ncurses 5.9 - patch 20120908

[ncurses.git] / man / curs_termcap.3x

diff --git a/man/curs_termcap.3x b/man/curs_termcap.3x
index 70a6710ad6482ee80d7c37b0958a57bebbfa5ad1..4d8a62cd6c5c750ea1e862fdaec897336aef611c 100644 (file)
--- a/man/curs_termcap.3x
+++ b/man/curs_termcap.3x
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"***************************************************************************

-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2007,2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.              *
+.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2010,2011 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            *
 .\"                                                                          *
 .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a  *
 .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the            *


@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"

-.\" $Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.26 2010/12/04 18:38:55 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.27 2011/10/15 21:11:24 tom Exp $

 .TH curs_termcap 3X ""
 .na
 .hy 0
 .TH curs_termcap 3X ""
 .na
 .hy 0


@@ -77,9 +77,37 @@ can only be used to query the capabilities of entries for which a
 terminfo entry has been compiled.
 .PP
 The \fBtgetent\fR routine loads the entry for \fIname\fR.
 terminfo entry has been compiled.
 .PP
 The \fBtgetent\fR routine loads the entry for \fIname\fR.

-It returns 1 on success, 0 if there is no such entry, and \-1 if the
-terminfo database could not be found.
+It returns:
+.RS 3
+.TP 3
+1
+on success,
+.TP 3
+0
+if there is no such entry
+(or that it is a generic type, having too little information for curses
+applications to run), and
+.TP 3
+\-1
+if the terminfo database could not be found.
+.RE
+.PP
+This differs from the \fItermcap\fP library in two ways:
+.RS 3
+.TP 3
+-

 The emulation ignores the buffer pointer \fIbp\fR.
 The emulation ignores the buffer pointer \fIbp\fR.

+The \fItermcap\fP library would store a copy of the terminal
+description in the area referenced by this pointer.
+However, ncurses stores its terminal descriptions in compiled
+binary form, which is not the same thing.
+.TP 3
+-
+There is a difference in return codes.
+The \fItermcap\fP library does not check if the terminal
+description is marked with the \fIgeneric\fP capability,
+or if the terminal description has cursor-addressing.
+.RE

 .PP
 The \fBtgetflag\fR routine gets the boolean entry for \fIid\fR,
 or zero if it is not available.
 .PP
 The \fBtgetflag\fR routine gets the boolean entry for \fIid\fR,
 or zero if it is not available.