+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other numbered buffers may be allocated by applications through
+ the <STRONG>nbuf</STRONG> argument of (see <STRONG><A HREF="form_field_new.3x.html">form_field_new(3x)</A></STRONG>) but are not manip-
+ ulated by the forms library.
+
+ The function <STRONG>field_buffer</STRONG> returns a pointer to the contents of the
+ given numbered buffer:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The buffer contents always have the same length, and are padded
+ with trailing spaces as needed to ensure this length is the
+ same.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The buffer may contain leading spaces, depending on how it was
+ set.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The buffer contents are set with <STRONG>set_field_buffer</STRONG>, or as a side
+ effect of any editing operations on the corresponding field.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Editing operations are based on the <EM>window</EM> which displays the
+ field, rather than a <EM>string</EM>. The window contains only printable
+ characters, and is filled with blanks. If you want the raw
+ data, you must write your own routine that copies the value out
+ of the buffer and removes the leading and trailing spaces.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Because editing operations change the content of the buffer to
+ correspond to the window, you should not rely on using buffers
+ for long-term storage of form data.
+
+ The function <STRONG>set_field_status</STRONG> sets the associated status flag of <EM>field</EM>;
+ <STRONG>field_status</STRONG> gets the current value. The status flag is set to a
+ nonzero value whenever the field changes.
+
+ The function <STRONG>set_max_field</STRONG> sets the maximum size for a dynamic field.
+ An argument of 0 turns off any maximum size threshold for that field.
+
+
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
+ The <STRONG>field_buffer</STRONG> function returns NULL on error. It sets errno accord-
+ ing to their success: