.\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2009,2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2010,2015 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 *
.\" authorization. *
.\"***************************************************************************
.\"
-.\" $Id: curs_color.3x,v 1.36 2014/11/16 00:44:29 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_color.3x,v 1.37 2015/04/04 19:42:47 tom Exp $
.TH curs_color 3X ""
.ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
.el .ds `` ``
It must be called if the programmer wants to use colors, and before any other
color manipulation routine is called.
It is good practice to call this routine right after \fBinitscr\fR.
-\fBstart_color\fR initializes eight basic colors (black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan,
-and white), and two global variables, \fBCOLORS\fR and
+\fBstart_color\fR does this:
+.bP
+It initializes two global variables, \fBCOLORS\fR and
\fBCOLOR_PAIRS\fR (respectively defining the maximum number of colors
and color-pairs the terminal can support).
-It also restores the colors on the terminal to the values they had when the terminal was
-just turned on.
+.bP
+It initializes the special color pair \fB0\fP to the default foreground
+and background colors.
+No other color pairs are initialized.
+.bP
+It restores the colors on the terminal to the values
+they had when the terminal was just turned on.
+.bP
+If the terminal supports the \fBinitc\fP (\fBinitialize_color\fP) capability,
+\fBstart_color\fP
+initializes its internal table representing the
+red, green and blue components of the color palette.
+.IP
+The components depend on whether the terminal uses
+CGA (aka "ANSI") or
+HLS (i.e., the \fBhls\fP (\fBhue_lightness_saturation\fP) capability is set).
+The table is initialized first for eight basic colors
+(black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white),
+and after that (if the terminal supports more than eight colors)
+the components are initialized to \fB1000\fP.
+.IP
+\fBstart_color\fP does not attempt to set the terminal's color palette
+to match its built-in table.
+An application may use \fBinit_color\fP to alter the internal table
+along with the terminal's color.
.PP
These limits apply to color values and color pairs.
Values outside these limits are not legal, and may result in a runtime error: