notcurses/NEWS.md
Nick Black ebcba82d4b
Fully general ncvisual layer (#647)
This represents an essentially complete rewrite of ncvisual and associated code. It had two major goals:

Improve the ncvisual API based off lessons learned, pursuant to the upcoming API freeze. In particular, I wanted to:

decouple ncvisuals from ncplanes. It should be possible to render a ncvisual to multiple planes, with different scaling each time. It should be possible to create an ncvisual without a plane, etc.
normalize the various ways of constructing an ncvisual -- file, memory, plane, etc.
Support multiple blitters, from 7-bit ASCII to Sixel. This required writing the blitters in several cases, and they're not yet in their final implementations (but the API is fine)
I have not yet unified Plots and Visuals, and might not, given that the Plot code works fine. We could at this point implement Plots in terms of Visuals, though -- the blitter backend range has been unified. Sixel is not yet implemented, though it is listed.

There is a new POC tool, blitter. It renders its arguments using all possible blitter+scaling combinations. Another new POC, resize, displays its argument, then resizes it to the screen size and displays that, explicitly making use of ncvisual_resize() rather than a scaling parameter to ncvisual_render().

This also eliminates some memory leaks and bugs we were seeing in trunk, and brings in Sixel scaffolding.

The C++ wrapper will also need patching back up; I cut most of it down while wrestling with this crap, urk.

Closes #638, #562, and #622.
2020-05-28 21:16:58 -04:00

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This document attempts to list user-visible changes and any major internal
rearrangements of Notcurses.
* 1.4.4 (not yet released)
* Got the `ncvisual` API ready for API freeze: `ncvisual_render()` and
`ncvisual_stream()` now take a `struct ncvisual_options`. `ncstyle_e`
and a few other parameters have been moved within. Both functions now
take a `struct notcurses*`. The `struct ncvisual_options` includes a
`ncblitter_e` field, allowing visuals to be mapped to various plotting
paradigms including Sixel, Braille and quadrants. Not all backends have
been implemented, and not all implementations are in their final form.
* Added `ncvisual_geom()`, providing access to an `ncvisual` size and
its pixel-to-cell blitting ratios.
* Deprecated functions `ncvisual_open_plane()` and `ncplane_visual_open()`
have been removed. Their functionality is present in
`ncvisual_from_file()`. The function `ncvisual_plane()` no longer has
any meaning, and has been removed.
* 1.4.3 (2020-05-22)
* Plot: make 8x1 the default, instead of 1x1.
* Add `PREFIXFMT`, `BPREFIXFMT`, and `IPREFIXFMT` macros for `ncmetric()`.
In order to properly use `printf(3)`'s field width capability, these
macros must be used. This is necessary to support 'µ' (micro).
* C++'s NotCurses constructor now passes a `nullptr` directly through to
`notcurses_init()`, rather than replacing it with `stdout`.
* Added `USE_STATIC` CMake option, defaulting to `ON`. If turned `OFF`,
static libraries will not be built.
* 1.4.2.4 (2020-05-20)
* Removed `ncplane_move_above_unsafe()` and `ncplane_move_below_unsafe()`;
all z-axis moves are now safe. Z-axis moves are all now O(1), rather
than the previous O(N).
* Added `USE_STATIC` CMake option, defaulting to `ON`. If turned `OFF`,
static libraries will not be built.
* 1.4.2.3 (2020-05-17)
* Added `notcurses_canutf8()`, to verify use of UTF-8 encoding.
* Fixed bug in `ncvisual_from_plane()` when invoked on the standard plane.
* `ncvisual_from_plane()` now accepts the same four geometric parameters
as other plane selectors. To reproduce the old behavior, for `ncv`, call
it as `ncvisual_from_plane(ncv, 0, 0, -1, -1)`.
* `ncvisual_from_plane()`, `ncplane_move_below_unsafe()`, `ncplane_dup()`,
and `ncplane_move_above_unsafe()` now accept `const` arguments where they
did not before.
* `notcurses_canopen()` has been split into `notcurses_canopen_images()` and
`notcurses_canopen_videos()`.
* `ncmetric()` now uses multibyte suffixes (particularly for the case of
'µ', i.e. micro). This has changed the values of `PREFIXSTRLEN` and
friends. So long as you were using `PREFIXSTRLEN`, this should require
only a recompile. If you were using `PREFIXSTRLEN` in a formatted output
context to count columns, you must change to `PREFIXCOLUMNS` etc.
* The `streamcb` type definition now accepts a `const struct timespec*` as
its third argument. This is the absolute time viz `CLOCK_MONOTONIC` through
which the frame ought be displayed. The callback must now effect delay.
* Mouse coordinates are now properly translated for any margins.
* `qprefix()` and `bprefix()` now take a `uintmax_t` in place of an
`unsigned`, to match `ncprefix`.
* 1.4.1 (2020-05-11)
* No user-visible changes (fixed two unit tests).
* 1.4.0 (2020-05-10)
* `ncplane_content()` was added. It allows all non-null glyphs of a plane to
be returned as a nul-terminated, heap-allocated string.
* `ncreader` was added. This widget allows freeform input to be edited in a
block, and collected into a string.
* `selector_options` has been renamed to `ncselector_options`, and
`multiselector_options` has been renamed to `ncmultiselector_options`.
This matches the other widget option struct's nomenclature.
* `ncplane_set_channels()` and `ncplane_set_attr()` have been added to allow
`ncplane` attributes to be set directly and in toto.
* `NULL` can now be passed as the `FILE*` argument to `notcurses_init()` and
`ncdirect_init()`. In this case, a new `FILE*` will be created using
`/dev/tty`. If the `FILE*` cannot be created, an error will be returned.
* A `flags` field has been added to `notcurses_options`. This will allow new
boolean options to be added in the future without resizing the structure.
Define `NCOPTION_INHIBIT_SETLOCALE` bit. If it's not set, and the "C" or
"POSIX" locale is in use, `notcurses_init()` will invoke
`setlocale(LC_ALL, "")`.
* All widgets now take an `ncplane*` as their first argument (some took
`notcurses*` before). All widgets' `options` structs now have an `unsigned
flags` bitfield. This future-proofs the widget API, to a degree.
* 1.3.4 (2020-05-07)
* `notcurses_lex_margins()` has been added to lex margins expressed in either
of two canonical formats. Hopefully this will lead to more programs
supporting margins.
* `ncvisual_open_plane()` has been renamed `ncvisual_from_file()`. The former
has been retained as a deprecated alias. It will be removed by 1.6/2.0.
* `ncvisual_from_rgba()` and `ncvisual_from_bgra()` have been added to
support creation of `ncvisual`s from memory, requiring no file.
* `ncvisual_rotate()` has been added, supporting rotations of arbitrary
radians on `ncvisual` objects.
* `ncvisual_from_plane()` has been added to support "promotion" of an
`ncplane` to an `ncvisual`. The source plane may contain only spaces,
half blocks, and full blocks. This builds atop the new function
`ncplane_rgba()`, which makes an RGBA flat array from an `ncplane`.
* The `ncplane` argument to `ncplane_at_yx()` is now `const`.
* 1.3.3 (2020-04-26)
* The `ncdplot` type has been added for plots based on `double`s rather than
`uint64_t`s. The `ncplot` type and all `ncplot_*` functions were renamed
`ncuplot` for symmetry.
* FFMpeg types are no longer leaked through the Notcurses API. `AVERROR`
is no longer applicable, and `ncvisual_decode()` no longer returns a
`struct AVframe*`. Instead, the `nc_err_e` enumeration has been introduced.
Functions which once accepted a value-result `AVERROR` now accept a value-
result `nc_err_e`. The relevant constants can be found in
`notcurses/ncerrs.h`.
* OpenImageIO 2.1+ is now supported as an experimental multimedia backend.
FFmpeg remains recommended. Video support with OIIO is spotty thus far.
* CMake no longer uses the `USE_FFMPEG` option. Instead, the `USE_MULTIMEDIA`
option can be defined as `ffmpeg`, `oiio`, or `none`. In `cmake-gui`, this
item will now appear as an option selector. `oiio` selects OpenImageIO.
* 1.3.2 (2020-04-19)
* `ncdirect_cursor_push()`, `notcurses_cursor_pop()`, and
`ncdirect_cursor_yx()` have been added. These are not supported on all
terminals. `ncdirect_cursor_yx()` ought be considered experimental; it
must read a response from the terminal, and this can interact poorly with
other uses of standard input.
* 1.3.1 unintentionally inverted the C++ `Notcurses::render()` wrapper's
return code. The previous semantics have been restored.
* 1.3.1 (2020-04-18)
* `ncplane_at_yx()` and `ncplane_at_cursor()` have been changed to return a
heap-allocated EGC, and write the attributes and channels to value-result
`uint32_t*` and `uint64_t*` parameters, instead of to a `cell*`. This
matches `notcurses_at_yx()`, and means they're no longer invalidated if the
plane in question is destroyed. The previous functionality is available as
new functions `ncplane_at_yx_cell()` and `ncplane_at_cursor_cell()`.
* `ncplane_set_base()` inverted its `uint32_t attrword` and `uint64_t channels`
parameters, thus matching every other function with these two parameters.
It moved `const char* egc` before either, to force a type error, as the
change would otherwise be likely to go overlooked.
* Scrolling is now completely implemented. When a plane has scrolling enabled
through use of `ncplane_set_scrolling(true)`, output past the end of the
last line will now result in the top line of the plane being lost, all
other lines moved up one, and the bottom line cleared.
* 1.3.0 (2020-04-12)
* No user-visible changes
* 1.2.9 (2020-04-11)
* No user-visible changes
* 1.2.8 (2020-04-10)
* `notcurses-tetris` now happily continues if it can't load its background.
* 1.2.7 (2020-04-10)
* Plots now always keep the most recent data to their far right (i.e., the
gap that is initially filled is on the left, rather than the right).
* 1.2.6 (2020-04-08)
* `ncplane_putsimple_yx()` and `ncplane_putstr_yx()` have been exported as
static inline functions.
* `ncplane_set_scrolling()` has been added, allowing control over whether a
plane scrolls. All planes, including the standard plane, do not scroll by
default. If scrolling is enabled, text output via the `*put*` family of
functions continues onto the next line when encountering the end of a row.
This does not apply to e.g. boxes or lines.
* `ncplane_putstr_yx()` now always returns the inverse of the number of
columns advanced on an error (it used to return the positive short count so
long as the error was due to plane geometry, not bad input).
* `ncplot_add_sample()` and `ncplot_set_sample()` have been changed to accept
a `uint64_t` rather than `int64_t`, since negative samples do not
currently make sense. Plots were made more accurate in general.
* `notcurses_term_dim_yx()` now accepts a `const struct notcurses*`.
* `notcurses_resize()` is no longer exported. It was never necessary to call
this in response to a resize, despite confusing documentation that could
have been read to suggest otherwise. If you're in a long block on input, and
get an `NCKEY_RESIZE`, just call `notcurses_refresh()` (which now calls
`notcurses_resize()` internally, as `notcurses_render()` always has).
* First Fedora packaging.
* 1.2.5 (2020-04-05)
* Add ncplot, with support for sliding-windowed horizontal histograms.
* gradient, polyfill, `ncplane_format()` and `ncplane_stain()` all now return
the number of cells written on success. Failure still sees -1 returned.
* `ncvisual_render()` now returns the number of cells emitted on success, as
opposed to 0. Failure still sees -1 returned.
* `ncvisual_render()` now interprets length parameters of -1 to mean "to the
end along this axis", and no longer interprets 0 to mean this. 0 now means
"a length of 0", resulting in a zero-area rendering.
* `notcurses_at_yx()` no longer accepts a `cell*` as its last parameter.
Instead, it accepts a `uint32_t*` and a `uint64_t*`, and writes the
attribute and channels to these parameters. This was done because the
`gcluster` field of the `cell*` was always set to 0, which was surprising
and a source of blunders. The EGC is returned via the `char*` return
value. https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses/issues/410
* 1.2.4 (2020-03-24)
* Add ncmultiselector
* Add `ncdirect_cursor_enable()` and `ncdirect_cursor_disable()`.