Notcurses 1.5.0 "Ghetto Bird"

Let's drop a gem on 'em. 1.5.0 is a hard-hitting release complete with a major reworking of ncvisual, the long-awaited implementation of NCSCALE_SCALE, intense bugfixing and performance work, and two new demos. The API remains unstable until 2.0, but it's closing in on its final form; with the recent changes to ncvisual, I feel comfortable saying the core API is locked in.

Thanks as always to @grendello for keeping his C++ wrappers in tight lockstep.

API changes

Remember, API changes are always written up in NEWS.md.

• The various bools of struct notcurses_options have been folded into that struct's flags field. Each bool has its own NCOPTION_.
• ncblit_rgba() and ncblit_bgrx() have replaced most of their arguments with a const struct ncvisual_options*. NCBLIT_DEFAULT will use NCBLITTER_2x1 (with fallback) in this context. The ->n field must be non-NULL--new planes will not be created.
• 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.
• 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.
• The fadecb typedef now accepts as its third argument a const struct timespec. This is the absolute deadline through which the frame ought be displayed. New functions have been added to the Fade API: like the changes to ncvisual_stream(), this gives more flexibility, and allows more precise timing. All old functions remain available.
• Plot now uses 8x1 blitter for the default, instead of 1x1.
• 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.
• 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).
• ncplane_dup() now accepts a const argument where it did not before.
• notcurses_canopen() has been split into notcurses_canopen_images() and notcurses_canopen_videos().
• 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.

New features

• Quadblitter! this 2x2:1 blitter uses bi- and tri-linear interpolation plus Unicode Quadrant Drawing Characters for a doubling of detail. Very useful for some large media. Not useful for media that naturally fits into the destination plane.
• Dial-a-yield blitter specification via ncblitter_e and the new struct ncvisual_options. Implementations include:
  • ASCII 1:1 blitter, useful only in the absence of Unicode, final
  • Half-block 2:1 blitter, a great default choice, final
  • Quadblitter 2x2:1, good for large media, needs fine-tuning
  • Braille 4x2:1, good for anything with few colors, needs work
  • Sixel 6:1, actual pixel graphics, not yet implemented
• Added the ncpixel API for working directly with the contents of ncvisuals, including ncvisual_at_yx() and ncvisual_set_yx().
• 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 the new 'µ' (micro) metric prefix, which replaces our embarrassing "u".
• Added ncplane_puttext() for writing multiline, line-broken text.
• Added ncplane_putnstr(), ncplane_putnstr_yx(), and ncplane_putnstr_aligned() for byte-limited output of UTF-8.
• Added notcurses_canutf8(), to verify use of UTF-8 encoding.
• CELL_ALPHA_BLEND can now be used for translucent visuals.
• Added ncvisual_geom(), providing access to an ncvisual size and its pixel-to-cell blitting ratios.
• Added ncplane_notcurses_const().
• notcurses-view can now be paused and unpaused by pressing space
• notcurses-view can now change the blitter in use by pressing '0'--'8'

New Demos

Allglyph

allglyph (1) enumerates the font and (2) shows off our insanely fast scrolling (which I intend to make faster yet)

Yield

yield shows off polyfills and a nice use of the new quadblitter

Bugfixes / Perf

• All movement of planes along the z-axis is now true O(1)
• All binding and reparenting operations on planes are now true O(1)
• Fixed bug in ncvisual_from_plane() when invoked on the standard plane.
• Numerous demo bugfixes
• I implemented a dual-threaded render, but it was slower in all experiments. Might still be worthwhile pursuing if I lock hyperthreads together, but it's no bueno if one processor is having to pull from another's cache. Unsure how it looks on i.e. small dualcore ARM -- I should check that, too. Anyway, it's not included.

Hack on!

"Military force, but we don't want ya—
I'm standin' on my roof wit the rocket launcher
Fuck the Ghetto Bird." — Ice Cube