Curses for 10.30

Features of X/Open Curses

The shared library libcurses.sl, linked to libxcurses.1, complies to the X/Open CAE specification for the curses library, X/Open Curses, Issue 4, Version 2 (XPG4v2).

Features of HP Curses

The legacy HP Curses library (libHcurses.sl or libHcurses.a) is not X/Open compliant.

Summary of Change to X/Open Curses

A number of API declarations are added and changed in the <curses.h> and <term.h> header files to comply to XPG4v2. As a result, no binary incompatibilities were introduced.

Changes:

The following changes introduce source incompatibilities for ANSI C and C++ users:
- The prototype for the tparm API (declared in <term.h>) changed from
  extern char *tparm (char *, ...);
  to
  extern char *tparm (char *, long, long, long, long, long \ long, long, long, long);
  To use the new prototypes, ANSI C users might have to change their parameter specifications and recompile. Alternatively, the old prototypes can still be used by defining __10_10_COMPAT_CODE to the preprocessor.
- The APIs color_set and wcolor_set each added one parameter.
The following changes introduce source incompatibilities that might result in compiler errors for C++ users and warnings for ANSI C users:
- a parameter formerly of type int was changed to type bool for the following APIs: clearok, intrflush, isendwin, keypad, leaveok, meta, nodelay, notimeout, scrollok, syncok, and use_env.
- a parameter of type wint_t (*) (wint_t) was changed to type int (*) (int) in the API vid_puts.
X/Open Enhanced Curses features in the <curses.h> and <term.h> header files are available to applications only if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is defined to the preprocessor. X/Open applications that use data types, constants, or variables defined as Enhanced Curses features might encounter compilation errors if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is not defined. See the XPG4v2 specification or the white paper "Migrating HP Curses Applications to Xcurses" for detailed information.
Some APIs not specified by XPG4v2, but available in previous releases of HP-UX, have been retained as unsupported APIs. Using these features is not recommended because they are not supported by X/Open and they are not portable across other UNIX95 branded systems. X/Open applications that need these features must define __HP_CURSES_COMPAT to the preprocessor. See the white paper "Migrating HP Curses Applications to Xcurses" for detailed information.
It is no longer necessary to define _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED to include the basic X/Open Curses sections of <curses.h> and <term.h>. If no Enhanced Curses features are needed, you should instead define _XOPEN_SOURCE. _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED should be defined to make use of X/Open Enhanced Curses features.
Applications can force inclusion of functions rather than macros for many APIs by defining NOMACROS to the preprocessor (this switch existed in previous releases, but was undocumented).
C++ compilers that implement bool as an internal keyword are not compatible with this implementation of X/Open curses.

Summary of Change for HP Curses

Header files for the HP Curses library (libHcurses.sl or libHcurses.a) have been moved to:

/usr/old/usr/include/curses.h
/usr/old/usr/include/term.h

HP Curses applications can make use of these header files by

including them directly (the recommended approach):
#include "/usr/old/usr/include/curses.h"
defining __HP_CURSES to the preprocessor:
cc -D__HP_CURSES foo.c -lHcurses

Impact on X/Open Curses: Compliance to X/Open Curses, Issue 4, Version 2

API prototype declarations

X/Open applications that use the old prototypes for tparm, color_set, or wcolor_set will encounter a compilation error in ANSI-C mode if __10_10_COMPAT_CODE is not defined to the preprocessor.

X/Open Enhanced Curses features

X/Open applications that use constants and variables defined as X/Open Enhanced Curses features and those that refer to the address of APIs defined as X/Open Enhanced Curses features will encounter a compilation error if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is not defined to the preprocessor.

Features not defined in XPG4v2

X/Open applications that use constants and variables that are not defined in XPG4v2 and those that refer to the addresses of APIs that are not defined by XPG4v2 2 will encounter a compilation error if __HP_CURSES_COMPAT is not defined to the preprocessor.