ncurses help

just follow the instructions on the second site you gave to compile and install it(also, you do know the ncurses library has nothing to do with networking, don't you?)

Maybe.What I really want is something that can do an interface over the network like we have in shell accounts (the text editor for e.g)

Yea someinfo on how telnet works also will help.

The Telnet RFC.

However, what you probably REALLY want is a description of the ANSI or VT-100 terminal protocol standards. Google should get you that.

Yes, I found the RFC alright and some other docs which explain some of the stuff.I did not look for the ANSI or VT-100 terminal protocol standards , so will do that.

Where can I look for info on how the texts editors like pico generate their UI?

They are open source. Just get the source.

However, it's not rocket science. To draw an inverse video status line, you send the "gotoxy" escape code to the beginning of the line, then send the "reverse video" code, then draw the entire line, then send the "normal video" code.

To refresh a specific line of text on the screen, send gotoxy for the beginning of that line, send clear-to-end-of-line (if the terminal is capable), send the text (less than 80 characters, of course :-). If no clear-to-end-of-line, then send a number of destructuve space characters to get you to the end of the line.

I found where I can get the source for Pine.

http://www.washington.edu/pine/getpine/

http://www.washington.edu/pine/getpine/unix.html