dialog @1.3: configure: error: No curses header-files found

[pejaham]

I get an error installing dialog 1.3 under macOS 11.0.1 using Xcode 12.2. associated with ncurses. Other utilities using ncurses like tmux work fine.

Is this a known problem?

Thanks and regards Peter

:info:configure checking pkg-config for ncursesw... yes
:info:configure checking if the ncursesw package files work... no
:info:configure Looking for ncursesw-config
:info:configure checking for ncursesw-config... no
:info:configure checking for ncursesw6-config... ncursesw6-config
:info:configure checking if we have identified curses headers... none
:info:configure configure: error: No curses header-files found
:info:configure Command failed:  cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_dialog/dialog/work/dialog-1.3-20180621" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --mandir=/opt/local/share/man --with-ncursesw 
:info:configure Exit code: 1
:error:configure Failed to configure dialog, consult /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_dialog/dialog/work/dialog-1.3-20180621/config.log
:error:configure Failed to configure dialog: configure failure: command execution failed
:debug:configure Error code: NONE

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Thanks for reporting.

I can verify the problem. The configure script doesn't include the headers it needs, so the tests fail with error like:

configure:13188:1: error: implicit declaration of function 'putwc' is invalid in C99 [-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration]

This is common problem affecting many older software packages, when using Xcode 12 or later, which is required for Big Sur.