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30 .\" $Id: curs_slk.3x,v 1.63 2023/10/07 21:19:07 tom Exp $
31 .TH curs_slk 3X 2023-10-07 "ncurses 6.4" "Library calls"
52 \fB\%slk_noutrefresh\fP,
65 \fB\%extended_slk_color\fP \-
66 \fIcurses\fR soft label key routines
69 \fB#include <curses.h>
71 \fBint slk_init(int \fIfmt\fP);
73 \fBint slk_set(int \fIlabnum\fP, const char *\fIlabel\fP, int \fIfmt\fP);
74 \fBint slk_wset(int \fIlabnum\fP, const wchar_t *\fIlabel\fP, int \fIfmt\fP);
76 \fBchar *slk_label(int \fIlabnum\fP);
78 \fBint slk_refresh(void);
79 \fBint slk_noutrefresh(void);
80 \fBint slk_clear(void);
81 \fBint slk_restore(void);
82 \fBint slk_touch(void);
84 \fBint slk_attron(const chtype \fIattrs\fP);
85 \fBint slk_attroff(const chtype \fIattrs\fP);
86 \fBint slk_attrset(const chtype \fIattrs\fP);
87 \fBint slk_attr_on(attr_t \fIattrs\fP, void* \fIopts\fP);
88 \fBint slk_attr_off(const attr_t \fIattrs\fP, void * \fIopts\fP);
89 \fBint slk_attr_set(const attr_t \fIattrs\fP, short \fIpair\fP, void* \fIopts\fP);
91 \fBattr_t slk_attr(void);
93 \fBint slk_color(short \fIpair\fP);
95 \fBint extended_slk_color(int \fIpair\fP);
98 The \fBslk\fP* functions manipulate the set of soft function-key labels that exist on
100 For those terminals that do not have soft labels,
101 \fIcurses\fP takes over the bottom line of \fB\%stdscr\fP, reducing the size of
102 \fB\%stdscr\fP and the variable \fBLINES\fP.
103 \fIcurses\fP standardizes on eight
104 labels of up to eight characters each.
105 In addition to this, the \fIncurses\fP
106 implementation supports a mode where it simulates 12 labels of up to five
108 This is useful for PC-like enduser devices.
109 \fIncurses\fP simulates this mode by taking over up to two lines at
110 the bottom of the screen;
111 it does not try to use any hardware support for this
114 The \fB\%slk_init\fP routine must be called before \fB\%initscr\fP or \fB\%newterm\fP
116 If \fB\%initscr\fP eventually uses a line from \fB\%stdscr\fP to
117 emulate the soft labels,
118 then \fIfmt\fP determines how the labels are arranged on the screen:
122 indicates a 3\-2\-3 arrangement of
126 indicates a 4\-4 arrangement
129 indicates the PC-like 4\-4\-4 mode.
132 is again the PC-like 4\-4\-4 mode,
133 but in addition an index line is generated, helping the user to
134 identify the key numbers easily.
137 The \fB\%slk_set\fP routine
138 (and the \fB\%slk_wset\fP routine for the wide-character library)
139 has three parameters:
143 is the label number, from \fB1\fP to \fB8\fP
144 (12 if \fIfmt\fP in \fB\%slk_init\fP is \fB2\fP or \fB3\fP);
147 is be the string to put on the label,
149 (five if \fIfmt\fP in \fB\%slk_init\fP is \fB2\fP or \fB3\fP)
150 characters in length.
151 A null string or a null pointer sets up a blank label.
155 \fB0\fP, \fB1\fP, or \fB2\fP, indicating whether the label is to be
156 left-justified, centered, or right-justified, respectively, within the
160 The \fB\%slk_label\fP routine returns the current label for label number
161 \fIlabnum\fP, with leading and trailing blanks stripped.
163 The \fB\%slk_refresh\fP and \fB\%slk_noutrefresh\fP routines correspond to
164 the \fB\%wrefresh\fP and \fB\%wnoutrefresh\fP routines.
166 The \fB\%slk_clear\fP routine clears the soft labels from the screen.
168 The \fB\%slk_restore\fP routine restores the soft labels to the screen
169 after a \fB\%slk_clear\fP has been performed.
171 The \fB\%slk_touch\fP routine forces all the soft labels to be output
172 the next time a \fB\%slk_noutrefresh\fP is performed.
175 \fB\%slk_attron\fP, \fB\%slk_attrset\fP, \fB\%slk_attroff\fP and \fB\%slk_attr\fP
176 routines correspond to
177 \fB\%attron\fP, \fB\%attrset\fP, \fB\%attroff\fP and \fB\%attr_get\fP, respectively.
178 They have an effect only if soft labels are simulated on the bottom line of
180 The default highlight for soft keys is A_STANDOUT (as in
181 System V \fIcurses\fP, which does not document this fact).
183 The \fB\%slk_color\fP routine corresponds to \fB\%color_set\fP.
184 It has an effect only
185 if soft labels are simulated on the bottom line of the screen.
187 Because \fB\%slk_color\fP accepts only \fBshort\fP (signed 16-bit integer) values,
188 this implementation provides
189 \fB\%extended_slk_color\fP which accepts an integer value, e.g., 32-bits.
192 These routines return \fBERR\fP upon failure
193 and \fBOK\fP (SVr4 specifies only "an integer value other than \fBERR\fP")
194 upon successful completion.
196 X/Open defines no error conditions.
197 In this implementation
201 returns the attribute used for the soft keys.
203 \fBslk_attroff\fP, \fBslk_attron\fP, \fBslk_clear\fP, \fBslk_noutrefresh\fP, \fBslk_refresh\fP, \fBslk_touch\fP
205 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized.
209 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized.
213 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized, or
214 the color pair is outside the range 0..\fBCOLOR_PAIRS\fP\-1.
218 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized, or
219 the color pair is outside the range 0..\fBCOLOR_PAIRS\fP\-1.
223 if the format parameter is outside the range 0..3.
226 returns \fBNULL\fP on error.
230 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized, or
231 the \fIlabnum\fP parameter is outside the range of label counts, or
232 if the format parameter is outside the range 0..2, or if
233 memory for the labels cannot be allocated.
236 SVr3 introduced these functions:
240 \fBslk_noutrefresh\fP
246 SVr4 added these functions:
252 X/Open \fIcurses\fP added these:
259 X/Open \fIcurses\fP documents the \fIopts\fP argument as reserved for future use,
260 saying that it must be null.
262 uses that parameter in ABI 6 for the functions which have a color-pair
263 parameter to support extended color pairs.
265 For functions which modify the color, e.g., \fB\%slk_attr_set\fP,
266 if \fIopts\fP is set it is treated as a pointer to \fBint\fP,
267 and used to set the color pair instead of the \fBshort\fP pair parameter.
269 Most applications would use \fB\%slk_noutrefresh\fP because a
270 \fB\%wrefresh\fP is likely to follow soon.
272 The XSI \fIcurses\fP standard, Issue 4, described the soft-key functions,
273 with some differences from SVr4 \fIcurses\fP:
275 It added functions like the SVr4
276 attribute-manipulation functions \fB\%slk_attron\fP,
277 \fB\%slk_attroff\fP, \fB\%slk_attrset\fP,
278 but which use \fBattr_t\fP parameters (rather than \fB\%chtype\fP),
279 along with a reserved \fIopts\fP parameter.
281 Two of these new functions (unlike the SVr4 functions) have no provision
282 for color: \fB\%slk_attr_on\fP and \fB\%slk_attr_off\fP.
284 The third function \%(\fBslk_attr_set\fP) has a color-pair parameter.
286 It added \fBconst\fP qualifiers to parameters (unnecessarily), and
288 It added \fB\%slk_color\fP.
290 Although \fB\%slk_start\fP is declared in the \fIcurses\fP header file,
291 it was not documented by SVr4 other than its presence in a list
292 of libtermlib.so.1 symbols.
293 Reading the source code (i.e., Illumos):
295 \fB\%slk_start\fP has two parameters:
298 \fIng\fP (number of groups) and
300 \fIgp\fP (group pointer).
303 Soft-key groups are an array of \fIng\fP integers.
305 In SVr4, \fB\%slk_init\fP calls \fB\%slk_start\fP passing a null for \fIgp\fP.
306 For this case, \fB\%slk_start\fP uses the number of groups \fIng\fP
307 (3 for the 3-2-3 layout, 2 for the 4-4 layout) which \fB\%slk_init\fP provided.
309 If \fIng\fP is neither 2 or 3,
310 \fB\%slk_start\fP checks the terminfo \fBfln\fP (label_format) capability,
311 interpreting that as a comma-separated list of numbers,
312 e.g., \*(``3,2,3\*('' for the 3-2-3 layout.
314 Finally, if there is no \fBfln\fP capability, \fB\%slk_start\fP returns \fBERR\fP.
316 If \fB\%slk_start\fP is given a non-null \fIgp\fP,
317 it copies the \fIng\fP elements of the group of soft-keys, up to 16.
319 If there are more than 16 elements, \fB\%slk_start\fP returns an error.
321 The format codes \fB2\fP and \fB3\fP for \fB\%slk_init\fP
322 were added by \fIncurses\fP in 1996.
323 PDCurses 2.4 added this feature in 2001.
325 The function \fB\%slk_attr\fP was added by \fIncurses\fP in 1996.
327 X/Open \fIcurses\fP does not specify a limit for the number of colors and
328 color pairs which a terminal can support.
329 However, in its use of \fBshort\fP for the parameters,
330 it carries over SVr4's implementation detail for the compiled
331 terminfo database, which uses signed 16-bit numbers.
332 This implementation provides extended versions of those functions
333 which use \fBint\fP parameters,
334 allowing applications to use larger color- and pair-numbers.
337 \fB\%curs_attr\fP(3X),
338 \fB\%curs_initscr\fP(3X),
339 \fB\%curs_refresh\fP(3X),
340 \fB\%curs_variables\fP(3X)