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30 .\" $Id: curs_slk.3x,v 1.53 2023/09/16 23:37:03 tom Exp $
31 .TH curs_slk 3X 2023-09-16 "ncurses 6.4" "Library calls"
45 \fB\%slk_noutrefresh\fP,
58 \fB\%extended_slk_color\fP \-
59 \fIcurses\fR soft label key routines
61 \fB#include <curses.h>\fP
63 \fBint slk_init(int \fIfmt\fB);\fR
65 \fBint slk_set(int \fIlabnum\fB, const char *\fIlabel\fB, int \fIfmt\fB);\fR
67 \fBint slk_wset(int \fIlabnum\fB, const wchar_t *\fIlabel\fB, int \fIfmt\fB);\fR
69 \fBchar *slk_label(int \fIlabnum\fB);\fR
71 \fBint slk_refresh(void);\fP
73 \fBint slk_noutrefresh(void);\fP
75 \fBint slk_clear(void);\fP
77 \fBint slk_restore(void);\fP
79 \fBint slk_touch(void);\fP
81 \fBint slk_attron(const chtype \fIattrs\fB);\fR
83 \fBint slk_attroff(const chtype \fIattrs\fB);\fR
85 \fBint slk_attrset(const chtype \fIattrs\fB);\fR
87 \fBint slk_attr_on(attr_t \fIattrs\fB, void* \fIopts\fB);\fR
89 \fBint slk_attr_off(const attr_t \fIattrs\fB, void * \fIopts\fB);\fR
91 \fBint slk_attr_set(const attr_t \fIattrs\fB, short \fIpair\fB, void* \fIopts\fB);\fR
95 \fBattr_t slk_attr(void);\fP
97 \fBint slk_color(short \fIpair\fB);\fR
101 \fBint extended_slk_color(int \fIpair\fB);\fR
103 The slk* functions manipulate the set of soft function-key labels that exist on
105 For those terminals that do not have soft labels,
106 \fBcurses\fP takes over the bottom line of \fBstdscr\fP, reducing the size of
107 \fBstdscr\fP and the variable \fBLINES\fP.
108 \fBcurses\fP standardizes on eight
109 labels of up to eight characters each.
110 In addition to this, the ncurses
111 implementation supports a mode where it simulates 12 labels of up to five
113 This is useful for PC-like enduser devices.
114 ncurses simulates this mode by taking over up to two lines at
115 the bottom of the screen;
116 it does not try to use any hardware support for this
119 The \fBslk_init\fP routine must be called before \fBinitscr\fP or \fBnewterm\fP
121 If \fBinitscr\fP eventually uses a line from \fBstdscr\fP to
122 emulate the soft labels,
123 then \fIfmt\fP determines how the labels are arranged on the screen:
127 indicates a 3\-2\-3 arrangement of
131 indicates a 4\-4 arrangement
134 indicates the PC-like 4\-4\-4 mode.
137 is again the PC-like 4\-4\-4 mode,
138 but in addition an index line is generated, helping the user to
139 identify the key numbers easily.
142 The \fBslk_set\fP routine
143 (and the \fBslk_wset\fP routine for the wide-character library)
144 has three parameters:
148 is the label number, from \fB1\fP to \fB8\fP
149 (12 if \fIfmt\fP in \fBslk_init\fP is \fB2\fP or \fB3\fP);
152 is be the string to put on the label,
154 (five if \fIfmt\fP in \fBslk_init\fP is \fB2\fP or \fB3\fP)
155 characters in length.
156 A null string or a null pointer sets up a blank label.
160 \fB0\fP, \fB1\fP, or \fB2\fP, indicating whether the label is to be
161 left-justified, centered, or right-justified, respectively, within the
165 The \fBslk_label\fP routine returns the current label for label number
166 \fIlabnum\fP, with leading and trailing blanks stripped.
168 The \fBslk_refresh\fP and \fBslk_noutrefresh\fP routines correspond to
169 the \fBwrefresh\fP and \fBwnoutrefresh\fP routines.
171 The \fBslk_clear\fP routine clears the soft labels from the screen.
173 The \fBslk_restore\fP routine restores the soft labels to the screen
174 after a \fBslk_clear\fP has been performed.
176 The \fBslk_touch\fP routine forces all the soft labels to be output
177 the next time a \fBslk_noutrefresh\fP is performed.
180 \fBslk_attron\fP, \fBslk_attrset\fP, \fBslk_attroff\fP and \fBslk_attr\fP
181 routines correspond to
182 \fBattron\fP, \fBattrset\fP, \fBattroff\fP and \fBattr_get\fP, respectively.
183 They have an effect only if soft labels are simulated on the bottom line of
185 The default highlight for soft keys is A_STANDOUT (as in
186 System V curses, which does not document this fact).
188 The \fBslk_color\fP routine corresponds to \fBcolor_set\fP.
189 It has an effect only
190 if soft labels are simulated on the bottom line of the screen.
192 Because \fBslk_color\fP accepts only \fBshort\fP (signed 16-bit integer) values,
193 this implementation provides
194 \fBextended_slk_color\fP which accepts an integer value, e.g., 32-bits.
197 These routines return \fBERR\fP upon failure
198 and \fBOK\fP (SVr4 specifies only "an integer value other than \fBERR\fP")
199 upon successful completion.
201 X/Open defines no error conditions.
202 In this implementation
206 returns the attribute used for the soft keys.
208 \fBslk_attroff\fP, \fBslk_attron\fP, \fBslk_clear\fP, \fBslk_noutrefresh\fP, \fBslk_refresh\fP, \fBslk_touch\fP
210 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized.
214 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized.
218 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized, or
219 the color pair is outside the range 0..COLOR_PAIRS\-1.
223 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized, or
224 the color pair is outside the range 0..COLOR_PAIRS\-1.
228 if the format parameter is outside the range 0..3.
231 returns \fBNULL\fP on error.
235 if the terminal or the softkeys were not initialized, or
236 the \fIlabnum\fP parameter is outside the range of label counts, or
237 if the format parameter is outside the range 0..2, or if
238 memory for the labels cannot be allocated.
241 SVr3 introduced these functions:
251 SVr4 added these functions:
257 X/Open Curses added these:
264 X/Open Curses documents the \fIopts\fP argument as reserved for future use,
265 saying that it must be null.
267 uses that parameter in ABI 6 for the functions which have a color-pair
268 parameter to support extended color pairs.
270 For functions which modify the color, e.g., \fBslk_attr_set\fP,
271 if \fIopts\fP is set it is treated as a pointer to \fBint\fP,
272 and used to set the color pair instead of the \fBshort\fP pair parameter.
274 Most applications would use \fBslk_noutrefresh\fP because a
275 \fBwrefresh\fP is likely to follow soon.
277 The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4, described the soft-key functions,
278 with some differences from SVr4 curses:
280 It added functions like the SVr4
281 attribute-manipulation functions \fBslk_attron\fP,
282 \fBslk_attroff\fP, \fBslk_attrset\fP,
283 but which use \fBattr_t\fP parameters (rather than \fBchtype\fP),
284 along with a reserved \fIopts\fP parameter.
286 Two of these new functions (unlike the SVr4 functions) have no provision
287 for color: \fBslk_attr_on\fP and \fBslk_attr_off\fP.
289 The third function (\fBslk_attr_set\fP) has a color-pair parameter.
291 It added \fBconst\fP qualifiers to parameters (unnecessarily), and
293 It added \fBslk_color\fP.
295 Although \fBslk_start\fP is declared in the curses header file,
296 it was not documented by SVr4 other than its presence in a list
297 of libtermlib.so.1 symbols.
298 Reading the source code (i.e., Illumos):
300 \fBslk_start\fP has two parameters:
303 \fIng\fP (number of groups) and
305 \fIgp\fP (group pointer).
308 Soft-key groups are an array of \fIng\fP integers.
310 In SVr4, \fBslk_init\fP calls \fBslk_start\fP passing a null for \fIgp\fP.
311 For this case, \fBslk_start\fP uses the number of groups \fIng\fP
312 (3 for the 3-2-3 layout, 2 for the 4-4 layout) which \fBslk_init\fP provided.
314 If \fIng\fP is neither 2 or 3,
315 \fBslk_start\fP checks the terminfo \fIfln\fP (label_format) capability,
316 interpreting that as a comma-separated list of numbers,
317 e.g., \*(``3,2,3\*('' for the 3-2-3 layout.
319 Finally, if there is no \fIfln\fP capability, \fBslk_start\fP returns ERR.
321 If \fBslk_start\fP is given a non-null \fIgp\fP,
322 it copies the \fIng\fP elements of the group of soft-keys, up to 16.
324 If there are more than 16 elements, \fBslk_start\fP returns an error.
326 The format codes \fB2\fP and \fB3\fP for \fBslk_init\fP
327 were added by ncurses in 1996.
328 PDCurses 2.4 added this feature in 2001.
330 The function \fBslk_attr\fP was added by ncurses in 1996.
332 X/Open Curses does not specify a limit for the number of colors and
333 color pairs which a terminal can support.
334 However, in its use of \fBshort\fP for the parameters,
335 it carries over SVr4's implementation detail for the compiled
336 terminfo database, which uses signed 16-bit numbers.
337 This implementation provides extended versions of those functions
338 which use \fBint\fP parameters,
339 allowing applications to use larger color- and pair-numbers.
343 \fBcurs_initscr\fP(3X),
344 \fBcurs_refresh\fP(3X),
345 \fBcurs_variables\fP(3X).