Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mcc-db.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!mcc-db!jbc
From: jbc@mcc-db.UUCP (John B. Chambers)
Newsgroups: mod.std.unix
Subject: Re: curses, terminfo, and termcap
Message-ID: <247@mcc-db.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Jul-85 19:56:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcc-db.247
Posted: Sun Jul 14 19:56:29 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 10:05:28 EDT
References: <2257@ut-sally.UUCP>, <2294@ut-sally.UUCP>
Reply-To: std-unix-request@ut-sally
Organization: MCC (Austin, TX)
Lines: 46
Approved: jbc@mcc-db.UUCP

From: John Chambers (guest moderator) 

Topic: curses, terminfo, termcap

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 10 Jul 85 00:15:09 CDT (Wed)
From: ihnp4!utzoo!henry@ut-sally.ARPA
Subject: Re: curses, terminfo, and termcap

> What I think is important about curses is not the code that implements
> it (although this code was hard and it shouldn't have to be done more
> than once) but the interface between the program and the package.
> Curses is intended as a way to write portable screen oriented applications.
> ...
> I personally would like to see curses (or some appripriate subset) become
> part of the C standard, along with Standard I/O.  However, it appears that
> the committee is not planning to do this.  Lacking this, I would like to
> see it become part of a UNIX standard.

One might argue (and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I would) that a
standard screen-handling package ought to be oriented towards display of
text rather than video games.  Unless I have missed something -- I am not
all that familiar with curses -- when I insert a line in the middle of my
"screen", curses essentially has to rediscover this by comparing characters.
This seems silly; surely higher-level primitives would be better for most
situations.  (Rogue is a different story, of course.)

Something like the "FastAlpha" package described by HP a couple of Usenixes
ago would be a much better match to text-oriented screen handling, which I
would guess describes the majority of non-game curses applications.  Alas,
curses is already pretty well established; it may be too late to change.

				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry



----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 

John B. Chambers, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, TX
{ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!mcc-db!jbc, jbc@ut-sally.ARPA, chambers@mcc.ARPA