the master
   terminfo database maintained by Eric Raymond. This database (which is
   the official descendant of the 4.4BSD termcap file) changes faster
   than this code does, so you probably want to pick up new copies
   occasionally.
   
   You can download either the termcap or terminfo versions of the
   terminal-type database from Eric's ncurses resource page,
   http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html.
   
   
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
