.\"*************************************************************************** .\" Copyright (c) 2010-2017,2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc. * .\" * .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a * .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the * .\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including * .\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, * .\" distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell * .\" copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is * .\" furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: * .\" * .\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included * .\" in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. * .\" * .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS * .\" OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF * .\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. * .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, * .\" DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR * .\" OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR * .\" THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. * .\" * .\" Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright * .\" holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the * .\" sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written * .\" authorization. * .\"*************************************************************************** .\" .\" $Id: curs_variables.3x,v 1.11 2018/07/28 22:37:10 tom Exp $ .TH curs_variables 3X "" .ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq .el .ds `` `` .ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq .el .ds '' '' .de bP .ie n .IP \(bu 4 .el .IP \(bu 2 .. .ds n 5 .na .hy 0 .SH NAME \fBCOLORS\fR, \fBCOLOR_PAIRS\fR, \fBCOLS\fR, \fBESCDELAY\fR, \fBLINES\fR, \fBTABSIZE\fR, \fBcurscr\fR, \fBnewscr\fR, \fBstdscr\fR \- \fBcurses\fR global variables .ad .hy .SH SYNOPSIS .nf \fB#include \fR .PP \fBint COLOR_PAIRS;\fR .br \fBint COLORS;\fR .br \fBint COLS;\fR .br \fBint ESCDELAY;\fR .br \fBint LINES;\fR .br \fBint TABSIZE;\fR .br \fBWINDOW * curscr;\fR .br \fBWINDOW * newscr;\fR .br \fBWINDOW * stdscr;\fR .fi .SH DESCRIPTION This page summarizes variables provided by the \fBcurses\fP library. A more complete description is given in the \fBcurses\fP(3X) manual page. .PP Depending on the configuration, these may be actual variables, or macros (see \fBcurs_threads\fR(3X) and \fBcurs_opaque\fR(3X)) which provide read-only access to \fIcurses\fP's state. In either case, applications should treat them as read-only to avoid confusing the library. .SS COLOR_PAIRS After initializing curses, this variable contains the number of color pairs which the terminal can support. Usually the number of color pairs will be the product \fBCOLORS\fP*\fBCOLORS\fP, however this is not always true: .bP a few terminals use HLS colors, which do not follow this rule .bP terminals supporting a large number of colors are limited by the number of color pairs that can be represented in a \fIsigned short\fP value. .SS COLORS After initializing curses, this variable contains the number of colors which the terminal can support. .SS COLS After initializing curses, this variable contains the width of the screen, i.e., the number of columns. .SS ESCDELAY This variable holds the number of milliseconds to wait after reading an escape character, to distinguish between an individual escape character entered on the keyboard from escape sequences sent by cursor- and function-keys (see curses(3X)). .SS LINES After initializing curses, this variable contains the height of the screen, i.e., the number of lines. .SS TABSIZE This variable holds the number of columns used by the \fIcurses\fP library when converting a tab character to spaces as it adds the tab to a window (see curs_addch(3X). .SS The Current Screen This implementation of curses uses a special window \fBcurscr\fP to record its updates to the terminal screen. .PP This is referred to as the \*(``physical screen\*('' in the \fBcurs_refresh\fR(3X) and \fBcurs_outopts\fR(3X) manual pages. .SS The New Screen This implementation of curses uses a special window \fBnewscr\fP to hold updates to the terminal screen before applying them to \fBcurscr\fP. .PP This is referred to as the \*(``virtual screen\*('' in the \fBcurs_kernel\fR(3X), \fBcurs_refresh\fR(3X) and \fBcurs_outopts\fR(3X) manual pages. .SS The Standard Screen Upon initializing curses, a default window called \fBstdscr\fP, which is the size of the terminal screen, is created. Many curses functions use this window. .SH NOTES The curses library is initialized using either \fBinitscr\fR(3X), or \fBnewterm\fR(3X). .PP If \fBcurses\fP is configured to use separate curses/terminfo libraries, most of these variables reside in the curses library. .SH PORTABILITY ESCDELAY and TABSIZE are extensions, not provided in most other implementations of curses. .PP ESCDELAY is an extension in AIX curses: .bP In AIX, the units for ESCDELAY are \fIfifths\fP of a millisecond. .bP The default value for AIX's ESCDELAY is 0.1 seconds. .bP AIX also enforces a limit of 10,000 seconds for ESCDELAY; this implementation currently has no upper limit. .PP This implementation has long used ESCDELAY with units of milliseconds, making it impossible to be completely compatible with AIX. Likewise, most users have either decided to override the value, or rely upon its default value. .SH SEE ALSO \fBcurses\fR(3X), \fBcurs_opaque\fR(3X), \fBcurs_terminfo\fR(3X), \fBcurs_threads\fR(3X), \fBterm_variables\fR(3X), \fBterminfo\fR(\*n).