Editing Curses (programming library) (section)

== History ==
The first curses library was written by [[Ken Arnold]] and originally released with [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] UNIX, where it was used for several games, most notably ''[[Rogue (computer game)|Rogue]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://landley.net/history/mirror/unix/art3.htm
    |author=Peter H. Salus
    |title=The history of Unix is as much about collaboration as it is about technology
    |publisher=Byte
    |date=October 1994}}</ref><ref name="Arnold1977">{{Cite journal |last=Arnold|first=K. C. R. C.
    |title=Screen Updating and Cursor Movement Optimization: A Library Package.
    |publisher=University of California, Berkeley
    |year=1977}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mirbsd.org/cman/manPSD/19.curses.htm
    |author=Kenneth C. R. C. Arnold
    |author2=Elan Amir
    |title=Screen Updating and Cursor Movement Optimization: A Library Package
    |date=December 1992}}</ref> Some improvements were made to the BSD library in the 1990s as "4.4BSD" curses, e.g., to provide more than one type of video highlighting.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} However, those are not widely used.

The name "curses" is a pun on ''cursor optimization''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#what_is_it|title=NCURSES - Frequently Asked Questions|author=Thomas E. Dickey}}</ref> Sometimes it is incorrectly stated that curses was used by the [[Vi (text editor)|vi]] editor. In fact the code in curses that optimizes moving the cursor was borrowed from vi, which predated curses.<ref name="Arnold1977"/>

According to Goodheart, Ken Arnold's original implementation of curses started by reusing functions from the [[termcap]] library, and adding to that.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodheart |first1=Berny |title=UNIX Curses Explained |year=1991 |publisher=Prentice Hall |isbn=0-13-931957-3 |page=xi}}</ref> A few years later, [[Mary Ann Horton]], who had maintained the [[Vi (text editor)|vi]] and [[termcap]] sources at [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]], went to [[AT&T Corporation]] and made a different version using [[terminfo]], which became part of [[UNIX System III]] and [[UNIX System V]]. Due to licensing restrictions on the latter, the BSD and AT&T versions of the library were developed independently. In addition to the termcap/terminfo improvement, other improvements were made in the AT&T version:
; video highlighting (bold, underline): The BSD version supported only ''standout''.
; line-drawing: The BSD version gave little support here.
; colors: This was not supported in the BSD version.

AT&T curses development appears to have halted in the mid-1990s when X/Open Curses was defined.<ref>{{cite web
    |url=http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/cursesix.html
    |title=X/Open Curses, Issue 4 Version 2, Reference Pages
    |publisher=The Open Group
    |year=1997
}}</ref> In 1995, BSD maintainer, [[Keith Bostic (software engineer)|Keith Bostic]], officially deprecated the curses library in favor of [[ncurses]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1124 |title=ncurses: Portable Screen-Handling for Linux |author=[[Eric S. Raymond]] |publisher=[[Linux Journal]] |date=September 1, 1995 |access-date=May 18, 2023}}</ref>{{dubious|misleading history comment|date=May 2023}} Development of ncurses and [[PDCurses]] continues. A version of BSD curses continues to be maintained in the [[NetBSD]] operating system (wide character support, termcap to terminfo migration, etc.).

=== pcurses and PDCurses ===
{{main article|PDCurses}}
Different lines of development started by imitating the AT&T curses, from at least three implementations: '''pcurses''' by [[Pavel Curtis]] (started in 1982), '''PDCurses''' (Public Domain curses) by Mark Hessling to support his editor [[The Hessling Editor|THE]] (started in 1987) as well as [[Rexx]]/Curses,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rexxcurses.sourceforge.net/index.html|title=Rexx/Curses|author=Mark Hessling|year=2008|publisher=[[SourceForge]] project rexxcurses|access-date=2014-02-10}}</ref> and '''PC&nbsp;curses''' (version 1.4 and earlier by Björn Larsson-based inspired by Pavel Curtis' library before 1990).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://purl.net/xyzzy/dos/pccurses.zip|title=CURSES.NEW in pccurses.zip|author=F. Ellermann|date=1993-07-26|quote=based on PC curses (version 1.4) written by Björn Larsson|access-date=2014-02-10}}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://read.pudn.com/downloads88/sourcecode/windows/339526/PCCUR/README.NOW__.htm|title=README.NOW in pccurs14.zip|quote=PCcurses is a port/rewrite of Pavel Curtis' <nowiki>[package]</nowiki>|author=Björn Larsson|date=1990-01-14|access-date=2014-02-10|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223040754/http://read.pudn.com/downloads88/sourcecode/windows/339526/PCCUR/README.NOW__.htm|archive-date=2014-02-23}}</ref>{{discuss|PC Curses}}

=== ncurses ===
{{main article|ncurses}}
'''ncurses''' (new curses) "originated as '''pcurses'''{{nbsp}}... and was re-issued as ncurses 1.8.1 in late 1993".<ref>{{cite web
    |url=http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
    |title=NCURSES - New Curses
    |author=Thomas E. Dickey
    |date=December 1996}}</ref> ncurses is the most widely known implementation of curses, and has motivated further development of other variations, such as BSD curses in the [[NetBSD]] project.<ref>{{cite web
    |url=http://www.daemon-systems.org/man/curses_screen.3.html
    |title=CURSES_SCREEN(3), NetBSD Library Functions Manual
    |author=NetBSD project
    |date=February 2004
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
    |url=http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/wcurses/
    |title=NetBSD-SoC: Wide Character Support in NetBSD curses Library
    |author=Ruibiao Qiu
    |date=September 2005
}}
</ref>