[comp.unix.questions] BSD 4.3 curses and scrolling

lee@io.UUCP (Lee Kamentsky) (04/01/88)

As far as I can tell, my copy of the "curses" library (BSD 4.3
distributed by Sun) doesn't take advantage of the insert or
delete line features of terminals.  It seems to just repaint when
it could do some intelligent scrolling.  Does anyone know where
I could get a better "curses" package?
-- 
	...!harvard!umb!ileaf!lee	Lee Kamentsky, Interleaf
	  ...!sun!sunne!ileaf!lee	Ten Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141
					(617) 577-9813 x5551

gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (04/01/88)

In article <573@io.UUCP> lee (Lee Kamentsky) writes:
>As far as I can tell, my copy of the "curses" library (BSD 4.3
>distributed by Sun) doesn't take advantage of the insert or
>delete line features of terminals.  It seems to just repaint when
>it could do some intelligent scrolling.

Check that the al, dl, AL, DL capabilities are present in your
/etc/termcap.  We had them disabled on our systems for a while
because someone was annoyed at the visual appearance, but they've
been reinstated recently.

chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (04/01/88)

>In article <573@io.UUCP> lee (Lee Kamentsky) writes:
>>As far as I can tell, my copy of the "curses" library (BSD 4.3
>>distributed by Sun) doesn't take advantage of the insert or
>>delete line features of terminals.

[N.B.: Sun releases are not based on 4.3BSD.  At best SunOS 3.5 has
many of the 4.3BSD fixes/improvements in it, but it still has some
4.2BSD-based code.  It also has some SysV based code, though which
SysV release I cannot say.]

In article <7600@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>Check that the al, dl, AL, DL capabilities are present in your
>/etc/termcap.

Whichever SunOS he is running may have the 4.2/4.3BSD curses library,
which does not do line insert and delete (this was one reason I wrote
my own window management library, back in 1981 or 1982 or so).  Mark
Horton's newer curses, which is part of at least some releases of SysV,
does.  (This is one of those few things that I would agree are `vastly
superiour' in SysVR?.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris

greim@sbsvax.UUCP (Michael Greim) (04/07/88)

In article <573@io.UUCP> lee (Lee Kamentsky) writes:
>>As far as I can tell, my copy of the "curses" library (BSD 4.3
>>distributed by Sun) doesn't take advantage of the insert or
>>delete line features of terminals.

In article <10886@mimsy.UUCP> Chris Torek writes
>>Whichever SunOS he is running may have the 4.2/4.3BSD curses library,
>>which does not do line insert and delete (this was one reason I wrote
>>my own window management library, back in 1981 or 1982 or so).  Mark
>>Horton's newer curses, which is part of at least some releases of SysV,
>>does.  (This is one of those few things that I would agree are `vastly
>>superiour' in SysVR?.)

I have written a window management package based on source code of
curses too.

Curses' inability to scroll (subwindows, part of windows) was one of
the things which I tackled. My package is still in its infancy, but
we here find it more useful and versatile than 4.3BSD curses. 
As soon as I reach an agreement with AT&T on distribution I intend
to post it to the net, or at least announce its availability for
normal package costs. Only after I got an OK from AT&T for some
form of distribution I shall sit down and translate my documentation
from German to English :-@ (<-- this means "baaaaaeeeeehhhh", pronounced
with tongue betweent teeth ;-)


			Michael
-- 
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| UUCP:  ...!uunet!unido!sbsvax!greim   | Michael T. Greim                     |
|        or greim@sbsvax.UUCP           | Universitaet des Saarlandes          |
| CSNET: greim%sbsvax.uucp@Germany.CSnet| FB 10 - Informatik (Dept. of CS)     |
| ARPA:  greim%sbsvax.uucp@uunet.UU.NET | Bau 36, Im Stadtwald 15              |
| Phone: +49 681 302 2434               | D-6600 Saarbruecken 11, West Germany |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Watch this space. Don't let it escape.                                       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+