- Panels are curses(3x) windows with the added feature of
- depth. Panel functions allow the use of stacked windows
- and ensure the proper portions of each window and the
- curses stdscr window are hidden or displayed when panels
- are added, moved, modified or removed. The set of cur-
- rently visible panels is the stack of panels. The stdscr
- window is beneath all panels, and is not considered part
- of the stack.
+ Panels are curses(3x) windows with the added feature of depth. Panel
+ functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure the proper por-
+ tions of each window and the curses stdscr window are hidden or dis-
+ played when panels are added, moved, modified or removed. The set of
+ currently visible panels is the stack of panels. The stdscr window is
+ beneath all panels, and is not considered part of the stack.
- A window is associated with every panel. The panel rou-
- tines enable you to create, move, hide, and show panels,
- as well as position a panel at any desired location in the
- stack.
+ A window is associated with every panel. The panel routines enable you
+ to create, move, hide, and show panels, as well as position a panel at
+ any desired location in the stack.
- Panel routines are a functional layer added to curses(3x),
- make only high-level curses calls, and work anywhere ter-
- minfo curses does.
+ Panel routines are a functional layer added to curses(3x), make only
+ high-level curses calls, and work anywhere terminfo curses does.
- new_panel(win)
- allocates a PANEL structure, associates it with
- win, places the panel on the top of the stack
- (causes it to be displayed above any other
- panel) and returns a pointer to the new panel.
-
- update_panels
- refreshes the virtual screen to reflect the rela-
- tions between the panels in the stack, but does not
- call doupdate to refresh the physical screen. Use
- this function and not wrefresh or wnoutrefresh.
- update_panels may be called more than once before a
- call to doupdate, but doupdate is the function
- responsible for updating the physical screen.
-
- del_panel(pan)
- removes the given panel from the stack and deallo-
- cates the PANEL structure (but not its associated
- window).
-
- hide_panel(pan)
- removes the given panel from the panel stack and
- thus hides it from view. The PANEL structure is not
- lost, merely removed from the stack.
-
- panel_hidden(pan)
- returns TRUE if the panel is in the panel stack,
- FALSE if it is not. If the panel is a null
- pointer, return ERR.
-
- show_panel(pan)
- makes a hidden panel visible by placing it on top
- of the panels in the panel stack. See COMPATIBILITY
- below.
-
- top_panel(pan)
- puts the given visible panel on top of all panels
- in the stack. See COMPATIBILITY below.
-
- bottom_panel(pan)
- puts panel at the bottom of all panels.
-
- move_panel(pan,starty,startx)
- moves the given panel window so that its upper-left
- corner is at starty, startx. It does not change
- the position of the panel in the stack. Be sure to
- use this function, not mvwin, to move a panel win-
- dow.
-
- replace_panel(pan,window)
- replaces the current window of panel with window
- (useful, for example if you want to resize a panel;
- if you're using ncurses, you can call replace_panel
- on the output of wresize(3x)). It does not change
- the position of the panel in the stack.
-
- panel_above(pan)
- returns a pointer to the panel above pan. If the
- panel argument is (PANEL*)0, it returns a pointer
- to the bottom panel in the stack.
-
- panel_below(pan)
- returns a pointer to the panel just below pan. If
- the panel argument is (PANEL*)0, it returns a
- pointer to the top panel in the stack.
-
- set_panel_userptr(pan,ptr)
- sets the panel's user pointer.
-
- panel_userptr(pan)
- returns the user pointer for a given panel.
-
- panel_window(pan)
- returns a pointer to the window of the given panel.
+
+
+ hide_panel(pan) removes the given panel pan from the panel stack and
+ thus hides it from view. The PANEL structure is not lost, merely
+ removed from the stack.
+
+
+
+ move_panel(pan,starty,startx) moves the given panel pan's window so
+ that its upper-left corner is at starty, startx. It does not change
+ the position of the panel in the stack. Be sure to use this function,
+ not mvwin(3x), to move a panel window.
+
+
+
+ new_panel(win) allocates a PANEL structure, associates it with win,
+ places the panel on the top of the stack (causes it to be displayed
+ above any other panel) and returns a pointer to the new panel.
+
+
+
+ panel_above(pan) returns a pointer to the panel above pan. If the
+ panel argument is (PANEL*)0, it returns a pointer to the bottom panel
+ in the stack.
+
+
+
+ panel_below(pan) returns a pointer to the panel just below pan. If the
+ panel argument is (PANEL*)0, it returns a pointer to the top panel in
+ the stack.
+
+
+
+ replace_panel(pan,window) replaces the current window of panel pan with
+ window This is useful, for example if you want to resize a panel. In
+ ncurses, you can call replace_panel to resize a panel using a window
+ resized with wresize(3x). It does not change the position of the panel
+ in the stack.
+
+
+
+ update_panels() refreshes the virtualscreen to reflect the relations
+ between the panels in the stack, but does not call doupdate(3x) to
+ refresh the physicalscreen. Use this function and not wrefresh(3x) or
+ wnoutrefresh(3x).
+
+ update_panels may be called more than once before a call to doupdate,
+ but doupdate is the function responsible for updating the physical
+ screen.
- Each routine that returns a pointer returns NULL if an
- error occurs. Each routine that returns an int value
- returns OK if it executes successfully and ERR if not.
+ Each routine that returns a pointer returns NULL if an error occurs.
+ Each routine that returns an int value returns OK if it executes suc-
+ cessfully and ERR if not.
+
+ Except as noted, the pan and window parameters must be non-null. If
+ those are null, an error is returned.
+
+ The move_panel function uses mvwin(3x), and will return an error if
+ mvwin returns an error.
- Reasonable care has been taken to ensure compatibility
- with the native panel facility introduced in SVr3.2
- (inspection of the SVr4 manual pages suggests the program-
- ming interface is unchanged). The PANEL data structures
- are merely similar. The programmer is cautioned not to
- directly use PANEL fields.
-
- The functions show_panel and top_panel are identical in
- this implementation, and work equally well with displayed
- or hidden panels. In the native System V implementation,
- show_panel is intended for making a hidden panel visible
- (at the top of the stack) and top_panel is intended for
- making an already-visible panel move to the top of the
- stack. You are cautioned to use the correct function to
- ensure compatibility with native panel libraries.
+ Reasonable care has been taken to ensure compatibility with the
+ native panel facility introduced in System V (inspection of the SVr4
+ manual pages suggests the programming interface is unchanged). The
+ PANEL data structures are merely similar. The programmer is cau-
+ tioned not to directly use PANEL fields.
+
+ The functions show_panel and top_panel are identical in this implemen-
+ tation, and work equally well with displayed or hidden panels. In the
+ native System V implementation, show_panel is intended for making a
+ hidden panel visible (at the top of the stack) and top_panel is
+ intended for making an already-visible panel move to the top of the
+ stack. You are cautioned to use the correct function to ensure compat-
+ ibility with native panel libraries.
- In your library list, libpanel.a should be before libn-
- curses.a; that is, you want to say `-lpanel -lncurses',
- not the other way around (which would usually give a link-
- error).
+ In your library list, libpanel.a should be before libncurses.a; that
+ is, you should say "-lpanel -lncurses", not the other way around (which
+ would give a link-error with static libraries).
+
+
+
+ The panel facility was documented in SVr4.2 in CharacterUserInterface
+ Programming(UNIXSVR4.2).
+
+ It is not part of X/Open Curses.
+
+ A few implementations exist:
+
+ o Systems based on SVr4 source code, e.g., Solaris, provide this
+ library.
+
+ oncurses (since version 0.6 in 1993) and PDCurses (since version 2.2
+ in 1995) provide a panel library whose common ancestor was a public
+ domain implementation by Warren Tucker published in u386mon 2.20
+ (1990).
+
+ According to Tucker, the SystemV panel library was first released
+ in SVr3.2 (1988), and his implementation helped with a port to
+ SVr3.1 (1987).
+
+ Several developers have improved each of these; they are no longer
+ the same as Tucker's implementation.
+
+ o NetBSD 8 (2018) has a panel library begun by Valery Ushakov in
+ 2015. This is based on the AT&T documentation.
- Originally written by Warren Tucker <wht@n4hgf.mt-
- park.ga.us>, primarily to assist in porting u386mon to
- systems without a native panels library. Repackaged for
- ncurses by Zeyd ben-Halim.
+ Originally written by Warren Tucker <wht@n4hgf.mt-park.ga.us>, primar-
+ ily to assist in porting u386mon to systems without a native panels
+ library.
+
+ Repackaged for ncurses by Zeyd ben-Halim.
+ Juergen Pfeifer and Thomas E. Dickey revised/improved the library.
- panel(3x)
+
+ panel(3x)