Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 14:01:09 -0500 From: Dave Bodenstab <imdave@synet.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Ncurses & General Porting Issues Message-ID: <199608191901.OAA15077@base486.synet.net>
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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
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