Re: ncurses 4.1

Juergen:
> weekly basis. His takeover of the ncurses project wasn't a hijacking!
> This has
> been discussed between Zeyd, Eric, Thomas and me.

Oh, yes? Did he ever answer you when you asked him why he dropped me off the
maintainers' list without my consent? I seem to recall you bringing that
question up at one time. *I* never saw a reply. Did *you*?

I *never* gave consent for the rogue 4.0 to be issued. Nor did Zeyd.

> If he feels this is an unfair statement I ask him to give
> an example
> of a significant contribution to ncurses he made in the last 12 month.

You want last twelve months? That's not too fair because Thomas's
intransigence drove me away in disgust for the last six months. But
I can fill your bill anyway.

Let's talk about fixing the blasted cursor-movement optimizer so it
actually worked, and contributing a novel algorithm that optimizes normal
text-editor-like updates faster than even BSD's.

Let's talk about mouse support.

Let's talk about compiled-in fallback types.

Let's talk about toe(1).

Let's talk about the ability to automatically fall back on a termcap file

Let's talk about maintaining every single line of the god-damned
documentation, something nobody else on this project

Since your memory appears to be faulty, here is a summary of what I
have contributed since beginning work on ncurses in November 1993:

The following entry points:
        setterm(), wgetnstr(), ripoffline(), termattrs(), delay_output(),
        wechochar(), addchstr(), addchnstr(), getwin(), putwin(),
        scr_dump(), scr_restore(), termname(), delscreen(), getparyx(),
        notimeout(), wnotimeout(), mvderwin(), wcursyncup(), wsyncup(),
        slk_attrset(), slk_attron(), slk_attroff(), idcok(), winchnstr(),
        qiflush(), noqiflush(), winnstr(), immedok(), winsnstr(), intrflush(),
        restartterm(), scr_set(), scr_init(), color_content(), wsyncdown(),
        filter().

Critical fixes to the following programs and modules:
        src/lib_getch.c, src/lib_vidattr.c, src/lib_getstr.c, src/lib_pad.c,
        src/lib_doupdate.c, data/linux, src/lib_insdel.c, test/gdc.c.

Major new user-visible features:
        * infocmp(1m), captoinfo(1m), tput(1), clear(1), tset(1), toe(1).
        * Automatic loading of forms character set on 386/486 machines.
        * A_PCCHARSET highlight for ROM-character display on 386/486 machines.
        * Hardware scrolling support with scroll-packing optimization.
        * Fast, cheap, *correct* cursor movement optimization.
        * tic can compile descriptions in either terminfo or termcap syntax.
        * automatic fallback to /etc/termcap from the library startup
        * -F option to infocmp for terminfo file comparisons
        * capabilities ~msgr, tilde_glitch, insert_padding, generic_type,
          no_pad_char, memory_above, memory_below, non_dest_scroll_region,
          and hard_copy are now used properly.
        * mouse support for xterm; the mouse interface design.

Major programmer-visible new features:
        * Added complete man pages.
        * HTML `Introduction to ncurses' document.
        * Trace levels; greatly improved update tracing.
        * The ncurses interactive tester.
        * The fallback-entry-list feature.

I have also been responsible for the following:
        * The ports to BSD/386 and SVr4.
        * The terminfo file now included with the distribution.
        * The code to handle deficient BSD select(2)
        * Made configuration process work with old awk.
        * SVr4 %A and %O terminfo escapes.
        * Rewritten compiler with better use resolution, comment passthrough.
        * Rewritten configuration system.
        * Lots of compatibility testing against SVr4.
        * Many small cleanups and fixes.

Following the rewrite for termcap-fallback support, the code for tic(1)
is essentially all mine now. So is all the update-optimization code
other than the central TransformLine and PutChar/PutAttrChar machinery.

> My
> impression is that he knows a lot of people and has a lot of contacts in
> the
> freeware scene, and now he abuses this for his private war against
> Thomas Dickey. If Eric really has no interest in maintaining ncurses,
> why
> doesn't he Thomas just let do his good job.

Because betrayed my trust in him and has now tried to shaft me *twice*.

-- 
		Eric S. Raymond