ncurses-4.0 un-announcement

Hi folks,

First off, let me say what I was going to say last...

Seasons greetings to all, and may 1997 be the start of something
fantastic :-)

It's the end of 1996. Geez, I'm been subscribed here all this year
(and a few months longer) for at least three reasons - to keep up with
the lastest news about ncurses, to help contribute to development in
any small way I can (contributing to discussion, beta-testing, making
suggestions and small coding contributions), and to perhaps learn
something more about how it works and/or how I can use it better.

The ncurses-1.9.9g release earlier this month caught most people by
suprise. The fact that is was released at all makes no sense (but see
below).

Now for another complete suprise... I see
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/ncurses-4.0.lsm and the
ncurses-4.0.tar.gz (dated Dec 24th)...

Begin3
Title: ncurses
Version: 4.0
Entered-date: Tue Dec 24 17:00:00 EST 1996
Description: SVr4 and XSI-Curses compatible curses library and terminfo
                tools including tic, infocmp, captoinfo. The library can
                be configured to fall back to reading /etc/termcap for
                backward compatibility with BSD curses, but the distribution
                includes a copy of the master terminfo database. Supports
                color, multiple highlights, forms-drawing characters, and
                automatic recognition of keypad and function-key sequences.
                C++ binding (not supported) and example. Ada95 binding and
                examples. Includes man pages, test programs. Approved to
                replace 4.4BSD curses, June 1995.
Keywords: curses, interface, screen, library
Author: zmbenhal_at_netcom.com (Zeyd Ben-Halim)
                dickey_at_clark.net (Thomas Dickey)
                esr_at_snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)
                juergen.pfeifer_at_T-Online.de (Juergen Pfeifer)
Maintained-by: dickey_at_clark.net (Thomas Dickey)
                juergen.pfeifer_at_T-Online.de (Juergen Pfeifer)
Primary-site: ftp.netcom.com /pub/zm/zmbenhal/ncurses
                ncurses-4.0.tar.gz
Platform: Portable to any ANSI/POSIX system.
Alternate-site: ftp.clark.net /pub/dickey/ncurses
Alternate-site: prep.ai.mit.edu /pub/gnu
Copying-policy: BSD-like.
End

Another quick release? Let's hope that it's stable. But I get the
impression that this is for Linux only, as it has not appeared for
other platforms at other places, eg, prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/,
ftp://alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu/, etc.

Why this release? Why now? How different is the 4.0 API from 1.9.9e
and 1.9.9g? What are the implications? Do I need to recompile things
to get them relinked against libncurses-4.0 before I can get rid of my
old 1.9.9{e,g} shared libs? Or will libncurses.so.4.0 work seamlessly
with all my current ncurses-linked applications?

>From the 10k TO-DO list, it seems that there is still much to do.
How far away is ncurses-5.0? Was 4.0 really ready for release?

<grumblemode>

This is inexcusable... why no discussion or warning or announcement
about this here? (Until now). What's this email list supposed to be
used for anyway? <shrug> The TO-DO, ANNOUNCE, NEWS and README files
could have fruitfully been posted here over the past few weeks to
stimulate such discussion.

Ok, we're all aware of the "politics" that's been going on.
Personally I don't understand... with you guys such excellent,
prolific and dedicated coders; I don't really want to hear any more of
this - hopefully because it has all been resolved.

Resolved... but how? Eric is no longer listed in the lsm as one of the
maintainers, and that fact speaks volumes. I no longer have
ncurses-1.9.9g_961221/ncurses.lsm to check, but I get the feeling that
1.9.9g was the last to be credited as being maintained by Eric (thus
the quick release). [Ahh, the plot thickens].

Hopefully this has all come about with some order and understanding
and a miminum of hostility (hey, shit happens, right?) If the
situation is murkier, well I guess we haven't heard that last of this
(and pity for that).

</grumblemode>

Eric, we all know how much work you have done for ncurses in the past.
It was no secret that you were going to "retire" when the next release
was out, and it seems that that time has come. If you are now no
longer part of the current development project (for whatever reason),
then I would like to acknowledge the work you have done for ncurses.
Thanks mate. I wish you well.

Are you still going to be the maintainer of the terminfo/termcap
databases?

In any event, it seems that your energies are going into other
projects, `fetchmail' being one of them - and Eric, as I've been using
it for several weeks now, let me say that it does a dandy job of doing
POP for me. :-)

Ok, enough with the politics. Let's get back to ncurses
development!

Cheers
Tony
(an innocent but observant victi^H^H^H^H^Hbystander).
Received on Fri Dec 27 1996 - 00:36:22 EST