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+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Copyright (c) 1998-2006,2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.               --
+--                                                                           --
+-- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a   --
+-- copy of this software and associated documentation files (the             --
+-- "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including       --
+-- without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,       --
+-- distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell copies --
+-- of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished  --
+-- to do so, subject to the following conditions:                            --
+--                                                                           --
+-- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included   --
+-- in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.                    --
+--                                                                           --
+-- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS   --
+-- OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF                --
+-- MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN --
+-- NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,       --
+-- DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR     --
+-- OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE --
+-- USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                                    --
+--                                                                           --
+-- Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright    --
+-- holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the      --
+-- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written        --
+-- authorization.                                                            --
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- $Id: README-first,v 1.9 2007/01/27 18:27:09 tom Exp $
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+                  C++ interface to ncurses routines
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This directory contains the source code for several C++ classes which
+ease the use of writing ncurses-based programs.  The code was originally
+derived from the libg++ CursesWindow class, but rewritten for ncurses.
+
+The classes simplify the use of window specific functions by
+encapsulating them in the window object.  Function overloading is
+used in order to narrow the interface.  For example, you do not have the
+distinction between `printw' and `mvprintw' anymore.
+
+A second benefit is the removal of all #defines which are included in
+the curses.h file.  This is a steady cause of trouble because many
+common identifiers are used.  Instead now all #defines are inline
+functions, which also allows strict type checking of arguments.
+
+The next enhancement is color support. It was originally provided by a 
+derived class.  This caused some trouble if you think about Panels or
+Menus and Forms with colors.  We decided to put color support into the
+base class so that any derived class may use color support also.
+The implementation chosen here is directed to unrestricted use
+of mixes of color and monochrome windows.  The original NCursesColorWindow
+class is maintained for compatibility reasons.
+
+The last point to mention is the support of other packages that are
+distributed with the ncurses package:  the panels library, the menu library
+and the form library.  This support is provided by the NCursesPanel class,
+which is also derived from the NCursesWindow class and the NCursesMenu
+and NCursesForm classes which are derived from NCursesPanel.  This allows
+building interfaces with windows.
+
+Please see the example program for a quick introduction.
+
+Note that at this point, there is no documentation for these classes.
+Hopefully some will be written in the not too distant future.  For now,
+to find out how to use the classes, read the code and the example program.
+
+Suggestions for enhancements and contributions of code (and docs) are
+welcome.  Please let us know which functionality you miss.
+
+Original author:
+     Eric Newton         <newton@rocky.oswego.edu> for FSF's libg++
+
+Authors of first ncurses based release (NCursesWindow, NCursesPanel):
+     Ulrich Drepper      <drepper@ira.uka.de>
+ and Anatoly Ivasyuk     <anatoly@nick.csh.rit.edu>
+
+Authors of this release:
+     Juergen Pfeifer
+     Thomas E. Dickey