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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<html>
<head>
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<title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
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<body>
<h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</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 MacOS.</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="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
tool</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
screen</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
entries</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
capabilities in shell scripts</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/">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> .</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> .</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>
@VERSION@, released <strong>October 21, 2021</strong>.</p>
<p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.2; 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 reason for the release is
to reflect improvements to the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
programs.</p>
<p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
this announcement.</p>
<p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with portability issues. The
release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are focused
on new features and improvements to existing features since
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 6.2 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>There are a few new features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>A new (experimental) driver, for the Windows Terminal
configuration is provided.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A script is provided which enables <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-openbsd.html">OpenBSD</a> users to
upgrade their system to use ncurses 6.3 (OpenBSD developers
are also invited to do this).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
extensions) are provided in this release:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify lib_mouse.c to check for out-of-range button
numbers, convert those to position reports.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add sp-funcs for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_termattrs.3x.html#h3-erasechar_-erasewchar">
erasewchar</a>, <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_termattrs.3x.html#h3-killchar_-killwchar">
killwchar</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
improvements</a></h4>
<p>These are revised features:</p>
<ul>
<li>modify wgetnstr, wgetn_wstr to improve compatibility with
SVr4 curses in its treatment of interrupt and quit
characters</li>
</ul>
<p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>mark wgetch-events feature as deprecated.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>prevent <tt>KEY_EVENT</tt> from appearing in
<tt>curses.h</tt> unless the configure option
<code>--enable-wgetch-events</code> is used.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>MKkey_defs.sh</tt> to hide ncurses'
definition of <tt>KEY_EVENTS</tt> to reduce <em>Visual
Studio C++</em> redefinition warnings.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>reduce build-warnings by excluding ncurses-internals from
deprecation warnings.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>drop symbols <em>GCC_PRINTF</em> and <em>GCC_SCANF</em>
from <curses.h>, to simplify use.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>apply gcc format attribute to prototypes which use a
va_list parameter rather than a “<tt>...</tt>”
variable-length parameter list.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <term.h> so that it is not necessary to
include <curses.h> before <term.h>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>provide for wide-characters as background character in
wbkgrnd</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve parameter-checking for tparm, adding function
_nc_tiparm() to handle the most-used case, which accepts only
numeric parameters.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use return-value from <em>vsnprintf</em> to reallocate as
needed to allow for buffers larger than the screen size.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add another <em>fflush(stdout)</em> in <em>_nc_flush</em>
to handle time-delays in the middle of strings such as flash
when the application uses low-level calls rather than
curses.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add a check to guard against <em>repeat_char</em> emitting
digits which could be interpreted as BSD-style padding when
<tt>--enable-bsdpad</tt> is configured.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>check for screen size-change in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scr_dump.3x.html">scr_init</a> and
<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scr_dump.3x.html">scr_restore</a>, in
case a screen dump does not match the current screen
dimensions</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
improvements</a></h3>
<p id="h4-utilities">Several improvements were made to the
utility programs:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html">tabs</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>
<p>implement “<tt>+m</tt>” option</p>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add check for duplicate “<tt>use=</tt>”
clauses.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add check to report instances where <tt>tparm</tt>
would detect an error in an expression.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add user-defined capabilities from <em>mintty</em> to
<tt>Caps-ncurses</tt>, for checking consistency.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve warning when oc/op do not mention SGR 39/49
for <em>xterm</em> compatible <code>XT</code> flag.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve checks for number of parameters of
<code>smglp</code>, <code>smgrp</code>,
<code>smgtp</code>, and <code>smgbp</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve “<tt>-c</tt>” option to validate
the number and type of parameters and compare against
expected number/type before deciding which set of
parameter-lists to use in tparm calls.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve check for errors detected in
<code>tparm</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve format of output, to ensure that the messages
contain only printable text.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify to eliminate unnecessary
“<code>\</code>” to escape
“<code>:</code>” in terminfo format.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>remove check that assumes that none or both
parameterized and non-parameterized margin-setting
capabilities are present.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">toe</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify output of “<tt>toe -as</tt>” to
show first description found rather than the last.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add a check to ensure that a “termcap
file” is text rather than binary.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html">tput</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify to allow multiple commands per line.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve parameter-checking by analyzing all extended
string capabilities, e.g., as used in the <code>Cs</code>
and <code>Ms</code> capabilities of the <em>tmux</em>
description.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>make warning messages consistently using alias names
when those are used, rather than the underlying program's
name.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve usage message for aliases such as
<em>clear</em>, by eliminating <em>tput</em>-specific
portions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify initialization to avoid opening
<tt>/dev/tty</tt> for cases other than
<em>reset/init</em>, e.g., for <em>clear</em>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
<h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
<p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
to the <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. Most of
this activity aimed at improving the test-packages. A few changes
are more generally useful, e.g., for the main ncurses
test-program, and for analyzing traces using the
<em>tracemunch</em> script:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add “<tt>-r</tt>” option to the <em>dots</em>
test-programs, to help with scripting a performance
comparison.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>build-fix for <em>test_opaque</em>, for configurations
without opaque curses structs, e.g., ncurses 5.7.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <em>tracemunch</em> logic for "RUN"
compaction.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>'s coverage of form/menu/panel
libraries.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>'s checking/reporting the type
for the first parameter, e.g., "WINDOW*" rather than
"#1".</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <em>tracemunch</em> and the panel library to show
readable traces for panel- and user-pointers.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
examples:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>back_ground</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>to exercise the wide-character background functions.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>move_field</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>to demonstrate <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field.3x.html">move_field</a>, and a stub
for a corresponding demo of <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_new.3x.html">dup_field</a>.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test_tparm</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>for checking <em>tparm</em> changes.</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
<p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
<blockquote style="word-break:keep-all">
<p><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-absolute">absolute</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-att610_cvis">att610+cvis</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-foot">foot</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-foot-direct">foot-direct</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-hp98550-color">hp98550-color</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-hpterm-color2">hpterm-color2</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-hterm">hterm</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-hterm-256color">hterm-256color</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux-s">linux-s</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty_keypad">putty+keypad</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty_screen">putty+screen</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty-screen">putty-screen</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-screen.linux-s">screen.linux-s</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-scrt/securecrt">scrt/securecrt</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux-direct">tmux-direct</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220_cvis">vt220+cvis</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220_cvis8">vt220+cvis8</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220_pcedit">vt220+pcedit</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220_vtedit">vt220+vtedit</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220-base">vt220-base</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt52_keypad">vt52+keypad</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_256color2">xterm+256color2</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_88color2">xterm+88color2</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-direct16">xterm-direct16</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-direct256">xterm-direct256</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_nofkeys">xterm+nofkeys</a></tt>,
and <tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_nopcfkeys">xterm+nopcfkeys</a></tt>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
were updates to several descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li>correct use-ordering in some <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-direct">xterm-direct</a>
flavors</li>
<li>fix some sgr inconsistencies in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-d230c">d230c</a>, <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ibm6153">ibm6153</a>,
<a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ibm6154">ibm6154</a>,
<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ncrvt100an">ncrvt100an</a></li>
<li>improve <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt50h">vt50h</a> and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt52">vt52</a> based on
DECScope manual</li>
<li>use <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-hp_arrows">hp+arrows</a> in a
few places</li>
<li>use <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-hp_pfk-cr">hp+pfk-cr</a> in a
few places</li>
<li>use <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220_cvis">vt220+cvis</a> in
<tt>st</tt>, <tt>terminology</tt>, <tt>termite</tt> since they
ignore blinking-cursor detail in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-att610_cvis">att610+cvis</a></li>
</ul>
<p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-kitty_common">kitty+common</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-mlterm3">mlterm3</a></tt>,
<tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ms-terminal">ms-terminal</a></tt></p>
</blockquote>
<p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
"part-name">tic</span>:</p>
<dl>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-aaa_dec">aaa+dec</a>,
aaa+rv</dt>
<dd>correct rmacs/smacs</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-aaa_rv">aaa+rv</a>
</dt>
<dd>correct sgr</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-icl6404">icl6404</a>
</dt>
<dd>correct csr</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-kitty">kitty</a>
</dt>
<dd>use att610+cvis, xterm+tmux and ansi+enq</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-konsole-base">konsole-base</a>
</dt>
<dd>re-enable "bel"</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux2.6">linux2.6</a>
</dt>
<dd>fix pound-sign mapping in acsc</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux3.0">linux3.0</a>
</dt>
<dd>modify to reflect default mapping of shift-tab by kbd
1.14</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-pccons">pccons</a>
</dt>
<dd>fill in some missing pieces, to make it comparable to the
vt220 entry</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty">putty</a>
</dt>
<dd>use vt100+fnkeys, add rep</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-screen">screen</a>
</dt>
<dd>use vt100+enq</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-terminator">terminator</a>
</dt>
<dd>corrected tsl capability</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ti916">ti916</a>
</dt>
<dd>correct cup</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux">tmux</a>
</dt>
<dd>change kbs to ^?</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt220">vt220</a>
</dt>
<dd>use vt220+cvis</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt420_lrmm">vt420+lrmm</a>
</dt>
<dd>add smglp and smgrp</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt420">vt420</a>
</dt>
<dd>use vt420+lrmm</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-new">xterm-new</a>
</dt>
<dd>add nel</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-vt52">xterm-vt52</a>
</dt>
<dd>use vt52+keypad</dd>
</dl>
<p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
capabilities):</p>
<ul>
<li>add shifted Linux console keys in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux_sfkeys">linux+sfkeys</a>
entry for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-screen.linux">screen.linux</a></li>
<li>add Smulx to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-alacritty">alacritty</a></li>
<li>add kbeg to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_keypad">xterm+keypad</a>
to accommodate termcap applications</li>
<li>add extensions in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_tmux">xterm+tmux</a>
and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ecma_strikeout">ecma+strikeout</a>
to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ms-terminal">ms-terminal</a>,
but cancel the non-working Cr and Ms capabilities</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="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
but treated sketchily in 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>Corrections:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>make <em>opts</em> extension for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h3-getcchar"><tt>getcchar</tt></a>
work as documented for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/announce-6.1.htmll#h4-new-library">ncurses
6.1</a>, adding “<tt>-g</tt>” flag to
<em>demo_new_pair</em> to illustrate.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html">tset</a>
“-q” option to refrain from modifying
terminal modes, to match the documentation.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improve documentation for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Parameterized-Strings">
tparm</a> and static/dynamic variables.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add history note to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scanw.3x.html#h2-HISTORY">curs_scanw.3x</a>
for <stdarg.h> and <varargs.h></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add history note to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-HISTORY">curs_printw.3x</a>
for <stdarg.h> and <varargs.h></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add portability note to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-Header-files">ncurses.3x</a>
regarding <stdarg.h></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add historical notes to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html#h2-HISTORY">tput</a>,
<a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h2-HISTORY">
curses-terminfo</a> and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_color.3x.html#h2-HISTORY">curses-color</a>
manpages based on source-code for SVr2, SVr3 and
SVr4.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve history section for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html#h2-HISTORY">tset</a> manpage
based on the 1BSD tarball, which preceded BSD's SCCS
checkins by more than three years.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Other improvements:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>explain in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
ncurses.3x</a> that functions in the tinfo library do not
rely upon wide-characters.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve manual page for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/panel.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">panel</a>
library, extending the portability section as well as
documenting error-returns.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add section on margins to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Margins">terminfo.5</a>,
adapted from X/Open Curses.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">man/term.5</a>
section on legacy storage format.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add a note in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities">
terminfo.5</a> explaining that no-parameter strings such
as <em><tt>sgr0</tt></em> or <em><tt>cnorm</tt></em>
should not be used with tparm.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve description of BSD-style padding in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_termcap.3x.html#h2-BUGS">curs_termcap.3x</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve discussion of padding versus <tt>tparm</tt>
and <tt>tputs</tt> in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output">
man/curs_terminfo.3x</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add a note in manual page to explain <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getch.3x.html#h3-Ungetting-characters">
ungetch</a> vs <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_get_wch.3x.html#h3-unget_wch">unget_wch</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve description of error-returns in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h2-RETURN-VALUE">waddch</a>
and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addstr.3x.html#h2-RETURN-VALUE">waddnstr</a>
manual pages.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
are to existing pages).</p>
<p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
the information is presented. For instance, hyphenation is
suppressed in the HTML files generated from manual pages because
an upgrade to <em>groff</em> gave noticeably poorer results,
interfering with the process of creating links between the
resulting webpages.</p>
<h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
bug-fixes</a></h3>
<p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
6.3, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
are detailed in the <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t20211018">NEWS</a> file no elaboration is
needed here.</p>
<p>The interesting bugs were:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd">wbkgd</a> and
<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgrnd.3x.html#h3-bkgrnd">wbkgrnd</a> to
avoid storing a null in the background character, because it
may be used in cases where the corresponding 0x80 is not
treated as a null.</p>
<p>This was a regression introduced in ncurses 6.2 (<a href=
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2020-03/msg00000.html">reported</a>
on the mailing list), for which the workaround was to specify
a blank for the background character.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>remove output-related checks for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_outopts.3x.html">nl/nonl</a> (also
<a href=
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2020-09/msg00018.html">
reported</a> on the mailing list).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve tparm implementation of <tt>%P</tt> and
<tt>%g</tt>, more closely matching SVr4 terminfo. Those
denote <em>static</em> and <em>dynamic</em> variables in
terminfo expressions.</p>
<p>Exactly what those terms meant was never documented before
in any implementation of curses, aside from source code.
Unlike the other two fixes, the problem was discovered while
studying OpenBSD's version of <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-openbsd.html#issue_tput">tset</a>.</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>There are no major changes. Several new options were added to
ease integration of packages with systems using different
versions of <em>GNAT</em> and <em>ncurses</em>. Also,
improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
<h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
"h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>