[comp.os.minix] ATARI/MINIX curses

pascal@ucrmath.UUCP (Freeman P. Pascal IV) (11/27/88)

Hello,

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 it was in the public domain or
the copyright granted permission. But!! there's no copyright, no authors 
name, no nothing - with the exception of a notice in curses.h that states
some of the copyright limits.

My question is - would any of you out there in netland have seen or heard
of a curses package that sounds remotely like this?  I need to know more
info before I tackle porting it.  Like, is it PD?

Also, could someone out there send me any info on the VT52 mode that this
package runs in.  There are quite a few non standard escape sequences that
are not part of the VT52 escape sequences.  Could someone send me a list
of escape sequences for the atari in vt52 mode?  Please? It sure would make
my efforts easier.

Freeman P. Pascal IV



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kirkenda@psu-cs.UUCP (Steve Kirkendall) (11/29/88)

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

VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (12/02/88)

Freeman P. Pascal IV <pascal@UCRMATH.UUCP> asks:

>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 it was in the public domain or
>the copyright granted permission. But!! there's no copyright, no authors
>name, no nothing - with the exception of a notice in curses.h that states
>some of the copyright limits.

>My question is - would any of you out there in netland have seen or heard
>of a curses package that sounds remotely like this?  I need to know more
>info before I tackle porting it.  Like, is it PD?

Yes, there is a PD curses package for the ST. You may safely port it to
Minix. It's available at several of the ST servers in various networks.
See if you can grab a copy and compare it with your version of curses.

If makes you feel better I can try to dig up the name of the author :-)

Bitnet:  VBRANDT@DBNUAMA1                              Volker A. Brandt
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