shlib and curses on unix pc

[wilber at alice.UUCP]

David Albrecht writes:
}In article <201 at elgar.UUCP>, ford at elgar.UUCP (Mike "Ford" Ditto) writes:
}> 
}> If you want the shared library, use Tam.  If you have a curses
}> program, and it uses curses functions that are not also in Tam, don't
}> use the shared library.
}> ...
}Well, using the shared library should reduce the size of your executable
}even if you don't substitute TAM functions for curses functions.  I would
}think you should be able to make a local copy of the shlib.ifile with
}your executable and edit out any entries in the file that collide with
}curses symbols.  Then you wouldn't have to give up the size savings for
}non-curses routines.

Mr. Albrecht is correct.  There is a nice little package called "ccc" written
by Jeffrey Small and Arnold Robbins (with some code from Emnet Gray) that
provides a pleasant interface for using the shared libraries.  When you install
it a new .ifile is created in which all the TAM functions have been renamed (by
prepending an "x").  (The old .ifile is also kept.)  The package includes a
shell script ("ccc" itself) that automatically uses the new .ifile when you use
the -lcurses option (so there are no name conflicts) and otherwise uses the
original .ifile.  So you can compile programs that use Curses with the shared
libraries, although of course the Curses routines themselves are not shared.
If you're willing to use funny names for the TAM functions (xinitscr, xnoecho,
etc.)  you should even be able to mix Curses and TAM in the same program
(although I haven't tried it).  Naturally you shouldn't use both systems at
once on the same screen but I can imagine an ambitious hacker writing a
program that uses TAM when it's using the 3b1 monitor and Curses otherwise.

Ccc is free (at least there's no copyright on it, and it was posted to the
net).  It's archived on killer and if you can't get it any other way send
me E-mail (to my HOME machine) and I'll send you a copy.

}Anybody know how to force a physical scroll with curses?  I have wm
}half-way working and it really burns me that no matter what I do the
}stupid curses won't use the hardware scroll even for full-size screens.
}Really slows it down.

I don't think there's any way to do this in Curses.  They don't call it Curses
for nothing, ya know.

Bob Wilber   Work: UUCP: {allegra, mtune, ihnp4}!gauss!wilber
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