TO-DO revision 174993 
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28-- $Id: TO-DO,v 1.49 2007/02/03 16:29:17 tom Exp $
29-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30
31SHORT-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
32
33Known Problems:
34
35+ libtool does not work with GNAT.
36
37+ The screen optimization has been tested only in an ad hoc manner.  We should
38  develop a good set of regression tests to cover lib_doupdate.c and
39  lib_mvcur.c.
40
41+ Magic cookie support (for nonzero xmc values) does not work, since the logic
42  does not take into account refresh.  Also, the initial optimize does not
43  adjust the current location when a cookie is emitted.
44
45+ Scrolling optimization has holes:  for example, it forces repaints of the
46  screen between calls to refresh().
47
48+ SVr4 uses slightly different rules for determining when softkeys are shown. 
49  For example, they are initially displayed (before the ncurses 'e' test
50  activates them), and a touchwin can apparently also force them to be
51  displayed.
52
53+ The code departs from perfect 8-bit cleanness in one respect; you cannot
54  specify a character \200 as part of a capability string, because the
55  terminfo library interprets \200 as a request to embed NUL (\000) at that
56  point.  This is a legacy terminfo property we can't mess with.
57
58+ The window classes defined in the c++ subdirectory need documentation.  Some
59  C++ programmer could earn a lot of good karma by doing this...
60
61+ vid_attr() should support the set_a_attributes (sgr1) string, but does not. 
62  There appear to be no terminals that require that functionality.
63
64Portability (or lack thereof):
65
66+ Users of older System V UNIXes (but not Solaris, and probably not SVr4) may
67  trip over a known problem with the signal-handling code which causes abrupt
68  termination of ncurses applications following resume from a ^Z suspend (this
69  problem was first seen running lynx).  You will not see this problem if you
70  are running Linux or one of the 4.4BSD derivatives like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or
71  BSDI.  For details, see the analysis in the header comment of
72  ncurses/tty/lib_tstp.c .
73
74+ In theory, vwprintw and vwscanf are supposed to use the older varargs.h
75  interface for handling variadic argument lists (and are deprecated by X/Open
76  for that reason).  Linux doesn't have varargs.h, it has the newer
77  X/Open-standard stdargs.h equivalent.  So these functions use stdargs
78  instead.  This is unlikely to be a problem unless you're building ncurses on
79  a System V old enough to only have varargs.h.  (Solaris 2.5.1 used the
80  stdarg.h binding as well).
81
82+ If you're using a BSD earlier than 4.4BSD, or a Linux old enough not to have
83  a native vsscanf(3) in its library, vwscanw() will not work.  You lose.  (It
84  should work on any System V, however).  If you want to fix this, add an
85  implementation to ncurses/vsscanf.c.
86
87+ The C++ binding fails to build with a few C++ compilers.
88
89+ terminfo.5 does not format with the SunOS (and most other platform's) tbl
90  utility because it relies on a diversion for each table entry.  Get the
91  groff package.
92
93Untested features:
94
95+ The code for the HP color model using set_color_pair is untested.
96
97+ The code for handling soft labels on a terminal type with built-in support
98  for them (num_labels > 0, label_height, label_width, label_format, label_off,
99  label_on, plab_norm, lab_f*) has not been tested.  The label_format and
100  lab_f* capabilities aren't presently used.
101
102LONGER-TERM TO-DO ITEMS:
103
1041. Extended COSE conformance
105
106There is an XPG4 standard released in 1996 which describes a superset
107of the SVr4 API.  The library is BASE conformant with this standard.
108We would like to make ncurses fully conformant at the EXTENDED level
109supporting internationalization.
110
1112. DOS port
112
113Only a few of the files in the library depend on the terminfo format.
114It should be possible to further kernelize the package, then rewrite 
115a small number of core files to produce a functionally-compatible
116port that would do updates to a memory-mapped screen area.  The first
117result of this would be a DOS port.
118
1193. X port
120
121It would be nice if ncurses could recognize when it was running under X and
122maintain its own window.  With this feature, all ncurses programs would
123automatically become X programs.  The challenge is to handle resize events
124properly.
125
1264. Unused capabilities
127
128The currently unused capabilities fall naturally into several groups:
129
130A. Status-line capabilities:
131
132	Booleans: has_status_line, status_line_esc_ok.
133	Numerics: width_status_line.
134	Strings: dis_status_line, from_status_line, to_status_line.
135
136System V Release 1 curses made no use of these at all.  SVr4's use, if
137any, is unknown.  From the AT&T termcap file it looks like curses, in general,
138shouldn't use them; terminal variants with status lines have their line count
139decremented by 1, suggesting that curses is supposed to leave the status line
140alone.
141
142B. Printer capabilities:
143
144	Boolean: col_addr_glitch, cr_cancels_micro_mode, has_print_wheel,
145		row_addr_glitch, semi_auto_right_margin, cpi_changes_res,
146		lpi_changes_res.
147	Numeric: buffer_capacity, dot_horz_spacing, dot_vert_spacing,
148		max_micro_address, max_micro_jump, micro_col_size,
149		micro_line_size, number_of_pins, output_res_char,
150		output_res_line, output_res_horz_inch, print_rate,
151		wide_char_size, bit_image_entwining, bit_image_type.
152	String: down_half_line, form_feed, up_half_line, set_left_margin,
153		set_right_margin, clear_margins, change_char_pitch
154		... set_page_length (all the SVr4 printer caps),
155
156Curses doesn't use these.
157
158C. Printer-control capabilities:
159
160	Boolean: prtr_silent.
161	Strings: print_screen, prtr_on, prtr_off, prtr_non.
162
163Curses doesn't use these.
164
165D. Dialer strings:
166
167	Strings: hangup, dial_phone, quick_dial, tone, pulse, flash_hook,
168		fixed_pause, wait_tone.
169
170Curses doesn't use these.
171
172E. Window and virtual-terminal capabilities:
173
174	Numerics: maximum_windows, virtual_terminal.
175	Strings: req_for_input, create_window, goto_window, set_window.
176
177These seem to be fossils from some AT&T experiments on character-based
178window systems that never escaped the lab.  The virtual_terminal cap had
179something to do with building terminal emulations into tty line disciplines.
180
181F. Unused VDT capabilities:
182
183	Booleans: erase_overstrike, has_meta_key, insert_null_glitch,
184		move_insert, dest_tabs_magic_smso, transparent_underline,
185		needs_xon_xoff, hard_cursor.
186	Numerics: lines_of_memory, buttons.
187	Strings: pkey_key, pkey_local, pkey_xmit, underline_char, 
188		enter_xon_mode,	exit_xon_mode, xon_character, xoff_character, 
189		display_clock, remove_clock, user[0-5], display_pc_char,
190		enter_scancode_mode, exit_scancode_mode, pc_term_options, 
191		scancode_escape, alt_scancode_esc.
192
193These are the potentially important ones for ncurses.  Notes:
194
195	i) ncurses doesn't need move_insert; it never uses cup/hpa/vpa while
196		insert_mode is on.
197
198	ii) We probably don't care about dest_tabs_magic_smso; only
199		Telerays used it and they're all long obsolete.
200
201-- vile:txtmode
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