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-- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.44 2004/03/07 02:04:20 tom Exp $
SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
Known Problems:
* The form/menu libraries do not use wide-character features.
* libtool does not work with GNAT.
* The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner. We should
develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
lib_mvcur.c.
* Magic cookie support does not work, since the logic does not take into account
refresh. Also, the initial optimize does not adjust the current location
when a cookie is emitted.
* Scrolling optimization has holes: for example, it forces repaints of the
screen between calls to refresh().
* SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown.
For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
displayed.
* The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the terminfo
library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that point. This
is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
* The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation.
Some C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
* The resizeterm() function does not handle ripped-off lines such as that
done for the slk_XXX functions.
Portability (or lack thereof):
* Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4)
may trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes
abrupt termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z
suspend (this problem was first seen running lynx). You will not see
this problem if you are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives
like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or BSDI. For details, see the analysis in the
header comment of ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
* In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
interface for handling variadic argument lists. Linux doesn't have
varargs.h, it has the newer X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent. So
these functions use stdargs instead. This is unlikely to be a problem
unless you're building ncurses on a System V old enough to only have
varargs.h. (Solaris 2.5.1 uses the stdarg.h binding as well).
* If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to
have a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work. You lose.
(It should work on any System V, however). If you want to fix this, add
an implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
* The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers, mainly with
configure script problems with vsscanf().
* terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry. Get the groff
package.
Untested features:
* The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
* The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested. The label_format and
lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
1. Extended COSE conformance
There is an XPG4 standard recently released which describes a superset
of the SVr4 API. The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
supporting internationalization.
2. DOS port
Only 16 of the 55 files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite
a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area. The first
result of this would be a DOS port.
3. X port
It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
maintain its own window. With this feature, all ncurses programs would
automatically become X programs. The challenge is to handle resize events
properly.
4. Unused capabilities
The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
A. Status-line capabilities:
Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
Numerics: width_status_line.
Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all. SVr4's use, if
any, is unknown. From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
alone.
B. Printer capabilities:
Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
lpi_changes_res.
Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
Curses doesn't use these.
C. Printer-control capabilities:
Boolean: prtr_silent.
Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
Curses doesn't use these.
D. Dialer strings:
Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
fixed_pause, wait_tone.
Curses doesn't use these.
E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
window systems that never escaped the lab. The virtual_terminal cap had
something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
F. Unused VDT capabilities:
Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char,
enter_xon_mode, exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character,
display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options,
scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
These are the potentially important ones for ncurses. Notes:
i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
insert_mode is on.
ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.
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