- These functions are described in the XSI Curses standard,
- Issue 4.
-
- The ncurses library obeys the XPG4 standard and the his-
- torical practice of the AT&T curses implementations, in
- that the echo bit is cleared when curses initializes the
- terminal state. BSD curses differed from this slightly;
- it left the echo bit on at initialization, but the BSD <STRONG>raw</STRONG>
- call turned it off as a side-effect. For best portabili-
- ty, set echo or noecho explicitly just after initializa-
- tion, even if your program remains in cooked mode.
-
- When <STRONG>keypad</STRONG> is first enabled, ncurses loads the key-defi-
- nitions for the current terminal description. If the ter-
- minal description includes extended string capabilities,
- e.g., from using the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option of <STRONG>tic</STRONG>, then ncurses also
- defines keys for the capabilities whose names begin with
- "k". The corresponding keycodes are generated and (de-
- pending on previous loads of terminal descriptions) may
- differ from one execution of a program to the next. The
- generated keycodes are recognized by the <STRONG>keyname</STRONG> function
- (which will then return a name beginning with "k" denoting
- the terminfo capability name rather than "K", used for
- curses key-names). On the other hand, an application can
- use <STRONG>define_key</STRONG> to establish a specific keycode for a given
- string. This makes it possible for an application to
- check for an extended capability's presence with <STRONG>tigetstr</STRONG>,
- and reassign the keycode to match its own needs.
-
- Low-level applications can use <STRONG>tigetstr</STRONG> to obtain the def-
- inition of any particular string capability. Higher-level
- applications which use the curses <STRONG>wgetch</STRONG> and similar func-
- tions to return keycodes rely upon the order in which the
- strings are loaded. If more than one key definition has
- the same string value, then <STRONG>wgetch</STRONG> can return only one
- keycode. Most curses implementations (including ncurses)
- load key definitions in the order defined by the array of
- string capability names. The last key to be loaded deter-
- mines the keycode which will be returned. In ncurses, you
- may also have extended capabilities interpreted as key
- definitions. These are loaded after the predefined keys,
- and if a capability's value is the same as a previously-
- loaded key definition, the later definition is the one
- used.
+ These functions are described in the XSI Curses standard, Issue 4.
+
+ The ncurses library obeys the XPG4 standard and the historical practice
+ of the AT&T curses implementations, in that the echo bit is cleared
+ when curses initializes the terminal state. BSD curses differed from
+ this slightly; it left the echo bit on at initialization, but the BSD
+ <STRONG>raw</STRONG> call turned it off as a side-effect. For best portability, set
+ echo or noecho explicitly just after initialization, even if your pro-
+ gram remains in cooked mode.
+
+ When <STRONG>keypad</STRONG> is first enabled, ncurses loads the key-definitions for the
+ current terminal description. If the terminal description includes ex-
+ tended string capabilities, e.g., from using the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option of <STRONG>tic</STRONG>, then
+ ncurses also defines keys for the capabilities whose names begin with
+ "k". The corresponding keycodes are generated and (depending on previ-
+ ous loads of terminal descriptions) may differ from one execution of a
+ program to the next. The generated keycodes are recognized by the <STRONG>key-</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>name</STRONG> function (which will then return a name beginning with "k" denot-
+ ing the terminfo capability name rather than "K", used for curses key-
+ names). On the other hand, an application can use <STRONG>define_key</STRONG> to estab-
+ lish a specific keycode for a given string. This makes it possible for
+ an application to check for an extended capability's presence with
+ <STRONG>tigetstr</STRONG>, and reassign the keycode to match its own needs.
+
+ Low-level applications can use <STRONG>tigetstr</STRONG> to obtain the definition of any
+ particular string capability. Higher-level applications which use the
+ curses <STRONG>wgetch</STRONG> and similar functions to return keycodes rely upon the
+ order in which the strings are loaded. If more than one key definition
+ has the same string value, then <STRONG>wgetch</STRONG> can return only one keycode.
+ Most curses implementations (including ncurses) load key definitions in
+ the order defined by the array of string capability names. The last
+ key to be loaded determines the keycode which will be returned. In
+ ncurses, you may also have extended capabilities interpreted as key
+ definitions. These are loaded after the predefined keys, and if a ca-
+ pability's value is the same as a previously-loaded key definition, the
+ later definition is the one used.