With this database, programs can work with a variety of terminals with the same code. Using the termcap database and library functions provides only low level access to the terminal. Changing attributes or colors, parameterized output and optimization must be done by the programmer himself. The TERMinal INFOrmation database is based on the termcap database and also describes terminal capabilities, but on a higher level than termcap. Using terminfo, the program can easily change screen attributes, use special keys such as function keys and more.
Every file describes one terminal.
Curses allows you to open and manipulate windows on the screen, provides a complete set of input and output functions, and can alter video attributes in a terminal independent manner on more than 150 terminals. This is the BSD version of curses. It has been tested on a lot of systems such as Sun-OS, HP and Linux. I recommend using ncurses instead of the others. In the following sections I will describe how to use the different packages to access a terminal.