Support italics

[rashil2000]

Nano has had italic and bold support since 5.0. But when specifying italic in any syntax highlighting file, the text doesn't become italic.

Surprisingly, MSys2's nano doesn't have this problem.

[lhmouse]

Windows console does not support italic types. Only the MSYS2 terminal (mintty) has this capability.

[rashil2000]

I know that. However, the ability to output italic text is independent of the terminal. Besides, the new Windows Terminal has italic support.

I tested both nano-win and Msys2-nano on all terminals (Windows Console, Windows Terminal, mintty etc.). Only Msys2-nano outputs italic characters in all terminals, and nano-win doesn't, in any terminal.

[lhmouse]

Maybe that's a limitation in the bundled curses library. GNU nano manipulates display via a curses library and here it is ncurses 6.1. I know no details about it but upgrading is of course worth trying. Will do later.

[rashil2000]

Sure, thanks for trying!

Edit: Looks like the Msys2 Ncurses is currently at version 6.2-3.

[lhmouse]

Note MSYS2 nano uses the MSYS2 ncurses, which is different from a native one. They use different approaches (console drivers) to operate consoles, so (native) nano-win will not work properly in mintty.

I have uploaded a new build, but I personally do not use Windows Terminal. This editor is maintained mostly for occasional command-line editing tasks. Please test it yourself.

https://files.lhmouse.com/nano-win/nano-win_9557_v5.6.1-51-g32071383.7z

[rashil2000]

This build also doesn't show italics.

Note MSYS2 nano uses the MSYS2 ncurses, which is different from a native one.

Maybe this is the reason. It might be that mingw's ncurses doesn't have italic support yet.

[lhmouse]

yeah that one requires msys-2.0.dll to be functional, which is a couple of MiBs larger but is of course much more versatile.

[rashil2000]

Hmm, looks like this is out of scope for this project then. Should I close this issue then?

[lhmouse]

yes this is likely WONTFIX.