ncurses 6.0 - patch 20160514

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

diff --git a/man/default_colors.3x b/man/default_colors.3x
index 4ebb90124a8a3b977662f2cce7751d74bc10c7f6..0b85598eea459873a301b298d4098d62a8eacd5e 100644 (file)
--- a/man/default_colors.3x
+++ b/man/default_colors.3x
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2000,2002 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            *
@@ -26,16 +26,16 @@
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"
-.\" Author: Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@clark.net> 1997,1999,2000
+.\" Author: Thomas E. Dickey 1997,1999,2000,2005
 .\"
-.\" $Id: default_colors.3x,v 1.16 2002/02/16 22:39:52 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: default_colors.3x,v 1.23 2011/01/03 21:52:27 Tim.van.der.Molen Exp $
 .TH default_colors 3X ""
 .SH NAME
 \fBuse_default_colors\fR,
 \fBassume_default_colors\fR \- use terminal's default colors
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 \fB#include <curses.h>\fP
-
+.sp
 \fBint use_default_colors(void);\fP
 .br
 \fBint assume_default_colors(int fg, int bg);\fP
@@ -64,14 +64,14 @@ visual effects.
 The first function,
 .I use_default_colors()
 tells the curses library to assign terminal default
-foreground/background colors to color number -1. So init_pair(x,COLOR_RED,-1)
-will initialize pair x as red on default background and init_pair(x,-1,COLOR_BLUE) will
+foreground/background colors to color number \-1. So init_pair(x,COLOR_RED,\-1)
+will initialize pair x as red on default background and init_pair(x,\-1,COLOR_BLUE) will
 initialize pair x as default foreground on blue.
 .PP
 The other,
 .I assume_default_colors()
 is a refinement which tells which colors to paint for color pair 0.
-This function recognizes a special color number -1,
+This function recognizes a special color number \-1,
 which denotes the default terminal color.
 .PP
 The following are equivalent:
@@ -79,12 +79,12 @@ The following are equivalent:
 .br
 .I use_default_colors();
 .br
-.I assume_default_colors(-1,-1);
+.I assume_default_colors(\-1,\-1);
 .RE
 .PP
 These are ncurses extensions.
 For other curses implementations, color
-number -1 does not mean anything, just as for ncurses before a
+number \-1 does not mean anything, just as for ncurses before a
 successful call of \fIuse_default_colors()\fP or \fIassume_default_colors()\fP.
 .PP
 Other curses implementations do not allow an application to modify color pair 0.
@@ -101,12 +101,31 @@ for color pair 0.
 These functions return the integer \fBERR\fP upon failure and \fBOK\fP on success.
 They will fail if either the terminal does not support
 the \fIorig_pair\fP or \fIorig_colors\fP capability.
-If the \fIinitialize_pair\fP capability is found, this causes an
+If the \fIinitialize_pair\fP capability is not found, this causes an
 error as well.
 .SH NOTES
-Associated with this extension, the \fBinit_pair\fR(3X) function accepts
-negative arguments to specify default foreground or background
-colors.
+Associated with this extension, the \fBinit_pair\fR function accepts
+negative arguments to specify default foreground or background colors.
+.PP
+The \fIuse_default_colors()\fP function was added to support \fIded\fP.
+This is a full-screen application which uses curses to manage only part
+of the screen.  The bottom portion of the screen, which is of adjustable
+size, is left uncolored to display the results from shell commands.
+The top portion of the screen colors filenames using a scheme like the
+"color ls" programs.
+Attempting to manage the background color of the screen for this application
+would give unsatisfactory results for a variety of reasons.
+This extension was devised after
+noting that color xterm (and similar programs) provides a background color
+which does not necessarily correspond to any of the ANSI colors.
+While a special terminfo entry could be constructed using nine colors,
+there was no mechanism provided within curses to account for the related
+\fIorig_pair\fP and \fIback_color_erase\fP capabilities.
+.PP
+The \fIassume_default_colors()\fP function was added to solve
+a different problem: support for applications which would use
+environment variables and other configuration to bypass curses'
+notion of the terminal's default colors, setting specific values.
 .SH PORTABILITY
 These routines are specific to ncurses.  They were not supported on
 Version 7, BSD or System V implementations.  It is recommended that
@@ -117,9 +136,3 @@ any code depending on them be conditioned using NCURSES_VERSION.
 .SH AUTHOR
 Thomas Dickey (from an analysis of the requirements for color xterm
 for XFree86 3.1.2C, February 1996).
-.\"#
-.\"# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
-.\"# Local Variables:
-.\"# mode:nroff
-.\"# fill-column:79
-.\"# End: