<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Ouch -- there was no licensing issue with curses or termcap.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">termcap and curses were written at UCB.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">When MaryAnn went to Columbus - there was desire to rewrite to be "compiled". That work was terminfo. AT&T >>restricted<< terminfo.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Pavel (with coaching from a few of us, including me], wrote a new implementation of terminfo.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">When he was added it, he combined a rewrite of curses.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Clem</div></div><div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img alt="" style="width:0px;max-height:0px;overflow:hidden" src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=aY2xlbWNAY2NjLmNvbQ%3D%3D&type=zerocontent&guid=1a329610-bc27-4ffd-bddd-67e1808653c3"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">ᐧ</font></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, May 25, 2024 at 12:06 PM Clem Cole <<a href="mailto:clemc@ccc.com">clemc@ccc.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Ken was working in Ing70 [he was part of the Ingres group] - IngVax did not yet exist,</div><div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img alt="" style="width: 0px; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=aY2xlbWNAY2NjLmNvbQ%3D%3D&type=zerocontent&guid=a7f9b519-1b0a-4985-b919-d79426acd935"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">ᐧ</font></div></div><div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img alt="" style="width: 0px; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=aY2xlbWNAY2NjLmNvbQ%3D%3D&type=zerocontent&guid=daebfd0a-1b03-4a2f-8847-2ea3dd5bc23f"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">ᐧ</font></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, May 25, 2024 at 11:57 AM G. Branden Robinson <<a href="mailto:g.branden.robinson@gmail.com" target="_blank">g.branden.robinson@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi Clem,<br>
<br>
At 2024-05-25T11:40:13-0400, Clem Cole wrote:<br>
> It was never needed to be ported -- it was developed on V7.<br>
> It was released in comp.sources.unix volume1 as pcurses<br>
<br>
This bit conflicts with other accounts. Here's what I have in draft.<br>
<br>
HISTORY<br>
4BSD (1980) introduced curses, implemented largely by Kenneth<br>
C. R. C. Arnold, who organized the terminal abstraction and screen<br>
management features of Bill Joy’s vi(1) editor into a library.<br>
That system ran only on the VAX architecture; curses saw a port to<br>
2.9BSD (1983) for the PDP‐11.<br>
<br>
System V Release 2 (SVr2, 1984) significantly revised curses and<br>
replaced the termcap portion thereof with a different API for<br>
terminal handling, terminfo. System V added form and menu<br>
libraries in SVr3 (1987) and enhanced curses with color support in<br>
SVr3.2 later the same year. SVr4 (1989) brought the panel library.<br>
<br>
pcurses by distinction was, by the accounts I have, a later effort by<br>
Pavel Curtis to clone SVr2 curses by taking BSD curses and replacing its<br>
termcap bits with a reimplementation terminfo. This was apparently done<br>
for licensing reasons, as BSD code was free ("as in freedom") and System<br>
V certainly was not.<br>
<br>
The pcurses 0.7 tarball I have contains a document, doc/<a href="http://manual.tbl.ms" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">manual.tbl.ms</a>,<br>
which starts as follows. Note the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs.<br>
<br>
.po +.5i<br>
.TL<br>
The Curses Reference Manual<br>
.AU<br>
Pavel Curtis<br>
.NH<br>
Introduction<br>
.LP<br>
Terminfo is a database describing many capabilities of over 150<br>
different terminals. Curses is a subroutine package which<br>
presents a high level screen model to the programmer, while<br>
dealing with issues such as terminal differences and optimization of<br>
output to change one screenfull of text into another.<br>
.LP<br>
Terminfo is based on Berkeley's termcap database, but contains a<br>
number of improvements and extensions. Parameterized strings are<br>
introduced, making it possible to describe such capabilities as<br>
video attributes, and to handle far more unusual terminals than<br>
possible with termcap.<br>
.LP<br>
Curses is also based on Berkeley's curses package, with many<br>
improvements. The package makes use of the insert and delete<br>
line and character features of terminals so equipped, and<br>
determines how to optimally use these features with no help from the<br>
programmer. It allows arbitrary combinations of video attributes<br>
to be displayed, even on terminals that leave ``magic cookies''<br>
on the screen to mark changes in attributes.<br>
<br>
> That said, I believe late volumes have nervous updates.<br>
<br>
I'm gathering data for another paragraph of that "History" section now.<br>
The long and short of it seems to be that:<br>
<br>
BSD curses, besides getting ported to many platforms, begat pcurses.<br>
<br>
pcurses begat PCCurses, PDCurses, and ncurses.<br>
<br>
PCCurses died.<br>
<br>
PDCurses went dormant, begat PDCursesMod, and roused from its slumber.<br>
<br>
ncurses, after a long period of erratic early administration that seemed<br>
more concerned with seizing celebrity status for its developers (one of<br>
whom was more single-minded and successful at this goal than the other)<br>
than with software development, has been maintained with a steady hand<br>
over 25 years.<br>
<br>
There also exists NetBSD curses, which wasn't developed ex nihilo but<br>
I'm not sure yet what origin it forked from.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Branden<br>
</blockquote></div>
</blockquote></div>