curses question

[Joe Steffen]

I discovered a difference in curses between Release 2 and 3 that may be
related to this problem.  In Release 3, curses automatically refreshes the
window you request input from, e.g. getstr and getch refresh stdscr. 
This helps remove one source of error in writing a curses application, that
is, where do you put the refresh() calls?  In most programs, putting
refresh() just before requests for input and just after writing error
messages is the optimal solution.  Now you don't have to remember to put
them before input requests, but you must be careful what window you request
input from!  In my program, I was only using subwindows and not using
stdscr execpt to read input.  Thus in Release 3 the screen would clear
whenever the program called getch()!

Another Release 3 difference I know of is that the keypad code works and
doesn't cause your application to intermittantly receive incorrect input or
core dump like it did in release 2.

Since it took me 2 days to isolate the getch() change and 5 MONTHS to
isolate the keypad bug above I would like to see a list of Release 3 curses
changes from the person(s) who did them.  The comp centers will be
converting their mini's and maxi's to Release 3 over the next year so there
will be many tool providers discovering these Release 3 curses differences.


-- 


	Joe Steffen, AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL, (312) 416-5378