
          dialog - Display dialog boxes in shell script (version 0.4)
          ===========================================================

This is a program that will enable you to present a variety of questions or
display messages using dialog boxes from a shell script. Currently, these
types of dialog boxes are implemented: yes/no box, menu box, input box,
message box, text box, info box, checklist box. The idea of writing this
program came from the fact that most questions asked in a shell script (and
many interactive programs as well) can be classified into these few types:


    1)  One that requires the user to answer either yes or no.

    2)  One that presents a number of options for the user to choose.

    3)  One that requires the user to input a string.

    4)  One that displays a message and optionally wait for a key press
        before continuing.

    5)  One that presents a list of options that can be turned on or off.


The program 'dialog' can, say for example, be called in a shell script to
present the first type of questions like this:


	if dialog --yesno <question text> <height> <width>
	then
	  ...
	fi


	e.g.  if dialog --yesno "Do you want to continue?" 7 51
	      then
	        echo "Continuing..."
	      else
	        echo "Aborting..."
	      fi


I've included a sample shell script for each type of boxes in the directory
samples. The program requires ncurses to compile. Running 'dialog' without
arguments will display the usage.



FEATURES
--------

	*  Friendly dialog box interface with buttons, etc.

	*  Auto wrap around of question text if it's too long to fit on
	   one line.

        *  "\n" can be inserted in question text to control line breaking
           explicitly. The real newline character '\n' can also be used.
	   (note - using \n means that you have to do all layout yourself,
	   as this isn't handled by the word-wrap routine - Stuart)

        *  run-time configruation of color settings and other options using
           a configuration file.


WHAT'S NEW SINCE VERSION 0.3?
-----------------------------

	*  dialog works with ncurses 1.8.5 now (patch is supplied to fix
	   ncurses 1.8.5 as well)
	
	*  word-wrap in infobox's etc has been fixed (so long as you don't
	   use \n in your prompts.
	
	*  new default colour scheme (sort of 3D look now)
	
	*  radiolist option added (same as a menu, but with radio buttons)

	*  backtitle option added (place a title on the background - can be
	   used with --title, or instead of it)
	
	
WHAT'S NEW SINCE VERSION 0.21?
------------------------------

	*  some changes for faster screen update.

	*  much more flexible color settings. Can use all 16 colors
           (8 normal, 8 highlight) of the Linux console.

	*  added run-time configuration using configuration file.

	*  some minor bug fixes and cleanups for menubox, checklist and
	   textbox.

	*  added a man page.

	*  some changes for easier porting to other Unix systems (tested
           on Ultrix, SunOS and HPUX)


Savio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk)


COMMENTS
--------

	*  This release is primarily to fix dialog for use with ncurses
	   1.8.5, and to include the two new options.
	
	*  This release includes the 8-bit-clean patches, and is derived from
	   the Slackware sources, rather than from the copy on sunsite.
	   
	*  I understand that Savio no longer maintains dialog.  To the best
	   of my knowledge, I've fixed all the remaining bugs in dialog.
	   
	*  My quoted email address is only valid until the end of June, 1994.
	   This means that I'm not in a position to maintain this release :(

Stuart Herbert,
S.Herbert@Sheffield.ac.uk
