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<div class="AFFILIATION">
<div class="ADDRESS">
<p class="ADDRESS"><code class="EMAIL"><<a href=
- "mailto:ppadala@gmail.com">ppadala@gmail.com</a>></code></p>
+ "mailto:ppadala@gmail.com">ppadala@gmail.com</a>></code>
+ </p>
</div>
</div>
<table width="100%" border="0" summary="revisions">
<tr>
<th align="left" valign="top" colspan="3"><b>Revision
- History</b></th>
+ History</b>
+ </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.9</td>
-
<td align="left">2005-06-20</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.8</td>
-
<td align="left">2005-06-17</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.7.1</td>
-
<td align="left">2002-06-25</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.7</td>
-
<td align="left">2002-06-25</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.6.1</td>
-
<td align="left">2002-02-24</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.6</td>
-
<td align="left">2002-02-16</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.5</td>
-
<td align="left">2002-01-05</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.3.1</td>
-
<td align="left">2001-07-26</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.3</td>
-
<td align="left">2001-07-24</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.2</td>
-
<td align="left">2001-06-05</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Revision 1.1</td>
-
<td align="left">2001-05-22</td>
-
<td align="left">Revised by: ppadala</td>
</tr>
<div>
<div class="ABSTRACT">
<a name="AEN67" id="AEN67"></a>
-
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">This
document is intended to be an "All in One" guide for
programming with ncurses and its sister libraries. We
complex form manipulation. No prior experience in ncurses
is assumed. Send comments to <a href=
"mailto:ppadala@gmail.com" target="_top">this
- address</a></i></span></p>
+ address</a></i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
</div>
+
<hr>
</div>
<div class="TOC">
<dl>
- <dt><b>Table of Contents</b></dt>
+ <dt><b>Table of Contents</b>
+ </dt>
<dt>1. <a href="#INTRO">Introduction</a></dt>
<p>Suppose you wanted to print a line in color. Try typing
this on your console.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
echo "^[[0;31;40mIn Color"
</pre>
-
<p>The first character is an escape character, which looks
like two characters ^ and [. To be able to print it, you have
to press CTRL+V and then the ESC key. All the others are
normal printable characters. You should be able to see the
string "In Color" in red. It stays that way and to revert
back to the original mode type this.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
echo "^[[0;37;40m"
</pre>
-
<p>Now, what do these magic characters mean? Difficult to
comprehend? They might even be different for different
terminals. So the designers of UNIX invented a mechanism
on.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">Compiling the
- package</i></span></p>
+ package</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>NCURSES can be obtained from <a href=
"ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/ncurses.tar.gz" target=
<p>Read the README and INSTALL files for details on to how
to install it. It usually involves the following
operations.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
tar zxvf ncurses<version>.tar.gz # unzip and untar the archive
cd ncurses<version> # cd to the directory
su root # become root
make install # install it
</pre>
-
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">Using the
- RPM</i></span></p>
+ RPM</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>NCURSES RPM can be found and downloaded from <a href=
"http://rpmfind.net" target="_top">http://rpmfind.net</a> .
The RPM can be installed with the following command after
becoming root.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
rpm -i <downloaded rpm>
</pre>
"http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/ncurses_programs.tar.gz"
target="_top">here</a>. Unzip and untar it. The directory
structure looks like this.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
ncurses
|
|----> README -- the top level README file. contains instructions
|----> COPYING -- copyright notice
</pre>
-
<p>The individual directories contain the following
files.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
Description of files in each directory
--------------------------------------
perl
|----> 01-10.pl -- Perl equivalents of first ten example programs
</pre>
-
<p>There is a top level Makefile included in the main
directory. It builds all the files and puts the
ready-to-use exes in demo/exe directory. You can also do
<p>If above links are broken or if you want to experiment
with sgml read on.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
Get both the source and the tar,gzipped programs, available at
http://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LDP/howto/docbook/
htmldoc --size universal -t ps --firstpage p1 -f <output file name.ps>
NCURSES-ONE-BIG-FILE.html
</pre>
-
<p>See <a href=
"http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/" target=
"_top">LDP Author guide</a> for more details. If all else
<hr>
<h3 class="SECT2"><a name="COMPILECURSES" id=
- "COMPILECURSES">2.1. Compiling With the NCURSES
- Library</a></h3>
+ "COMPILECURSES">2.1. Compiling With the NCURSES Library</a></h3>
<p>To use ncurses library functions, you have to include
ncurses.h in your programs. To link the program with
ncurses the flag -lncurses should be added.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
#include <ncurses.h>
.
compile and link: gcc <program file> -lncurses
</pre>
-
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BHW" id="BHW"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 1. The Hello World !!! Program</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 1. The Hello World !!! Program</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BINFU" id="BINFU"></a>
-
<p><b>Example 2. Initialization Function Usage
- example</b></p>
+ example</b>
+ </p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
which explicitly work on the specified window.</p>
<p>For example, if you call</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
printw("Hi There !!!");
refresh();
</pre>
-
<p>It prints the string on stdscr at the present cursor
position. Similarly the call to refresh(), works on stdscr
only.</p>
<p>Say you have created <a href="#WINDOWS">windows</a> then
you have to call a function with a 'w' added to the usual
function.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
wprintw(win, "Hi There !!!");
wrefresh(win);
</pre>
-
<p>As you will see in the rest of the document, naming of
functions follow the same convention. For each function there
usually are three more functions.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
printw(string); /* Print on stdscr at present cursor position */
mvprintw(y, x, string);/* Move to (y, x) then print string */
mvwprintw(win, y, x, string); /* Move to (y, x) relative to window */
/* co-ordinates and then print */
</pre>
-
<p>Usually the w-less functions are macros which expand to
corresponding w-function with stdscr as the window
parameter.</p>
For example, you want to print a character ch(of type
char) bold and underlined, you would call addch() as
below.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
addch(ch | A_BOLD | A_UNDERLINE);
</pre>
<p><tt class="LITERAL">mvaddch()</tt> is used to move the
cursor to a given point, and then print. Thus, the
calls:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
move(row,col); /* moves the cursor to row<span class=
"emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS">th</i></span> row and col<span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">th</i></span> column */
addch(ch);
</pre>can be replaced by
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
mvaddch(row,col,ch);
</pre>
-
<p><tt class="LITERAL">waddch()</tt> is similar to
<tt class="LITERAL">addch()</tt>, except that it adds a
character into the given window. (Note that <tt class=
<hr>
<h4 class="SECT3"><a name="WPRINTWMVWPRINTW" id=
- "WPRINTWMVWPRINTW">6.3.2. wprintw() and
- mvwprintw</a></h4>
+ "WPRINTWMVWPRINTW">6.3.2. wprintw() and mvwprintw</a></h4>
<p>These two functions are similar to above two except
that they print in the corresponding window given as
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BPREX" id="BPREX"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 3. A Simple printw example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 3. A Simple printw example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class=
"INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h> /* ncurses.h includes stdio.h */
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BSCEX" id="BSCEX"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 4. A Simple scanw example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 4. A Simple scanw example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class=
"INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h> /* ncurses.h includes stdio.h */
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BSIAT" id="BSIAT"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 5. A Simple Attributes example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 5. A Simple Attributes example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class=
"INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">/* pager functionality by Joseph Spainhour" <spainhou@bellsouth.net> */
attributes and switch them on or off, respectively. The
following video attributes, which are defined in
<curses.h> can be passed to these functions.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
A_NORMAL Normal display (no highlight)
COLOR_PAIR(n) Color-pair number n
</pre>
-
<p>The last one is the most colorful one :-) Colors are
explained in the <a href="#color" target="_top">next
sections</a>.</p>
<p>We can OR(|) any number of above attributes to get a
combined effect. If you wanted reverse video with blinking
characters you can use</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
attron(A_REVERSE | A_BLINK);
</pre>
<p>We can give -1 as the character count to update till end
of line. If you want to change attributes of characters
from current position to end of line, just use this.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
chgat(-1, A_REVERSE, 0, NULL);
</pre>
-
<p>This function is useful when changing attributes for
characters that are already on the screen. Move to the
character from which you want to change and change the
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BWICH" id="BWICH"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 6. Chgat() Usage example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 6. Chgat() Usage example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BWIBO" id="BWIBO"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 7. Window Border example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 7. Window Border example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
-
WINDOW *create_newwin(int height, int width, int starty, int startx);
void destroy_win(WINDOW *local_win);
border around the window with the characters given to it as
the 4 corner points and the 4 lines. To put it clearly, if
you have called wborder as below:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
wborder(win, '|', '|', '-', '-', '+', '+', '+', '+');
</pre>
-
<p>it produces some thing like</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
+------------+
| |
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BOTBO" id="BOTBO"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 8. More border functions</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 8. More border functions</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
<div class="SECT1">
<hr>
- <h2 class="SECT1"><a name="COLOR" id="COLOR">10.
- Colors</a></h2>
+ <h2 class="SECT1"><a name="COLOR" id="COLOR">10. Colors</a></h2>
<div class="SECT2">
<h3 class="SECT2"><a name="COLORBASICS" id=
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BSICO" id="BSICO"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 9. A Simple Color example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 9. A Simple Color example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
<p>The following colors are defined in <tt class=
"LITERAL">curses.h</tt>. You can use these as parameters
for various color functions.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
COLOR_BLACK 0
COLOR_RED 1
curses initially. Say you wanted to lighten the intensity
of red color by a minuscule. Then you can use this function
as</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
init_color(COLOR_RED, 700, 0, 0);
/* param 1 : color name
* param 2, 3, 4 : rgb content min = 0, max = 1000 */
</pre>
-
<p>If your terminal cannot change the color definitions,
the function returns ERR. The function <tt class=
"LITERAL">can_change_color()</tt> can be used to find out
sensitive to key presses or the mouse actions done by the
user. Let's deal with the keys first.</p>
- <p>As you have seen in almost all of the above examples,
- it is very easy to get key input from the user. A simple way
+ <p>As you have seen in almost all of the above examples, it
+ is very easy to get key input from the user. A simple way
of getting key presses is to use <tt class=
"LITERAL">getch()</tt> function. The cbreak mode should be
enabled to read keys when you are interested in reading
keys portable and easy to manage.</p>
<p>For example, if you call getch() like this</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int ch;
ch = getch();
</pre>
-
<p>getch() will wait for the user to press a key, (unless
you specified a timeout) and when user presses a key, the
corresponding integer is returned. Then you can check the
match against the keys you want.</p>
<p>The following code piece will do that job.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
if(ch == KEY_LEFT)
printw("Left arrow is pressed\n");
</pre>
-
<p>Let's write a small program which creates a menu which
can be navigated by up and down arrows.</p>
</div>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BSIKE" id="BSIKE"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 10. A Simple Key Usage example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 10. A Simple Key Usage example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <stdio.h>
#include <ncurses.h>
return 0;
}
-
void print_menu(WINDOW *menu_win, int highlight)
{
int x, y, i;
<p>Before you do any thing else, the events you want to
receive have to be enabled with <tt class=
"LITERAL">mousemask()</tt>.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
mousemask( mmask_t newmask, /* The events you want to listen to */
mmask_t *oldmask) /* The old events mask */
</pre>
-
<p>The first parameter to above function is a bit mask of
events you would like to listen. By default, all the events
are turned off. The bit mask <tt class=
events.</p>
<p>The following are all the event masks:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
Name Description
---------------------------------------------------------------------
<tt class="LITERAL">getmouse()</tt>.</p>
<p>The code approximately looks like this:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
MEVENT event;
.
.
</pre>
-
<p>getmouse() returns the event into the pointer given to
it. It is a structure which contains</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
typedef struct
{
mmask_t bstate; /* button state bits */
}
</pre>
-
<p>The <tt class="LITERAL">bstate</tt> is the main variable
we are interested in. It tells the button state of the
mouse.</p>
<p>Then with a code snippet like the following, we can find
out what happened.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
if(event.bstate & BUTTON1_PRESSED)
printw("Left Button Pressed");
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BMOME" id="BMOME"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 11. Access the menu with mouse !!!</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 11. Access the menu with mouse !!!</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
return 0;
}
-
void print_menu(WINDOW *menu_win, int highlight)
{
int x, y, i;
fill the values of x and y co-ordinates in the arguments
given to it. Since getyx() is a macro you don't have to
pass the address of the variables. It can be called as</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
getyx(win, y, x);
/* win: window pointer
* y, x: y, x co-ordinates will be put into this variables
*/
</pre>
-
<p>The function getparyx() gets the beginning co-ordinates
of the sub window relative to the main window. This is some
times useful to update a sub window. When designing fancy
<p>This function can be used to make the cursor invisible.
The parameter to this function should be</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
0 : invisible or
1 : normal or
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BTELE" id="BTELE"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 12. Temporarily Leaving Curses Mode</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 12. Temporarily Leaving Curses Mode</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="BACSVARS" id="BACSVARS"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 13. ACS Variables Example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 13. ACS Variables Example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <ncurses.h>
interface design is such that windows may dive deeper into
the visibility stack or pop to the top at runtime, the
resulting book-keeping can be tedious and difficult to get
- right. Hence the panels library.</i></span></p>
+ right. Hence the panels library.</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>If you have lot of overlapping windows, then panels
library is the way to go. It obviates the need of doing
<hr>
<h3 class="SECT2"><a name="COMPILEPANELS" id=
- "COMPILEPANELS">16.2. Compiling With the Panels
- Library</a></h3>
+ "COMPILEPANELS">16.2. Compiling With the Panels Library</a></h3>
<p>To use panels library functions, you have to include
panel.h and to link the program with panels library the
flag -lpanel should be added along with -lncurses in that
order.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
#include <panel.h>
.
compile and link: gcc <program file> -lpanel -lncurses
</pre>
-
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="PPASI" id="PPASI"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 14. Panel basics</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 14. Panel basics</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <panel.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="PPABR" id="PPABR"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 15. Panel Window Browsing Example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 15. Panel Window Browsing Example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <panel.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="PPARE" id="PPARE"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 16. Panel Moving and Resizing example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 16. Panel Moving and Resizing
- example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <panel.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="PPAHI" id="PPAHI"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 17. Panel Hiding and Showing example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 17. Panel Hiding and Showing
- example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <panel.h>
<hr>
<h3 class="SECT2"><a name="COMPILEMENUS" id=
- "COMPILEMENUS">17.2. Compiling With the Menu
- Library</a></h3>
+ "COMPILEMENUS">17.2. Compiling With the Menu Library</a></h3>
<p>To use menu library functions, you have to include
menu.h and to link the program with menu library the flag
-lmenu should be added along with -lncurses in that
order.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
#include <menu.h>
.
compile and link: gcc <program file> -lmenu -lncurses
</pre>
-
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMESI" id="MMESI"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 18. Menu Basics</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 18. Menu Basics</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <curses.h>
#include <menu.h>
<p>The menu_driver accepts following navigational
requests.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
REQ_LEFT_ITEM Move left to an item.
REQ_RIGHT_ITEM Move right to an item.
REQ_NEXT_MATCH Move to the next item matching the pattern match.
REQ_PREV_MATCH Move to the previous item matching the pattern match.
</pre>
-
<p>Don't get overwhelmed by the number of options. We will
see them slowly one after another. The options of interest
in this example are REQ_UP_ITEM and REQ_DOWN_ITEM. These
<ul>
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class=
- "EMPHASIS">REQ_LEFT_ITEM and
- REQ_RIGHT_ITEM</i></span></p>
+ "EMPHASIS">REQ_LEFT_ITEM and REQ_RIGHT_ITEM</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>A Menu can be displayed with multiple columns for
more than one item. This can be done by using the
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class=
- "EMPHASIS">REQ_UP_ITEM and REQ_DOWN_ITEM</i></span></p>
+ "EMPHASIS">REQ_UP_ITEM and REQ_DOWN_ITEM</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>These two options you have seen in the above
example. These options when given, makes the
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">REQ_SCR_*
- options</i></span></p>
+ options</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>The four options REQ_SCR_ULINE, REQ_SCR_DLINE,
REQ_SCR_DPAGE, REQ_SCR_UPAGE are related to scrolling.
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS">REQ_FIRST_ITEM, REQ_LAST_ITEM, REQ_NEXT_ITEM
- and REQ_PREV_ITEM</i></span></p>
+ and REQ_PREV_ITEM</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>These requests are self explanatory.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class=
- "EMPHASIS">REQ_TOGGLE_ITEM</i></span></p>
+ "EMPHASIS">REQ_TOGGLE_ITEM</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>This request when given, toggles the present
selection. This option is to be used only in a multi
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">Pattern
- Requests</i></span></p>
+ Requests</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>Every menu has an associated pattern buffer, which
is used to find the nearest match to the ascii
<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">Mouse
- Requests</i></span></p>
+ Requests</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>In case of KEY_MOUSE requests, according to the
mouse position an action is taken accordingly. The
action to be taken is explained in the man page as,</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS"> If the second argument is the KEY_MOUSE special key, the
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMEWI" id="MMEWI"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 19. Menu Windows Usage example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 19. Menu Windows Usage example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <menu.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMESC" id="MMESC"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 20. Scrolling Menus example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 20. Scrolling Menus example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <curses.h>
#include <menu.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMEMUCO" id="MMEMUCO"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 21. Milt Columnar Menus Example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 21. Milt Columnar Menus Example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <curses.h>
#include <menu.h>
couple of functions set_menu_opts(), menu_opts_on() and
menu_opts() which can be used to manipulate menu options.
The following menu options can be specified.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
O_ONEVALUE
Only one item can be selected for this menu.
Don't wrap around next-item and previous-item,
requests to the other end of the menu.
</pre>
-
<p>All options are on by default. You can switch specific
attributes on or off with menu_opts_on() and
menu_opts_off() functions. You can also use set_menu_opts()
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMETO" id="MMETO"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 22. Multi Valued Menus example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 22. Multi Valued Menus example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <curses.h>
#include <menu.h>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMEAT" id="MMEAT"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 23. Menu Options example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 23. Menu Options example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <menu.h>
"MENUUSERPTR">17.9. The useful User Pointer</a></h3>
<p>We can associate a user pointer with each item in the
- menu. It works the same way as user pointer in panels. It is
- not touched by menu system. You can store any thing you
+ menu. It works the same way as user pointer in panels. It
+ is not touched by menu system. You can store any thing you
like in that. I usually use it to store the function to be
executed when the menu option is chosen (It is selected and
may be the user pressed <ENTER>);</p>
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="MMEUS" id="MMEUS"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 24. Menu User Pointer Usage</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 24. Menu User Pointer Usage</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <curses.h>
#include <menu.h>
<hr>
<h3 class="SECT2"><a name="COMPILEFORMS" id=
- "COMPILEFORMS">18.2. Compiling With the Forms
- Library</a></h3>
+ "COMPILEFORMS">18.2. Compiling With the Forms Library</a></h3>
<p>To use forms library functions, you have to include
form.h and to link the program with forms library the flag
-lform should be added along with -lncurses in that
order.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
#include <form.h>
.
compile and link: gcc <program file> -lform -lncurses
</pre>
-
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="FFOSI" id="FFOSI"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 25. Forms Basics</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 25. Forms Basics</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <form.h>
height, width, starty, startx, number of offscreen rows,
and number of additional buffers into the parameters
given to it. It is a sort of inverse of new_field().</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int field_info( FIELD *field, /* field from which to fetch */
int *height, *int width, /* field size */
<p>The location of the field can be moved to a different
position with move_field().</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int move_field( FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int top, int left); /* new upper-left corner */
</pre>
-
<p>As usual, the changed position can be queried with
field_infor().</p>
</div>
<p>The justification to be done for the field can be
fixed using the function set_field_just().</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_just(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int justmode); /* mode to set */
int field_just(FIELD *field); /* fetch justify mode of field */
</pre>
-
<p>The justification mode valued accepted and returned by
these functions are NO_JUSTIFICATION, JUSTIFY_RIGHT,
JUSTIFY_LEFT, or JUSTIFY_CENTER.</p>
<hr>
<h4 class="SECT3"><a name="FIELDDISPATTRIB" id=
- "FIELDDISPATTRIB">18.3.4. Field Display
- Attributes</a></h4>
+ "FIELDDISPATTRIB">18.3.4. Field Display Attributes</a></h4>
<p>As you have seen, in the above example, display
attribute for the fields can be set with set_field_fore()
be used to query the present foreground, background
attributes and pad character for the field. The following
list gives the usage of functions.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_fore(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
chtype attr); /* attribute to set */
chtype field_pad(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
/* returns present pad character */
</pre>
-
<p>Though above functions seem quite simple, using colors
with set_field_fore() may be frustrating in the
beginning. Let me first explain about foreground and
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="FFOAT" id="FFOAT"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 26. Form Attributes example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 26. Form Attributes example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <form.h>
you can set to control various aspects of forms
processing. You can manipulate them with these
functions:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_opts(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int attr); /* attribute to set */
int field_opts(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
</pre>
-
<p>The function set_field_opts() can be used to directly
set attributes of a field or you can choose to switch a
few attributes on and off with field_opts_on() and
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="FFOOP" id="FFOOP"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 27. Field Options Usage example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 27. Field Options Usage example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <form.h>
becomes TRUE. So a field's status can be queried to find
out whether it has been modified or not. The following
functions can assist in those operations.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_status(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int status); /* status to set */
int field_status(FIELD *field); /* fetch status of field */
</pre>
-
<p>It is better to check the field's status only after
after leaving the field, as data buffer might not have
been updated yet as the validation is still due. To
by forms library and can be used for any purpose by the
user. The following functions set and fetch user
pointer.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_userptr(FIELD *field,
char *userptr); /* the user pointer you wish to associate */
<hr>
<h4 class="SECT3"><a name="VARIABLESIZEFIELDS" id=
- "VARIABLESIZEFIELDS">18.3.8. Variable-Sized
- Fields</a></h4>
+ "VARIABLESIZEFIELDS">18.3.8. Variable-Sized Fields</a></h4>
<p>If you want a dynamically changing field with variable
width, this is the feature you want to put to full use.
<p>To make a field dynamically growable, the option
O_STATIC should be turned off. This can be done with
a</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
field_opts_off(field_pointer, O_STATIC);
</pre>
-
<p>But it is usually not advisable to allow a field to
grow infinitely. You can set a maximum limit to the
growth of the field with</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_max_field(FIELD *field, /* Field on which to operate */
int max_growth); /* maximum growth allowed for the field */
</pre>
-
<p>The field info for a dynamically growable field can be
retrieved by</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int dynamic_field_info( FIELD *field, /* Field on which to operate */
int *prows, /* number of rows will be filled in this */
</pre>Though field_info work as usual, it is advisable to use this
function to get the proper attributes of a dynamically growable
field.
-
<p>Recall the library routine new_field; a new field
created with height set to one will be defined to be a
one line field. A new field created with height greater
<div class="EXAMPLE">
<a name="FFOWI" id="FFOWI"></a>
+ <p><b>Example 28. Form Windows Example</b>
+ </p>
- <p><b>Example 28. Form Windows Example</b></p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="INLINEMEDIAOBJECT">#include <form.h>
<p>Validation can be attached to a field with the following
function.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
FIELDTYPE *ftype, /* type to associate */
...); /* additional arguments*/
</pre>Once set, the validation type for a field can be queried with
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
FIELDTYPE *field_type(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
</pre>
-
<p>The form driver validates the data in a field only when
data is entered by the end-user. Validation does not occur
when</p>
<p>This field type accepts alphabetic data; no blanks, no
digits, no special characters (this is checked at
character-entry time). It is set up with:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_ALPHA, /* type to associate */
int width); /* minimum width of field */
</pre>
-
<p>The width argument sets a minimum width of data. The
user has to enter at-least width number of characters
before he can leave the field. Typically you'll want to set
<p>This field type accepts alphabetic data and digits; no
blanks, no special characters (this is checked at
character-entry time). It is set up with:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_ALNUM, /* type to associate */
int width); /* minimum width of field */
</pre>
-
<p>The width argument sets a minimum width of data. As with
TYPE_ALPHA, typically you'll want to set this to the field
- width; if it is greater than the field width, the validation
- check will always fail. A minimum width of zero makes field
- completion optional.</p>
+ width; if it is greater than the field width, the
+ validation check will always fail. A minimum width of zero
+ makes field completion optional.</p>
<h1 class="BRIDGEHEAD"><a name="AEN1077" id=
"AEN1077"></a>TYPE_ENUM</h1>
among a specified set of string values (for example, the
two-letter postal codes for U.S. states). It is set up
with:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_ENUM, /* type to associate */
int checkcase; /* case-sensitive? */
int checkunique); /* must specify uniquely? */
</pre>
-
<p>The valuelist parameter must point at a NULL-terminated
list of valid strings. The checkcase argument, if true,
makes comparison with the string case-sensitive.</p>
<p>This field type accepts an integer. It is set up as
follows:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_INTEGER, /* type to associate */
int padding, /* # places to zero-pad to */
int vmin, int vmax); /* valid range */
</pre>
-
<p>Valid characters consist of an optional leading minus
and digits. The range check is performed on exit. If the
range maximum is less than or equal to the minimum, the
<p>This field type accepts a decimal number. It is set up
as follows:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_NUMERIC, /* type to associate */
int padding, /* # places of precision */
int vmin, int vmax); /* valid range */
</pre>
-
<p>Valid characters consist of an optional leading minus
and digits. possibly including a decimal point. The range
check is performed on exit. If the range maximum is less
<p>This field type accepts data matching a regular
expression. It is set up as follows:</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_REGEXP, /* type to associate */
char *regexp); /* expression to match */
</pre>
-
<p>The syntax for regular expressions is that of
regcomp(3). The check for regular-expression match is
performed on exit.</p>
<p>As in the menu system, form_driver() plays a very
important role in forms system. All types of requests to
forms system should be funneled through form_driver().</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int form_driver(FORM *form, /* form on which to operate */
int request) /* form request code */
</pre>
-
<p>As you have seen some of the examples above, you have to
be in a loop looking for user input and then decide whether
it is a field data or a form request. The form requests are
lot of fields and logical sections, then you can divide
the form into pages. The function set_new_page() to set a
new page at the field specified.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
int set_new_page(FIELD *field,/* Field at which page break to be set or unset */
bool new_page_flag); /* should be TRUE to put a break */
</pre>
-
<p>The following requests allow you to move to different
pages</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">CDK stands
for 'Curses Development Kit' and it currently contains 21
ready to use widgets which facilitate the speedy
- development of full screen curses programs.</i></span></p>
+ development of full screen curses programs.</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>The kit provides some useful widgets, which can be used
- in your programs directly. It is pretty well written and the
- documentation is very good. The examples in the examples
- directory can be a good place to start for beginners. The
- CDK can be downloaded from <a href=
+ in your programs directly. It is pretty well written and
+ the documentation is very good. The examples in the
+ examples directory can be a good place to start for
+
beginners. The CDK can be downloaded from <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/cdk/" target=
"_top">https://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a> . Follow the
instructions in README file to install it.</p>
<p>The following is the list of widgets provided with cdk
and their description.</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
Widget Type Quick Description
===========================================================================
when you need to display loads of information.
===========================================================================
</pre>
-
<p>A few of the widgets are modified by Thomas Dickey in
recent versions.</p>
</div>
which are passed to CDK functions. For Example</p>
<p>If the string</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
"</B/1>This line should have a yellow foreground and a blue
background.<!1>"
</pre>
-
<p>given as a parameter to newCDKLabel(), it prints the
line with yellow foreground and blue background. There
are other tags available for justifying string, embedding
professional-looking dialog boxes from within shell
scripts. This article presents a tutorial introduction to
the dialog utility, and shows examples of how and where it
- can be used</i></span></p>
+ can be used</i></span>
+ </p>
<p>As he explains, dialog is a real gem in making
professional-looking dialog boxes with ease. It creates a
<p>Game of life is a wonder of math. In <a href=
"http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html"
target="_top">Paul Callahan</a>'s words</p>
+
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
<span class="emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS">The Game of Life (or simply Life) is not a game in the conventional sense. There
at a starting position (or pattern) and see what will happen in the future. The
only way to find out is to follow the rules of the game.</i></span>
</pre>
-
<p>This program starts with a simple inverted U pattern and
shows how wonderful life works. There is a lot of room for
improvement in the program. You can let the user enter
life.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">File Path:
- JustForFun/life.c</i></span></p>
+ JustForFun/life.c</i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
order.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">File Path:
- JustForFun/magic.c</i></span></p>
+ JustForFun/magic.c</i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
larger disk over a small disk at any time.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">File Path:
- JustForFun/hanoi.c</i></span></p>
+ JustForFun/hanoi.c</i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
technique.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">File Path:
- JustForFun/queens.c</i></span></p>
+ JustForFun/queens.c</i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
<p>A fun game, if you have time to kill.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">File Path:
- JustForFun/shuffle.c</i></span></p>
+ JustForFun/shuffle.c</i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
helpful.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">File Path:
- JustForFun/tt.c</i></span></p>
+ JustForFun/tt.c</i></span>
+ </p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="SECT1">
<hr>
- <h2 class="SECT1"><a name="REF" id="REF">21.
- References</a></h2>
+ <h2 class="SECT1"><a name="REF" id="REF">21. References</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff