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63 <H1 class="no-header">curs_attr 3x</H1>
65 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_attr.3x.html">curs_attr(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_attr.3x.html">curs_attr(3x)</A></STRONG>
70 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
71 <STRONG>attr_get</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattr_get</STRONG>, <STRONG>attr_set</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattr_set</STRONG>, <STRONG>attr_off</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattr_off</STRONG>, <STRONG>attr_on</STRONG>,
72 <STRONG>wattr_on</STRONG>, <STRONG>attroff</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattroff</STRONG>, <STRONG>attron</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattron</STRONG>, <STRONG>attrset</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattrset</STRONG>, <STRONG>chgat</STRONG>,
73 <STRONG>wchgat</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvchgat</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwchgat</STRONG>, <STRONG>color_set</STRONG>, <STRONG>wcolor_set</STRONG>, <STRONG>standend</STRONG>, <STRONG>wstandend</STRONG>,
74 <STRONG>standout</STRONG>, <STRONG>wstandout</STRONG> - <STRONG>curses</STRONG> character and window attribute control
78 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
79 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
81 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_get(attr_t</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
82 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattr_get(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
83 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_set(attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
84 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattr_set(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
86 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_off(attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
87 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattr_off(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
88 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_on(attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
89 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattr_on(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
91 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attroff(int</STRONG> <EM>attrs);</EM>
92 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattroff(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
93 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attron(int</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
94 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattron(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
95 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>attrset(int</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
96 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wattrset(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
98 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>chgat(int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attr</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
99 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wchgat(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG>
100 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attr</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
101 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvchgat(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG>
102 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attr</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
103 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwchgat(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win,</EM> <EM>int</EM> <EM>y,</EM> <EM>int</EM> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG>
104 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n,</EM> <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attr</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
106 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>color_set(short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void*</STRONG> <EM>opts</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
107 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wcolor_set(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>void*</STRONG> <EM>opts);</EM>
109 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>standend(void);</STRONG>
110 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wstandend(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
111 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>standout(void);</STRONG>
112 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wstandout(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
115 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
116 These routines manipulate the current attributes of the named window,
117 which then apply to all characters that are written into the window
118 with <STRONG>waddch</STRONG>, <STRONG>waddstr</STRONG> and <STRONG>wprintw</STRONG>. Attributes are a property of the
119 character, and move with the character through any scrolling and in-
120 sert/delete line/character operations. To the extent possible, they
121 are displayed as appropriate modifications to the graphic rendition of
122 characters put on the screen.
124 These routines do not affect the attributes used when erasing portions
125 of the window. See <STRONG><A HREF="curs_bkgd.3x.html">curs_bkgd(3x)</A></STRONG> for functions which modify the at-
126 tributes used for erasing and clearing.
128 Routines which do not have a <STRONG>WINDOW*</STRONG> parameter apply to <STRONG>stdscr</STRONG>. For
129 example, <STRONG>attr_set</STRONG> is the <STRONG>stdscr</STRONG> variant of <STRONG>wattr_set</STRONG>.
132 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Window-attributes">Window attributes</a></H3><PRE>
133 There are two sets of functions:
135 <STRONG>o</STRONG> functions for manipulating the window attributes and color: <STRONG>wat-</STRONG>
136 <STRONG>tr_set</STRONG> and <STRONG>wattr_get</STRONG>.
138 <STRONG>o</STRONG> functions for manipulating only the window attributes (not color):
139 <STRONG>wattr_on</STRONG> and <STRONG>wattr_off</STRONG>.
141 The <STRONG>wattr_set</STRONG> function sets the current attributes of the given window
142 to <EM>attrs</EM>, with color specified by <EM>pair</EM>.
144 Use <STRONG>wattr_get</STRONG> to retrieve attributes for the given window.
146 Use <STRONG>attr_on</STRONG> and <STRONG>wattr_on</STRONG> to turn on window attributes, i.e., values
147 OR'd together in <EM>attr</EM>, without affecting other attributes. Use <STRONG>at-</STRONG>
148 <STRONG>tr_off</STRONG> and <STRONG>wattr_off</STRONG> to turn off window attributes, again values OR'd
149 together in <EM>attr</EM>, without affecting other attributes.
152 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Legacy-window-attributes">Legacy window attributes</a></H3><PRE>
153 Most of the window attribute routines are extensions of older routines
154 which assume that color pairs are OR'd into the attribute parameter.
155 These older routines use the same name, omitting an underscore (<STRONG>_</STRONG>).
157 The <STRONG>attrset</STRONG> routine is a legacy feature predating SVr4 curses but kept
158 in X/Open Curses for the same reason that SVr4 curses kept it: compati-
161 The remaining <STRONG>attr</STRONG>* functions operate exactly like the corresponding
162 <STRONG>attr_</STRONG>* functions, except that they take arguments of type <STRONG>int</STRONG> rather
163 than <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG>.
165 There is no corresponding <STRONG>attrget</STRONG> function as such in X/Open Curses,
166 although ncurses provides <STRONG>getattrs</STRONG> (see <STRONG><A HREF="curs_legacy.3x.html">curs_legacy(3x)</A></STRONG>).
169 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Change-character-rendition">Change character rendition</a></H3><PRE>
170 The routine <STRONG>chgat</STRONG> changes the attributes of a given number of charac-
171 ters starting at the current cursor location of <STRONG>stdscr</STRONG>. It does not
172 update the cursor and does not perform wrapping. A character count of
173 -1 or greater than the remaining window width means to change at-
174 tributes all the way to the end of the current line. The <STRONG>wchgat</STRONG> func-
175 tion generalizes this to any window; the <STRONG>mvwchgat</STRONG> function does a cur-
176 sor move before acting.
178 In these functions, the color <EM>pair</EM> argument is a color-pair index (as
179 in the first argument of <STRONG>init_pair</STRONG>, see <STRONG><A HREF="curs_color.3x.html">curs_color(3x)</A></STRONG>).
182 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Change-window-color">Change window color</a></H3><PRE>
183 The routine <STRONG>color_set</STRONG> sets the current color of the given window to the
184 foreground/background combination described by the color <EM>pair</EM> parame-
188 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Standout">Standout</a></H3><PRE>
189 The routine <STRONG>standout</STRONG> is the same as <STRONG>attron(A_STANDOUT)</STRONG>. The routine
190 <STRONG>standend</STRONG> is the same as <STRONG>attrset(A_NORMAL)</STRONG> or <STRONG>attrset(0)</STRONG>, that is, it
191 turns off all attributes.
193 X/Open does not mark these "restricted", because
195 <STRONG>o</STRONG> they have well established legacy use, and
197 <STRONG>o</STRONG> there is no ambiguity about the way the attributes might be com-
198 bined with a color pair.
201 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-VIDEO-ATTRIBUTES">VIDEO ATTRIBUTES</a></H2><PRE>
202 The following video attributes, defined in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>, can be passed to
203 the routines <STRONG>attron</STRONG>, <STRONG>attroff</STRONG>, and <STRONG>attrset</STRONG>, or OR'd with the characters
204 passed to <STRONG>addch</STRONG> (see <STRONG><A HREF="curs_addch.3x.html">curs_addch(3x)</A></STRONG>).
206 <EM>Name</EM> <EM>Description</EM>
207 -----------------------------------------------------------
208 <STRONG>A_NORMAL</STRONG> Normal display (no highlight)
209 <STRONG>A_STANDOUT</STRONG> Best highlighting mode of the terminal.
210 <STRONG>A_UNDERLINE</STRONG> Underlining
211 <STRONG>A_REVERSE</STRONG> Reverse video
212 <STRONG>A_BLINK</STRONG> Blinking
213 <STRONG>A_DIM</STRONG> Half bright
214 <STRONG>A_BOLD</STRONG> Extra bright or bold
215 <STRONG>A_PROTECT</STRONG> Protected mode
216 <STRONG>A_INVIS</STRONG> Invisible or blank mode
217 <STRONG>A_ALTCHARSET</STRONG> Alternate character set
218 <STRONG>A_ITALIC</STRONG> Italics (non-X/Open extension)
219 <STRONG>A_CHARTEXT</STRONG> Bit-mask to extract a character
221 These video attributes are supported by <STRONG>attr_on</STRONG> and related functions
222 (which also support the attributes recognized by <STRONG>attron</STRONG>, etc.):
224 <EM>Name</EM> <EM>Description</EM>
225 -----------------------------------------
226 <STRONG>WA_HORIZONTAL</STRONG> Horizontal highlight
227 <STRONG>WA_LEFT</STRONG> Left highlight
228 <STRONG>WA_LOW</STRONG> Low highlight
229 <STRONG>WA_RIGHT</STRONG> Right highlight
230 <STRONG>WA_TOP</STRONG> Top highlight
231 <STRONG>WA_VERTICAL</STRONG> Vertical highlight
233 The return values of many of these routines are not meaningful (they
234 are implemented as macro-expanded assignments and simply return their
235 argument). The SVr4 manual page claims (falsely) that these routines
236 always return <STRONG>1</STRONG>.
239 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></H2><PRE>
240 These functions may be macros:
242 <STRONG>attroff</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattroff</STRONG>, <STRONG>attron</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattron</STRONG>, <STRONG>attrset</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattrset</STRONG>, <STRONG>standend</STRONG>
243 and <STRONG>standout</STRONG>.
245 Color pair values can only be OR'd with attributes if the pair number
246 is less than 256. The alternate functions such as <STRONG>color_set</STRONG> can pass a
247 color pair value directly. However, ncurses ABI 4 and 5 simply OR this
248 value within the alternate functions. You must use ncurses ABI 6 to
249 support more than 256 color pairs.
252 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
253 X/Open Curses is largely based on SVr4 curses, adding support for
254 "wide-characters" (not specific to Unicode). Some of the X/Open dif-
255 ferences from SVr4 curses address the way video attributes can be ap-
256 plied to wide-characters. But aside from that, <STRONG>attrset</STRONG> and <STRONG>attr_set</STRONG>
257 are similar. SVr4 curses provided the basic features for manipulating
258 video attributes. However, earlier versions of curses provided a part
261 As seen in 2.8BSD, curses assumed 7-bit characters, using the eighth
262 bit of a byte to represent the <EM>standout</EM> feature (often implemented as
263 bold and/or reverse video). The BSD curses library provided functions
264 <STRONG>standout</STRONG> and <STRONG>standend</STRONG> which were carried along into X/Open Curses due
265 to their pervasive use in legacy applications.
267 Some terminals in the 1980s could support a variety of video at-
268 tributes, although the BSD curses library could do nothing with those.
269 System V (1983) provided an improved curses library. It defined the <STRONG>A_</STRONG>
270 symbols for use by applications to manipulate the other attributes.
271 There are few useful references for the chronology.
273 Goodheart's book <EM>UNIX</EM> <EM>Curses</EM> <EM>Explained</EM> (1991) describes SVr3 (1987),
274 commenting on several functions:
276 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the <STRONG>attron</STRONG>, <STRONG>attroff</STRONG>, <STRONG>attrset</STRONG> functions (and most of the functions
277 found in SVr4 but not in BSD curses) were introduced by System V,
279 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the alternate character set feature with <STRONG>A_ALTCHARSET</STRONG> was added in
280 SVr2 and improved in SVr3 (by adding <STRONG>acs_map[]</STRONG>),
282 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>start_color</STRONG> and related color-functions were introduced by System
285 <STRONG>o</STRONG> pads, soft-keys were added in SVr3, and
287 Goodheart did not mention the background character or the <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> type.
288 Those are respectively SVr4 and X/Open features. He did mention the <STRONG>A_</STRONG>
289 constants, but did not indicate their values. Those were not the same
290 in different systems, even for those marked as System V.
292 Different Unix systems used different sizes for the bit-fields in
293 <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> for <EM>characters</EM> and <EM>colors</EM>, and took into account the different
294 integer sizes (32-bit versus 64-bit).
296 This table showing the number of bits for <STRONG>A_COLOR</STRONG> and <STRONG>A_CHARTEXT</STRONG> was
297 gleaned from the curses header files for various operating systems and
298 architectures. The inferred architecture and notes reflect the format
299 and size of the defined constants as well as clues such as the alter-
300 nate character set implementation. A 32-bit library can be used on a
301 64-bit system, but not necessarily the reverse.
303 <EM>Year</EM> <EM>System</EM> <EM>Arch</EM> <EM>Color</EM> <EM>Char</EM> <EM>Notes</EM>
304 ----------------------------------------------------------------
305 1992 Solaris 5.2 32 6 17 SVr4 curses
306 1992 HPUX 9 32 no 8 SVr2 curses
307 1992 AIX 3.2 32 no 23 SVr2 curses
308 1994 OSF/1 r3 32 no 23 SVr2 curses
309 1995 HP-UX 10.00 32 6 16 SVr3 "curses_colr"
310 1995 HP-UX 10.00 32 6 8 SVr4, X/Open curses
311 1995 Solaris 5.4 32/64 7 16 X/Open curses
312 1996 AIX 4.2 32 7 16 X/Open curses
313 1996 OSF/1 r4 32 6 16 X/Open curses
314 1997 HP-UX 11.00 32 6 8 X/Open curses
315 2000 U/Win 32/64 7/31 16 uses <STRONG>chtype</STRONG>
321 <STRONG>o</STRONG> HP-UX 10.20 (1996) added support for 64-bit PA-RISC processors
324 <STRONG>o</STRONG> HP-UX 10.30 (1997) marked "curses_colr" obsolete. That version
325 of curses was dropped with HP-UX 11.30 in 2006.
327 Regarding OSF/1 (and Tru64),
329 <STRONG>o</STRONG> These used 64-bit hardware. Like ncurses, the OSF/1 curses in-
330 terface is not customized for 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
332 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Unlike other systems which evolved from AT&T code, OSF/1 provid-
333 ed a new implementation for X/Open curses.
337 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The initial release of Solaris was in 1992.
339 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>xpg4</EM> (X/Open) curses was developed by MKS from 1990 to 1995.
340 Sun's copyright began in 1996.
342 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Sun updated the X/Open curses interface after 64-bit support was
343 introduced in 1997, but did not modify the SVr4 curses inter-
348 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Development of the curses library began in 1991, stopped in
351 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Color support was added in 1998.
353 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The library uses only <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> (no <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG>).
355 Once X/Open curses was adopted in the mid-1990s, the constraint of a
356 32-bit interface with many colors and wide-characters for <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> became
357 a moot point. The <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> structure (whose size and members are not
358 specified in X/Open Curses) could be extended as needed.
360 Other interfaces are rarely used now:
362 <STRONG>o</STRONG> BSD curses was improved slightly in 1993/1994 using Keith Bostic's
363 modification to make the library 8-bit clean for <STRONG>nvi</STRONG>. He moved
364 <EM>standout</EM> attribute to a structure member.
366 The resulting 4.4BSD curses was replaced by ncurses over the next
369 <STRONG>o</STRONG> U/Win is rarely used now.
372 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H2><PRE>
373 This implementation provides the <STRONG>A_ITALIC</STRONG> attribute for terminals which
374 have the <STRONG>enter_italics_mode</STRONG> (<STRONG>sitm</STRONG>) and <STRONG>exit_italics_mode</STRONG> (<STRONG>ritm</STRONG>) capa-
375 bilities. Italics are not mentioned in X/Open Curses. Unlike the oth-
376 er video attributes, <STRONG>A_ITALIC</STRONG> is unrelated to the <STRONG>set_attributes</STRONG> capa-
377 bilities. This implementation makes the assumption that <STRONG>exit_at-</STRONG>
378 <STRONG>tribute_mode</STRONG> may also reset italics.
380 Each of the functions added by XSI Curses has a parameter <EM>opts</EM>, which
381 X/Open Curses still (after more than twenty years) documents as re-
382 served for future use, saying that it should be <STRONG>NULL</STRONG>. This implementa-
383 tion uses that parameter in ABI 6 for the functions which have a color-
384 pair parameter to support <EM>extended</EM> <EM>color</EM> <EM>pairs</EM>:
386 <STRONG>o</STRONG> For functions which modify the color, e.g., <STRONG>wattr_set</STRONG>, if <EM>opts</EM> is
387 set it is treated as a pointer to <STRONG>int</STRONG>, and used to set the color
388 pair instead of the <STRONG>short</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM> parameter.
390 <STRONG>o</STRONG> For functions which retrieve the color, e.g., <STRONG>wattr_get</STRONG>, if <EM>opts</EM> is
391 set it is treated as a pointer to <STRONG>int</STRONG>, and used to retrieve the
392 color pair as an <STRONG>int</STRONG> value, in addition retrieving it via the stan-
393 dard pointer to <STRONG>short</STRONG> parameter.
395 The remaining functions which have <EM>opts</EM>, but do not manipulate color,
396 e.g., <STRONG>wattr_on</STRONG> and <STRONG>wattr_off</STRONG> are not used by this implementation except
397 to check that they are <STRONG>NULL</STRONG>.
400 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
401 These functions are supported in the XSI Curses standard, Issue 4. The
402 standard defined the dedicated type for highlights, <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG>, which was
403 not defined in SVr4 curses. The functions taking <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> arguments were
404 not supported under SVr4.
406 Very old versions of this library did not force an update of the screen
407 when changing the attributes. Use <STRONG>touchwin</STRONG> to force the screen to
408 match the updated attributes.
410 The XSI Curses standard states that whether the traditional functions
411 <STRONG>attron</STRONG>/<STRONG>attroff</STRONG>/<STRONG>attrset</STRONG> can manipulate attributes other than <STRONG>A_BLINK</STRONG>,
412 <STRONG>A_BOLD</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_DIM</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_REVERSE</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_STANDOUT</STRONG>, or <STRONG>A_UNDERLINE</STRONG> is "unspecified".
413 Under this implementation as well as SVr4 curses, these functions cor-
414 rectly manipulate all other highlights (specifically, <STRONG>A_ALTCHARSET</STRONG>,
415 <STRONG>A_PROTECT</STRONG>, and <STRONG>A_INVIS</STRONG>).
417 XSI Curses added these entry points:
419 <STRONG>attr_get</STRONG>, <STRONG>attr_on</STRONG>, <STRONG>attr_off</STRONG>, <STRONG>attr_set</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattr_on</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattr_off</STRONG>, <STRONG>wat-</STRONG>
420 <STRONG>tr_get</STRONG>, <STRONG>wattr_set</STRONG>
422 The new functions are intended to work with a new series of highlight
423 macros prefixed with <STRONG>WA_</STRONG>. The older macros have direct counterparts in
424 the newer set of names:
426 <EM>Name</EM> <EM>Description</EM>
427 ------------------------------------------------------------
428 <STRONG>WA_NORMAL</STRONG> Normal display (no highlight)
429 <STRONG>WA_STANDOUT</STRONG> Best highlighting mode of the terminal.
430 <STRONG>WA_UNDERLINE</STRONG> Underlining
431 <STRONG>WA_REVERSE</STRONG> Reverse video
432 <STRONG>WA_BLINK</STRONG> Blinking
433 <STRONG>WA_DIM</STRONG> Half bright
434 <STRONG>WA_BOLD</STRONG> Extra bright or bold
435 <STRONG>WA_ALTCHARSET</STRONG> Alternate character set
437 XSI curses does not assign values to these symbols, nor does it state
438 whether or not they are related to the similarly-named A_NORMAL, etc.:
440 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The XSI curses standard specifies that each pair of corresponding
441 <STRONG>A_</STRONG> and <STRONG>WA_</STRONG>-using functions operates on the same current-highlight
444 <STRONG>o</STRONG> However, in some implementations, those symbols have unrelated val-
447 For example, the Solaris <EM>xpg4</EM> (X/Open) curses declares <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> to be
448 an unsigned short integer (16-bits), while <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> is a unsigned in-
449 teger (32-bits). The <STRONG>WA_</STRONG> symbols in this case are different from
450 the <STRONG>A_</STRONG> symbols because they are used for a smaller datatype which
451 does not represent <STRONG>A_CHARTEXT</STRONG> or <STRONG>A_COLOR</STRONG>.
453 In this implementation (as in many others), the values happen to be
454 the same because it simplifies copying information between <STRONG>chtype</STRONG>
455 and <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> variables.
457 The XSI standard extended conformance level adds new highlights <STRONG>A_HORI-</STRONG>
458 <STRONG>ZONTAL</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_LEFT</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_LOW</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_RIGHT</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_TOP</STRONG>, <STRONG>A_VERTICAL</STRONG> (and corresponding
459 <STRONG>WA_</STRONG> macros for each). As of August 2013, no known terminal provides
460 these highlights (i.e., via the <STRONG>sgr1</STRONG> capability).
463 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
464 All routines return the integer <STRONG>OK</STRONG> on success, or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> on failure.
466 X/Open does not define any error conditions.
470 <STRONG>o</STRONG> returns an error if the window pointer is null.
472 <STRONG>o</STRONG> returns an error if the color pair parameter for <STRONG>wcolor_set</STRONG> is out-
473 side the range 0..COLOR_PAIRS-1.
475 <STRONG>o</STRONG> does not return an error if either of the parameters of <STRONG>wattr_get</STRONG>
476 used for retrieving attribute or color-pair values is <STRONG>NULL</STRONG>.
478 Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor movement using
479 <STRONG>wmove</STRONG>, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if
480 the window pointer is null.
483 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
484 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_addch.3x.html">curs_addch(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_addstr.3x.html">curs_addstr(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_bkgd.3x.html">curs_bkgd(3x)</A></STRONG>,
485 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_printw.3x.html">curs_printw(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_variables.3x.html">curs_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>
489 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_attr.3x.html">curs_attr(3x)</A></STRONG>
493 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
494 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
495 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
497 <li><a href="#h3-Window-attributes">Window attributes</a></li>
498 <li><a href="#h3-Legacy-window-attributes">Legacy window attributes</a></li>
499 <li><a href="#h3-Change-character-rendition">Change character rendition</a></li>
500 <li><a href="#h3-Change-window-color">Change window color</a></li>
501 <li><a href="#h3-Standout">Standout</a></li>
504 <li><a href="#h2-VIDEO-ATTRIBUTES">VIDEO ATTRIBUTES</a></li>
505 <li><a href="#h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></li>
506 <li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
507 <li><a href="#h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
508 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
509 <li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
510 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
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