* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
- * @Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.36 2018/01/01 15:13:16 tom Exp @
+ * @Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.37 2018/01/23 10:14:38 tom Exp @
-->
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML>
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Normally the ncurses library is compiled with terminfo support. In
that case, <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> uses <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> (a more capable formatter).
- The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine is described on the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> manual page.
+ However, <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> is not a <EM>termcap</EM> feature, and portable <EM>termcap</EM> ap-
+ plications should not rely upon its availability.
+
+ The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine is described on the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> manual page.
It can retrieve capabilities by either termcap or terminfo name.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-GLOBAL-VARIABLES">GLOBAL VARIABLES</a></H3><PRE>
- The variables <STRONG>PC</STRONG>, <STRONG>UP</STRONG> and <STRONG>BC</STRONG> are set by <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> to the terminfo entry's
+ The variables <STRONG>PC</STRONG>, <STRONG>UP</STRONG> and <STRONG>BC</STRONG> are set by <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> to the terminfo entry's
data for <STRONG>pad_char</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_up</STRONG> and <STRONG>backspace_if_not_bs</STRONG>, respectively. <STRONG>UP</STRONG>
- is not used by ncurses. <STRONG>PC</STRONG> is used in the <STRONG>tdelay_output</STRONG> function. <STRONG>BC</STRONG>
- is used in the <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> emulation. The variable <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG> is set by ncurses
+ is not used by ncurses. <STRONG>PC</STRONG> is used in the <STRONG>tdelay_output</STRONG> function. <STRONG>BC</STRONG>
+ is used in the <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> emulation. The variable <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG> is set by ncurses
in a system-specific coding to reflect the terminal speed.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
- Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an integer return
- <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other
+ Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an integer return
+ <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other
than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful completion.
Routines that return pointers return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-BUGS">BUGS</a></H2><PRE>
- If you call <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> to fetch <STRONG>ca</STRONG> or any other parameterized string, be
- aware that it will be returned in terminfo notation, not the older and
+ If you call <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> to fetch <STRONG>ca</STRONG> or any other parameterized string, be
+ aware that it will be returned in terminfo notation, not the older and
not-quite-compatible termcap notation. This will not cause problems if
- all you do with it is call <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> or <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, which both expand terminfo-
- style strings as terminfo. (The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> function, if configured to sup-
- port termcap, will check if the string is indeed terminfo-style by
- looking for "%p" parameters or "$<..>" delays, and invoke a termcap-
+ all you do with it is call <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> or <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, which both expand terminfo-
+ style strings as terminfo. (The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> function, if configured to sup-
+ port termcap, will check if the string is indeed terminfo-style by
+ looking for "%p" parameters or "$<..>" delays, and invoke a termcap-
style parser if the string does not appear to be terminfo).
- Because terminfo conventions for representing padding in string capa-
- bilities differ from termcap's, <STRONG>tputs("50");</STRONG> will put out a literal
+ Because terminfo conventions for representing padding in string capa-
+ bilities differ from termcap's, <STRONG>tputs("50");</STRONG> will put out a literal
"50" rather than busy-waiting for 50 milliseconds. Cope with it.
- Note that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> string. One
- consequence of this is that termcap applications assume me (terminfo
- <STRONG>sgr0</STRONG>) does not reset the alternate character set. This implementation
+ Note that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> string. One
+ consequence of this is that termcap applications assume me (terminfo
+ <STRONG>sgr0</STRONG>) does not reset the alternate character set. This implementation
checks for, and modifies the data shown to the termcap interface to ac-
commodate termcap's limitation in this respect.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
- The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions. However,
+ The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions. However,
they are marked TO BE WITHDRAWN and may be removed in future versions.
- Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages documented the
- return values of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> correctly, though all three were in fact re-
- turned ever since SVr1. In particular, an omission in the XSI Curses
- documentation has been misinterpreted to mean that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> returns <STRONG>OK</STRONG>
- or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>. Because the purpose of these functions is to provide compati-
- bility with the <EM>termcap</EM> library, that is a defect in XCurses, Issue 4,
+ Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages documented the
+ return values of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> correctly, though all three were in fact re-
+ turned ever since SVr1. In particular, an omission in the XSI Curses
+ documentation has been misinterpreted to mean that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> returns <STRONG>OK</STRONG>
+ or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>. Because the purpose of these functions is to provide compati-
+ bility with the <EM>termcap</EM> library, that is a defect in XCurses, Issue 4,
Version 2 rather than in ncurses.
External variables are provided for support of certain termcap applica-
tions. However, termcap applications' use of those variables is poorly
documented, e.g., not distinguishing between input and output. In par-
- ticular, some applications are reported to declare and/or modify <STRONG>os-</STRONG>
+ ticular, some applications are reported to declare and/or modify <STRONG>os-</STRONG>
<STRONG>peed</STRONG>.
- The comment that only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter are
+ The comment that only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter are
used escapes many application developers. The original BSD 4.2 termcap
library (and historical relics thereof) did not require a trailing null
- NUL on the parameter name passed to <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>.
- Some applications assume that the termcap interface does not require
+ NUL on the parameter name passed to <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>.
+ Some applications assume that the termcap interface does not require
the trailing NUL for the parameter name. Taking into account these is-
sues:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> As a special case, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> matched against a single-character
- identifier provided that was at the end of the terminal descrip-
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> As a special case, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> matched against a single-character
+ identifier provided that was at the end of the terminal descrip-
tion. You should not rely upon this behavior in portable programs.
- This implementation disallows matches against single-character ca-
+ This implementation disallows matches against single-character ca-
pability names.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> This implementation disallows matches by the termcap interface
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> This implementation disallows matches by the termcap interface
against extended capability names which are longer than two charac-
ters.
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff