- 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.
+ Panels are curses(3x) windows with the added property of depth. Panel
+ functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure that the proper
+ portions of each window and the cursesstdscr window are hidden or
+ displayed 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 routines 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 each panel. The panel routines enable you
+ to create, move, hide, and show panels. You can relocate a panel to
+ any desired position in the stack.
- Panel routines are a functional layer added to curses(3x), make only
- high-level curses calls, and work anywhere terminfo curses does.
+ Panel routines are a functional layer added to curses, make only high-
+ level curses calls, and work anywhere 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 relations 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 deallocates 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 window.
-
- 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.
+
+
+
+ panel_hidden(pan) returns FALSE if the panel pan is in the panel stack,
+ and TRUE if it is not. If the panel is a null pointer, it returns ERR.
+
+
+
+ replace_panel(pan,window) replaces the current window of panel pan
+ with window This is useful if, for example, 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 virtual screen to reflect the relations
+ between the panels in the stack, but does not call doupdate(3x) to
+ refresh the physical screen. 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 suc-
- cessfully and ERR if not.
+ Each routine that returns an int value returns OK if it executes
+ successfully and ERR if not.
+
+ Except as noted, the pan and window parameters must be non-null. If
+ either is null, an error is returned.
+
+ The move_panel function uses mvwin(3x), and returns 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 programming 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 implemen-
- tation, and work equally well with displayed or hidden panels. In the
- native System V implementation, show_panel is intended for making a
+
+ 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 never changed. 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 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 compati-
- bility with native panel libraries.
+ stack. You are cautioned to use the correct function to ensure
+ compatibility with System V panel libraries.
-
- 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).
+
- panel.h interface for the panels library
+ A few implementations exist:
- libpanel.a the panels library itself
+ o Systems based on SVr4 source code, such as 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 is a public
+ domain implementation by Warren Tucker published in u386mon 2.20
+ (1990).
-
- curses(3x), curs_variables(3x),
+ According to Tucker, the System V 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.
- This describes ncurses version 6.0 (patch 20171014).
+ o NetBSD 8 (2018) has a panel library begun by Valery Ushakov in
+ 2015, based on the System V documentation.
-
- 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.
+
+ Warren Tucker <wht@n4hgf.mt-park.ga.us> originally wrote this
+ implementation, primarily to assist in porting u386mon to systems
+ without a native panel library.
+ Zeyd ben-Halim repackaged it for ncurses.
+ Juergen Pfeifer and Thomas E. Dickey revised and improved the library.
- panel(3x)
+
+