.\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2013,2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2016,2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
.\" *
.\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
.\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
.\" authorization. *
.\"***************************************************************************
.\"
-.\" $Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.31 2015/04/26 00:49:10 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.33 2017/01/07 19:25:15 tom Exp $
.TH curs_termcap 3X ""
.de bP
.IP \(bu 4
\fBtgetstr\fR are compared in lookups.
.SS FORMATTING CAPABILITIES
.PP
-The \fBtgoto\fR routine instantiates the parameters into the given capability.
-The output from this routine is to be passed to \fBtputs\fR.
+The \fBtgoto\fR routine expands the given capability using the parameters.
+.bP
+Because the capability may have padding characters,
+the output of \fBtgoto\fP should be passed to \fBtputs\fR
+rather than some other output function such as \fBprintf\fP.
+.bP
+While \fBtgoto\fP is assumed to be used for the two-parameter
+cursor positioning capability,
+termcap applications also use it for single-parameter capabilities.
+.IP
+Doing this shows a quirk in \fBtgoto\fP: most hardware
+terminals use cursor addressing with \fIrow\fP first,
+but the original developers of the termcap interface chose to
+put the \fIcolumn\fP parameter first.
+The \fBtgoto\fP function swaps the order of parameters.
+It does this also for calls requiring only a single parameter.
+In that case, the first parameter is merely a placeholder.
+.bP
+Normally the ncurses library is compiled with terminfo support.
+In that case, \fBtgoto\fP uses \fBtparm\fP(3X) (a more capable formatter).
.PP
The \fBtputs\fR routine is described on the \fBcurs_terminfo\fR(3X) manual
page. It can retrieve capabilities by either termcap or terminfo name.