+BSD curses has no \fIpad\fP feature.
+.PP
+SVr2 curses (1986) provided the \fBnewpad\fP and related functions,
+documenting them in a single line each.
+SVr3 (1987) provided more extensive documentation.
+.PP
+The documentation does not explain the term \fIpad\fP.
+However, the Apollo \fIAegis\fP workstation operating system
+supported a graphical \fIpad\fP feature:
+.bP
+These graphical pads could be much larger than the computer's display.
+.bP
+The read-only output from a command could be scrolled back to inspect,
+and select text from the pad.
+.PP
+The two uses may be related.
+.PP
+The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions,
+without significant change from the SVr3 documentation.
+It describes no error conditions.
+The behavior of \fBsubpad\fP if the parent window is not
+a pad is undocumented,
+and is not checked by the vendor Unix implementations:
+.bP
+SVr4 curses sets a flag in the \fBWINDOW\fP structure in \fBnewpad\fP
+which tells if the window is a \fIpad\fP.
+.IP
+However, it uses this information only in
+\fBwaddch\fP (to decide if it should call \fBwrefresh\fP) and
+\fBwscrl\fP (to avoid scrolling a pad),
+and does not check in \fBwrefresh\fP to ensure that the pad
+is refreshed properly.
+.bP
+Solaris X/Open Curses checks if a window is a pad in \fBwnoutrefresh\fP,
+returning \fBERR\fP in that case.
+.IP
+However, it only sets the flag for subwindows if the parent window is a pad.
+Its \fBnewpad\fP function does not set this information.
+Consequently, the check will never fail.
+.IP
+It makes no comparable check in \fBpnoutrefresh\fP,
+though interestingly enough, a comment in the source code
+states that the lack of a check was an MKS extension.
+.bP
+NetBSD 7 curses
+sets a flag in the \fBWINDOW\fP structure for \fBnewpad\fP and \fBsubpad\fP,
+using this to help with the distinction between \fBwnoutrefresh\fP
+and \fBpnoutrefresh\fP.
+.IP
+It does not check for the case where a subwindow is created in
+a pad using \fBsubwin\fP or \fBderwin\fP.
+.IP
+The \fBdupwin\fP function returns a regular window when duplicating a pad.
+Likewise, \fBgetwin\fP always returns a window, even if the saved
+data was from a pad.
+.PP
+This implementation
+.bP
+sets a flag in the \fBWINDOW\fP structure for \fBnewpad\fP and \fBsubpad\fP,
+.bP
+allows a \fBsubwin\fP or \fBderwin\fP call to succeed having a pad parent by
+forcing the subwindow to be a pad,
+.bP
+checks in both \fBwnoutrefresh\fP and \fBpnoutrefresh\fP to ensure
+that pads and windows are handled distinctly, and
+.bP
+ensures that \fBdupwin\fP and \fBgetwin\fP treat
+pads versus windows consistently.