multi-line field issues

[Sentinel]

I believe I had earlier reported that a multi-line field will not display 
anything if there are newlines in the string passed to it through 
set_field_buffer.

Today, I was testing one program which was displaying a file created 
using:

>     ls -ltr | nl > test.t

I found 2 new issues:

It will not display anything if:

1. TAB is present ("nl" places a tab)
2. Any non-print characters. (my "ls" uses colors which introduces ansi 
escape characters).

After replacing tabs with spaces, and removing the non-print characters in 
vim using (%s/[^[:print:]]//g), I was able to view the file.

-----

I am working extensively on ncurses, creating an (opensource) application 
generator using a domain specific language. I really love text UI and want 
ncurses to flourish. My recent experience with development has been really 
*great*.

However, I had earlier pointed out issues in the multi-line fields, which 
would make usage difficult for others. I have addressed them at an 
application level, but they really should be addressed at the internal 
level so that this feature can be extensively used.

1. I had pointed out that one cannot just set a files content into the 
buffer 
since it does not accept newlines. The newlines have to be removed and 
each row has to be space padded.

The opposite procedure has to be followed when retrieving.

2. At the same time, I do not have a way of knowing which row the cursor 
is on.

3. When i use form_drivers EOL, it correctly goes to the last character.
However, i have no way of knowing what that length is, so if a user is 
using the right arrow, i have no way of stopping him.

I am wondering if this feedback could be incorporated, or is ncurses only 
looking at bug-fixes.

Once again, I would like to thank all those of you who have worked on 
ncurses and are maintaining it, from the bottom of my heart. I am greatly 
enjoying my experience.

--
rkumar

 os x 10.5.5 |  vim 7