In this version of AIX, curses is compatible with AT&T System V Release 3.2 curses. The older AIX curses have been kept in a form useful for supporting existing binaries only. This change was done to provide support for color and to increase application portability to AIX systems.
Applications already running under AIX will still operate using the old curses. Applications compiled, rebound, or relinked beginning with AIX Version 4 may need source code changes for compatibility with the newer version of curses. The newer curses library does not have or use AIX extended curses functions. Applications requiring multibyte support may still compile and link with extended curses. However, because the extended curses library may be removed in the future, use of the extended curses library is discouraged except for applications that require multibyte support.