-X/Open curses documents these functions to pass an array of \fBwchar_t\fR,
-but all of the vendors implement this using \fBwint_t\fR.
+X/Open curses documented these functions to pass an array of \fBwchar_t\fR
+in 1997, but that was an error because of this part of the description:
+.RS
+.PP
+The effect of \fIget_wstr()\fP is as though a series of calls to
+\fIget_wch()\fP were made, until a newline character, end-of-line character, or
+end-of-file character is processed.
+.RE
+.PP
+The latter function \fIget_wch()\fP can return a negative value,
+while \fBwchar_t\fP is a unsigned type.
+All of the vendors implement this using \fBwint_t\fR, following the standard.