Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!psu-cs!kirkenda
From: kirkenda@psu-cs.UUCP (Steve Kirkendall)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: ATARI/MINIX Curses
Message-ID: <1310@psu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 88 00:43:04 GMT
References: <546@ucrmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: kirkenda@psu-cs.UUCP (Steve Kirkendall)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR
Lines: 37

In article <546@ucrmath.UUCP> pascal@ucrmath.UUCP (Freeman P. Pascal IV) writes:
>At sometime in my scrounging I happened apon a curses package for the ATARI.
>I don't know if it's for the ST or older.  It appears to be an almost complete
>implementation of curses with exception of some of the low level terminal
>routines.  It also appears to run in a VT52 mode.
>
>I would port this curses package to MINIX if...

I have written version of curses that uses termcap, originally for SCO Xenix.
The code is mine.  I wrote it from scratch.  As soon as I get my copy of
Minix-ST (which should happen tomorrow), I will begin porting it immediately.

Some nice features of my version of curses:
	* It uses termcap, so it works on practically any terminal.
	* It used the AL and DL strings to update the screen when you do a
	  refresh() after an insertln() or deleteln().  This allows my
	  curses to scroll *portions* of the screen quickly.
	* All characters sent during a refresh() are held in a large buffer
	  which is transmitted via a single write() call.  This makes screen
	  updates virtually instantaneous
	* It supports many character attributes: reverse, underline, italics,
	  blink, bold, dim.
	* The code is reasonably compact -- about 30% smaller than Xenix
	  curses.  I figure that makes up for needing a large output buffer.

The current version is resonably compatible with Xenix curses (two people
converted 120,000 lines of code from Xenix curses to my curses in 2 days),
but not 100% SYSV.  Probably I'll post the ported current version, and then
develop a SYSV compatible version about 6 weeks later.

I also have a couple of games I could port -- so you all have something to
test curses with, you know.

Comments?
-- 
"If I seem insensitive to what you're going through,
	keep in mind that's the way I am." -- Mr. Spock