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Date:      Mon, 19 Aug 1996 15:43:44 -0400 (EDT)
From:      "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@ki.net>
To:        Dave Bodenstab <imdave@synet.net>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Ncurses & General Porting Issues
Message-ID:  <Pine.NEB.3.95.960819154224.21206g-100000@quagmire.ki.net>
In-Reply-To: <199608191901.OAA15077@base486.synet.net>

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We are currently in the process of upgrading ncurses to 1.9.9e, and the
upgrade will be done in such a way that future upgrades will be alot
simpler then they are now :)

Not sure of Peter's time frame, but with what I've seen, it will hopefully
be integrated by the end of the week...maybe a *little* longer...


On Mon, 19 Aug 1996, Dave Bodenstab wrote:

> 
> Hi,
> 
> I just finished compiling teTeX 0.3.4 and noticed that a later version of
> dialog was built using ncurses 1.9.4.  However, when I tried it, it dumped
> core after some messages complaining about some entries in /etc/termcap.
> So, before I got into full debugging mode, I thought I'd see if I could determine
> if the ncurses for FreeBSD 2.0.5 (what I'm still running) had been changed
> relative to the ncurses distribution.  
> 
> I looked at /usr/src/lib/libncurses/version.h:
>   #define NCURSES_VERSION "1.8.6"
> 
> Next, I found a ncurses-1.8.6 using archie, grabbed it and diff'ed it
> against FreeBSD's (supposed) 1.8..6
> 
> Well, there seem to be more differences than can be accounted for from a
> simple port to FreeBSD -- there are some changes marked by #ifdef MYTINFO,
> and there are many other changes without any clue.
> 
> My question is:  are the changes made to FreeBSD's version of ncurses
> 1.8.6 available in the CVS tree, and if so, how can I get them so that
> I can attempt to port the latest ncurses to FreeBSD?
> 
> 
> *My personal opinions follow*
> 
> I hope the answer is 'yes', but if not, then why not?  The deltas should
> be kept so that when a volunteer finally tackles the job of bringing any
> of the software packages that have been integrated into FreeBSD up to date
> with respect to the current version, then the job will not entail a complete
> "from scratch" development.
> 
> I also noticed that when ncurses was integrated into the FreeBSD source
> tree, a lot of the original package was omitted, files were moved and
> renamed, etc.  It seems to me that, again, to facilitate keeping FreeBSD
> current, a philosophy of "minimal" change should be adopted -- at least
> with the distribution files.  Also, the changes should be easily recoverable --
> either as RCS/CVS files, or #ifdef'ed, or as patches, etc.  I can understand
> replacing the Makefiles to install the files under different names, and build
> only portions that will be installed, but wholesale changes (which seem to
> have been made) only serve to keep FreeBSD's version becoming more and more
> divergent from the currently available sources.
> 
> *Opionion mode off*
> 
> 
> Thanks for your help.
> 
> Dave Bodenstab
> imdave@synet.net
> 

Marc G. Fournier                                  scrappy@ki.net
Systems Administrator @ ki.net               scrappy@freebsd.org




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