Terminfo distribution doesn't work?

[Mark Horton]

The System V curses is slightly different from either of the two
cases you describe.  If there is an error in initscr, an error
message is printed and the program exits.  initscr will not return
under such circumstances.  (If you want to catch the error, there
is a lower level routine you can call instead of initscr that will
return a detectable error status.)

There is no reason to modify programs to check stdscr after calling
initscr.  If anything, perhaps the posted initscr should be changed.  The
interface between the application program and curses is more important
than any particular implementation of curses.