Re: some entries in terminfo database want too many color pairs

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Thomas,

At 2023-10-08T18:48:07-0400, Thomas Dickey wrote:
> That's expected behavior if tic is built without extended number
> support.  You'd get that for instance if you didn't configure
> --enable-widec

I had been building with all defaults, but have since discovered
--with-hashed-db, --with-manpage-format=normal, --with-shared,
--with-cxx-shared, and --with-ada-sharedlib.

There are a _lot_ of configuration options.

> > What should change?  The color/pair count limits or the terminfo
> 
> nothing, actually

Well, maybe... ;-)  See below.

> Before ncurses 6.1, the terminal database stored only signed 16-bit
> numbers.  Starting with ncurses 6.1, it supports a newer format with
> signed 32-bit numbers.
> 
> https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-6.1.html
> 
> If tic is built without support for generating the newer format, and
> it encounters a number greater than 32767, it prints that diagnostic.
> 
> If tic is built with support for the newer format, it uses that for
> terminal descriptions which have numbers greater than 32767.
> 
> Likewise, ncurses 6.1 libraries (wide-character or not) are able to
> read the old/new formats.  Again, if not built for wide-characters,
> the new format numbers are truncated.
> 
> (pre-ncurses 6.1 libraries aren't expected to read the new format).

Okay.  I had read that but didn't put it all together correctly.

I _assumed_ that ncurses updated its configuration defaults with each
release to expose the improvements in the ABI.

You note above, that is not the case.  To _me_, it seems a reasonable
thing to do.  Distributors should be familiar enough with the package to
fix ncurses to an older ABI if they require that for backward
compatibility.  (Or perhaps do multiple builds for the same purpose.)

If I may confess further ignorance, I'm not sure what ABI 7 entails or
even if it's frozen yet.  I played with the '--with-shlib-version'
option; it takes "rel" or "abi" as values, and either way I get a shared
object version number ("soversion") that starts with "6".  Using
'--with-abi-version=7' seems like wandering considerably off the beaten
path.

Would it make sense to turn this ratchet (perhaps among others) for
ncurses 6.5?  People have had a good long time to absorb and prepare for
the 6.1 changes (almost 6 years), and if they haven't done so, it might
be because you didn't give them a nudge with updated defaults.

I admit, I'm not the one who has to weather the bug reports when people
who know little about ncurses build and install it and have to field
complaints from the dynamic loader (or elsewhere) when they run their
favorite MUA or whatever.  At the same time, if you wait for those
people, you'll wait forever.

Regards,
Branden

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