Re: Ncurses compatibility

[Thomas Dickey]

On Sun, Dec 03, 2000 at 03:49:57PM +0200, Alon Oz wrote:
> Hi, I need to build an ncurses package that is compatible both with
> ncurses 4 and 5
> Can it be done?
4.2, I assume, vs 5.0.

> 1. Is 5 compatible with 4? I've found that creating a symbolic link from

no - there are differences. 

        + From 4.2 to 5.0, there were some prototype changes in less-used
          functions (align with X/Open).  The main impact here was on
          attr_get() for which the compatible workaround is to use getattrs().

        + Also, I changed the TERMTYPE struct in term.h to make it extensible
          (which should only affect applications that are terminfo-only:  a few
          programs use the struct directly rather than tigetflag() and related
          functions).  Programs that do this must be recompiled.

        + There are also changes to internal functions (beginning with _nc_),
          which should not impact users.

To see the changes, you might consider compiling the llib-lncurses file as a .c
file, taking the 4.2 version and compiling with 5.0 headers.

If you don't use any of the features that changed, it's likely that the linker
will let you run a program compiled against 4.2 on a 5.0 system.

>    lib*.so.5* to lib*.so.4* works fine on some applications
>    but the question is if works for 100% or even close to it, if it
> doesn't
>    then (if you posses that knowledge) which applications won't work?
> 2. Is it possible to include the .so files from both versions without
> breaking
>    things?
> 
> Please send me any ideas/thoughts/rejects/relevant information about
> this idea.
> 
> Note: this is an urgent matter for my company and I would really
> appreciate quick feedback.
> 
>       Thanks in Advance
> 
> -- 
> Alon Oz,
> Aduva Research Team,
> Mailto: address@hidden
> 
> --
> A proud member in the Evil Linux cyberterrorist hackers (ELCH) 
> organization
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> located in the Northern Mariana Islands
> 
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-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
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ftp://dickey.his.com