Re: LYNX-DEV Linux and curses.

[Klaus Weide]

On Wed, 6 Nov 1996, Duncan Hill wrote:

> Greetings.  I was trying to build Linux binaries for the 2.x kernels, in 
> case it is decided that Lynx go that route.  I was able to build the 
> ncurses, and slang versions.  I noticed that nowhere on my system could I 
> find the regular curses library, only the ncurses one.  Should I modify 
> the makefile to suit and post the patch, or do I leave it in? (It being 
> make linux which uses the curses library.)

It is my understanding that, for reasonable interpretations of the
word "regular", ncurses now is the regular curses system for Linux.
All newer Linux versions and distributions should have it, and they
would have no need for another, non-ncurses, curses library.

The reason that the "linux" entry in the Makefile exists is probably
to support older Linux installations which don't have ncurses but
only an older, now outdated, curses library.  Over time, the current
"linux-ncurses" should probably become just "linux", and the current
"linux" should become "linux-oldcurses" (or similar).

The main functional difference between the so-called "linux" target
and the "linux-ncurses" target is that the "linux" binary uses only
one kind of character attribute (standout mode).  That should of
course also be possible with the ncurses library, and should depend
on whether FANCY_CURSES is defined.  So if you want to build such
a binary with restricted attribute capabilities, it should be
possible with the ncurses library, just with FANCY_CURSES undefined.
(But I have not tested it.)

I don't know if such a restricted binary is useful for anybody who
can use the fuller ncurses capabilities, so I don't think modifying
the distributed Makefile for this purpose makes sense.

  Klaus

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