Help with CURSES!

[Aspirations of a higher nature]

Hello to the Ether (and all with ears to hear)!

I have been foiled again:  CURSES!

I thought it was aptly named, especially after it stung me more than once.  I
am a novice to C, and the only UNIX I knew were talked about in the Bible.

Having worked with TURBO C now (my only C, except for transporting code to VAX
C) for a year and a half (on a Zenith laptop TurbosPort (what else?)) I keep on
running into calls to CURSES, and I have no idea what it is.  Well, I do, but
the knowledge is almost useless.  I end up HACKING out what I think the call
should do, and then things almost work - sort of like a clock-spring with a
bandage.

So, could anyone enlighten me?  I suspect that CURSES might be copyrighted or
something by a Berserk layman, since I can't seem to find anything of much
relevance...

Basically, are there any look-alike routines around somewhere?  How about a
detailed explanation of all the calls, so one might more accurately hack out a
substitute?

I need to include working code into some programs I have acquired, and the
authors seem to have assumed that everyone would have CURSES.  Well, I do, but
not *that* kind.

Thanks for any help!


Steve Grasmann	grasmann at atps.dec.com