diff --git a/development/THE/README b/development/THE/README
index f48e416133..4b6ad0b024 100644
--- a/development/THE/README
+++ b/development/THE/README
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ Mansfield Software's Kedit.
 THE uses Regina Rexx as its macro language. It uses a command line,
 key bindings and a prefix area to operate.
 
-Two version of THE are created:
-  - command line version of the program using ncurses 
-  - X11 graphical version of the program using the PDCursesMod
 
+Optional Dependency
+
+If PDCurses is installed then the X11 version of the program (xthe)
+will be created.
diff --git a/development/THE/THE.SlackBuild b/development/THE/THE.SlackBuild
index c4fcca66dd..9ac5191c38 100644
--- a/development/THE/THE.SlackBuild
+++ b/development/THE/THE.SlackBuild
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 # Slackware build script for The Hessling Editor
 
-# Copyright 2012-2023 Richard Narron, California, USA
+# Copyright 2012-2022 Richard Narron, California, USA
 # All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use of this script, with or without modification, is
@@ -25,12 +25,12 @@
 cd $(dirname $0) ; CWD=$(pwd)
 
 PRGNAM=THE
-VERSION=${VERSION:-4.0}
-BUILD=${BUILD:-2}
+VERSION=${VERSION:-3.3}
+BUILD=${BUILD:-1}
 TAG=${TAG:-_SBo}
 PKGTYPE=${PKGTYPE:-tgz}
 
-TARFILE=the-${VERSION}
+TARFILE=the-3.3
 
 if [ -z "$ARCH" ]; then
   case "$( uname -m )" in
@@ -81,13 +81,7 @@ find -L . \
  \( -perm 666 -o -perm 664 -o -perm 640 -o -perm 600 -o -perm 444 \
   -o -perm 440 -o -perm 400 \) -exec chmod 644 {} \;
 
-# patch INSTALL file:  --with-curses=pdcurses-x11
-patch -b -p1 < $CWD/install.patch
-
-# patch Makefile.in to make sure manext is built early
-patch -b -p1 < $CWD/makefile-in.patch
-
-# Make the ncurses version of THE and the documentation
+# make the ncurses version of THE and the documentation
 mkdir ncurses
 cd    ncurses
 
@@ -105,43 +99,56 @@ CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
   --sysconfdir=/etc
 
 make
-make -j1 install DESTDIR=$PKG
+make install DESTDIR=$PKG
 
-rm -f          $PKG/usr/bin/the 
-ln -sf the-con $PKG/usr/bin/the
-ln -sf the-con $PKG/usr/bin/nthe
+rm -rf doc/html
+make html
+
+rm -f $PKG/usr/bin/the 
+ln -fs the-con $PKG/usr/bin/the
+ln -fs the-con $PKG/usr/bin/nthe
 
 mkdir -p $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/html
 install -m0644 the64.gif the64.png doc/html/*.html \
          $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/html
 
 cd $TMP/$PRGNAM-$VERSION
-install -m0644 COPYING FAQ HISTORY INSTALL README* TODO \
+install -m0644 COPYING FAQ HISTORY INSTALL README* THE_Help.txt TODO \
          $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION
-install -m0644                    $CWD/README \
-         $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/README.slackware
 
-# Make the X11 version of THE by using the included PDCursesMod source.
-mkdir xcurses
-cd    xcurses
+# Try to  make the X11 version of THE by using PDCurses (XCurses)
 
-CFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
-CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
-../configure \
-  --with-curses=pdcurses-x11 \
-  --with-rexx=regina \
-  --build=$ARCH-slackware-linux \
-  --docdir=/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION \
-  --libdir=/usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} \
-  --localstatedir=/var \
-  --mandir=/usr/man \
-  --prefix=/usr \
-  --sysconfdir=/etc
+if  ldconfig -p | grep -q libXCurses.so; then
+  mkdir xcurses
+  cd    xcurses
 
-make the-x11
+  # for XCurses, create pdcurses-x11.pc pkg-config
+  XLIBDIR=lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX}
+  XVERSION=$(xcurses-config --version)
+  mkdir -p        pkgconfig
+  sed -e "s/XLIBDIR/${XLIBDIR}/" \
+      -e "s/XVERSION/${XVERSION}/" \
+      <                $CWD/libpdcurses-x11.pc \
+      >           pkgconfig/libpdcurses-x11.pc
 
-install -m0755 the-x11 $PKG/usr/bin
-ln -sf         the-x11 $PKG/usr/bin/xthe
+  PKG_CONFIG_PATH=pkgconfig   \
+  CFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
+  CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" \
+  ../configure \
+    --with-curses=pdcurses-x11 \
+    --with-rexx=regina \
+    --build=$ARCH-slackware-linux \
+    --docdir=/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION \
+    --libdir=/usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} \
+    --localstatedir=/var \
+    --mandir=/usr/man \
+    --prefix=/usr \
+    --sysconfdir=/etc
+    
+  make           the-x11
+  install -m0755 the-x11 $PKG/usr/bin
+  ln -fs         the-x11 $PKG/usr/bin/xthe
+fi
 
 find $PKG -print0 | xargs -0 file | grep -e "executable" -e "shared object" | grep ELF \
   | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded 2> /dev/null || true
diff --git a/development/THE/THE.info b/development/THE/THE.info
index f143e4f7aa..b7eac4c46e 100644
--- a/development/THE/THE.info
+++ b/development/THE/THE.info
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 PRGNAM="THE"
-VERSION="4.0"
+VERSION="3.3"
 HOMEPAGE="http://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net/"
-DOWNLOAD="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/hessling-editor/the-4.0.tar.gz"
-MD5SUM="a172cad447fb7fe9332eecdbf6f583ac"
+DOWNLOAD="https://sourceforge.net/projects/hessling-editor/files/hessling-editor/3.3 Release Candidate 8/the-3.3.tar.gz"
+MD5SUM="27cea01b790a1a57a80f578f69602411"
 DOWNLOAD_x86_64=""
 MD5SUM_x86_64=""
 REQUIRES="regina-rexx"
diff --git a/development/THE/install.patch b/development/THE/install.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 30995153f3..0000000000
--- a/development/THE/install.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
---- THE-4.0/INSTALL.orig	2022-12-28 14:20:28.000000000 -0800
-+++ THE-4.0/INSTALL	2023-01-07 16:32:48.849598481 -0800
-@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
- 
- % mkdir xcurses
- % cd xcurses
--% ../configure --with-curses=x11
-+% ../configure --with-curses=pdcurses-x11
-                --with-rexx=oorexx
-                --with-rexxincdir=[where oorexx is installed]/api
-                --with-rexxlibdir=[where oorexx is installed]/api
diff --git a/development/THE/libpdcurses-x11.pc b/development/THE/libpdcurses-x11.pc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5da4083b6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/development/THE/libpdcurses-x11.pc
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+prefix=/usr
+exec_prefix=${prefix}
+libdir=${prefix}/XLIBDIR
+includedir=${prefix}/include/xcurses
+version=XVERSION
+
+Name: PDCurses
+Description: PDCurses ${version} X11 library
+Version: ${version}
+URL: https://pdcurses.org
+Requires.private:
+Libs: -lXCurses
+Libs.private:  -l:libXCurses.a  -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lX11 -lXpm -lSM -lICE -lXext
+Cflags:  -DXCURSES -I${includedir} -I/usr/include/X11
diff --git a/development/THE/makefile-in.patch b/development/THE/makefile-in.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 7db0260757..0000000000
--- a/development/THE/makefile-in.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
---- THE-4.0/Makefile.in.orig	2022-12-28 21:50:18.000000000 -0800
-+++ THE-4.0/Makefile.in	2023-01-07 17:58:35.946838735 -0800
-@@ -176,9 +176,9 @@
- doc/html:
- 	mkdir -p doc/html
- 
--html:	manext doc/html doc/html/index.html
-+html:  doc/html doc/html/index.html
- 
--doc/html/index.html: $(sourcedir)/*.c $(APPENDIX) $(GLOSSARY) $(OVERVIEW)
-+doc/html/index.html: manext $(sourcedir)/*.c $(APPENDIX) $(GLOSSARY) $(OVERVIEW)
- #	-rm -fr *$(HTML_EXT) *.man
- 	cp $(imagedir)/the64.png .
- 	rexx $(srcdir)/makehtml.rex src=$(srcdir) ext=$(HTML_EXT) ver=$(VERSION) dest=./doc/html doc=$(srcdocdir) \
-@@ -197,9 +197,9 @@
- doc/helpviewer:
- 	mkdir -p doc/helpviewer
- 
--helpviewer: manext doc/helpviewer doc/helpviewer/index.html
-+helpviewer: doc/helpviewer doc/helpviewer/index.html
- 
--doc/helpviewer/index.html: $(sourcedir)/*.c $(APPENDIX) $(GLOSSARY) $(OVERVIEW)
-+doc/helpviewer/index.html: manext $(sourcedir)/*.c $(APPENDIX) $(GLOSSARY) $(OVERVIEW)
- #	-rm -f *$(HTML_EXT) *.man comm/* commsos/* commset/* misc/*
- 	cp $(imagedir)/the64.png .
- 	rexx $(srcdir)/makehv.rex src=$(srcdir) ext=$(HTML_EXT) ver=$(VERSION) dest=./doc/helpviewer doc=$(srcdocdir) \