-<!--
+<!--
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- * Copyright (c) 2017-2018,2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+ * Copyright 2018-2020,2021 Thomas E. Dickey *
+ * Copyright 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 *
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- * @Id: user_caps.5,v 1.10 2019/05/18 22:48:40 tom Exp @
+ * @Id: user_caps.5,v 1.17 2021/06/17 21:30:22 tom Exp @
-->
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</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Background">Background</a></H3><PRE>
- Before ncurses 5.0, terminfo databases used a <EM>fixed</EM> <EM>repertoire</EM> of ter-
- minal capabilities designed for the SVr2 terminal database in 1984, and
- extended in stages through SVr4 (1989), and standardized in the Single
- Unix Specification beginning in 1995.
+ Before ncurses 5.0, terminfo databases used a <EM>fixed</EM> <EM>repertoire</EM> of
+ terminal capabilities designed for the SVr2 terminal database in 1984,
+ and extended in stages through SVr4 (1989), and standardized in the
+ Single Unix Specification beginning in 1995.
Most of the <EM>extensions</EM> in this fixed repertoire were additions to the
tables of boolean, numeric and string capabilities. Rather than change
- the meaning of an existing capability, a new name was added. The ter-
- minfo database uses a binary format; binary compatibility was ensured
- by using a header which gave the number of items in the tables for each
- type of capability. The standardization was incomplete:
+ the meaning of an existing capability, a new name was added. The
+ terminfo database uses a binary format; binary compatibility was
+ ensured by using a header which gave the number of items in the tables
+ for each type of capability. The standardization was incomplete:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>binary</EM> <EM>format</EM> itself is not described in the X/Open Curses doc-
- umentation. Only the <EM>source</EM> <EM>format</EM> is described.
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>binary</EM> <EM>format</EM> itself is not described in the X/Open Curses
+ documentation. Only the <EM>source</EM> <EM>format</EM> is described.
Library developers rely upon the SVr4 documentation, and reverse-
engineering the compiled terminfo files to match the binary format.
While ncurses' repertoire of predefined capabilities is closest to
Solaris, Solaris's terminfo database has a few differences from the
- list published by X/Open Curses. For example, ncurses can be con-
- figured with tables which match the terminal databases for AIX, HP-
- UX or OSF/1, rather than the default Solaris-like configuration.
+ list published by X/Open Curses. For example, ncurses can be
+ configured with tables which match the terminal databases for AIX,
+ HP-UX or OSF/1, rather than the default Solaris-like configuration.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> In SVr4 curses and ncurses, the terminal database is defined at
compile-time using a text file which lists the different terminal
In principle, the text-file can be extended, but doing this
requires recompiling and reinstalling the library. The text-file
- used in ncurses for terminal capabilities includes details for var-
- ious systems past the documented X/Open Curses features. For exam-
- ple, ncurses supports these capabilities in each configuration:
+ used in ncurses for terminal capabilities includes details for
+ various systems past the documented X/Open Curses features. For
+ example, ncurses supports these capabilities in each configuration:
memory_lock
(meml) lock memory above cursor
(box1) box characters primary set
The memory lock/unlock capabilities were included because they were
- used in the X11R6 terminal description for <STRONG>xterm</STRONG>. The <EM>box1</EM> capa-
- bility is used in tic to help with terminal descriptions written
- for AIX.
+ used in the X11R6 terminal description for <STRONG>xterm</STRONG>. The <EM>box1</EM>
+ capability is used in tic to help with terminal descriptions
+ written for AIX.
During the 1990s, some users were reluctant to use terminfo in spite of
its performance advantages over termcap:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> The fixed repertoire prevented users from adding features for unan-
- ticipated terminal improvements (or required them to reuse existing
- capabilities as a workaround).
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The fixed repertoire prevented users from adding features for
+ unanticipated terminal improvements (or required them to reuse
+ existing capabilities as a workaround).
<STRONG>o</STRONG> The limitation to 16-bit signed integers was also mentioned.
Because termcap stores everything as a string, it could represent
Although termcap's extensibility was rarely used (it was never the
<EM>speaker</EM> who had actually used the feature), the criticism had a point.
- ncurses 5.0 provided a way to detect nonstandard capabilities, deter-
- mine their type and optionally store and retrieve them in a way which
- did not interfere with other applications. These are referred to as
- <EM>user-defined</EM> <EM>capabilities</EM> because no modifications to the toolset's
+ ncurses 5.0 provided a way to detect nonstandard capabilities,
+ determine their type and optionally store and retrieve them in a way
+ which did not interfere with other applications. These are referred to
+ as <EM>user-defined</EM> <EM>capabilities</EM> because no modifications to the toolset's
predefined capability names are needed.
The ncurses utilities <STRONG>tic</STRONG> and <STRONG>infocmp</STRONG> have a command-line option "-x"
same purpose.
When compiling a terminal database, if "-x" is set, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> will store a
- user-defined capability if the capability name is not one of the prede-
- fined names.
+ user-defined capability if the capability name is not one of the
+ predefined names.
Because ncurses provides a termcap library interface, these user-
defined capabilities may be visible to termcap applications:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> The termcap interface (like all implementations of termcap)
requires that the capability names are 2-characters.
- When the capability is simple enough for use in a termcap applica-
- tion, it is provided as a 2-character name.
+ When the capability is simple enough for use in a termcap
+ application, it is provided as a 2-character name.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> There are other user-defined capabilities which refer to features
not usable in termcap, e.g., parameterized strings that use more
only capability names with 3 or more characters.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Some terminals can send distinct strings for special keys (cursor-,
- keypad- or function-keys) depending on modifier keys (shift, con-
- trol, etc.). While terminfo and termcap have a set of 60 prede-
- fined function-key names, to which a series of keys can be
- assigned, that is insufficient for more than a dozen keys multi-
- plied by more than a couple of modifier combinations. The ncurses
- database uses a convention based on <STRONG>xterm</STRONG> to provide extended spe-
- cial-key names.
+ keypad- or function-keys) depending on modifier keys (shift,
+ control, etc.). While terminfo and termcap have a set of 60
+ predefined function-key names, to which a series of keys can be
+ assigned, that is insufficient for more than a dozen keys
+ multiplied by more than a couple of modifier combinations. The
+ ncurses database uses a convention based on <STRONG>xterm</STRONG> to provide
+ extended special-key names.
Fitting that into termcap's limitation of 2-character names would
- be pointless. These extended keys are available only with ter-
- minfo.
+ be pointless. These extended keys are available only with
+ terminfo.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Recognized-capabilities">Recognized capabilities</a></H3><PRE>
i.e., one bit per color.
U8 <EM>number</EM>, asserts that ncurses must use Unicode values for line-
- drawing characters, and that it should ignore the alternate char-
- acter set capabilities when the locale uses UTF-8 encoding. For
- more information, see the discussion of <STRONG>NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS</STRONG> in
- <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG>.
+ drawing characters, and that it should ignore the alternate
+ character set capabilities when the locale uses UTF-8 encoding.
+ For more information, see the discussion of <STRONG>NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS</STRONG>
+
in <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG>.
Set this capability to a nonzero value to enable it.
XM <EM>string</EM>, override ncurses's built-in string which enables/disables
<STRONG>xterm</STRONG> mouse mode.
+ ncurses sends a character sequence to the terminal to initialize
+ mouse mode, and when the user clicks the mouse buttons or (in
+ certain modes) moves the mouse, handles the characters sent back
+ by the terminal to tell it what was done with the mouse.
+
+ The mouse protocol is enabled when the <EM>mask</EM> passed in the
+ <STRONG>mousemask</STRONG> function is nonzero. By default, ncurses handles the
+ responses for the X11 xterm mouse protocol. It also knows about
+ the <EM>SGR</EM> <EM>1006</EM> xterm mouse protocol, but must to be told to look
+ for this specifically. It will not be able to guess which mode
+ is used, because the responses are enough alike that only
+ confusion would result.
+
+ The <STRONG>XM</STRONG> capability has a single parameter. If nonzero, the mouse
+ protocol should be enabled. If zero, the mouse protocol should
+ be disabled. ncurses inspects this capability if it is present,
+ to see whether the 1006 protocol is used. If so, it expects the
+ responses to use the <EM>SGR</EM> <EM>1006</EM> xterm mouse protocol.
+
+ The xterm mouse protocol is used by other terminal emulators.
+ The terminal database uses building-blocks for the various xterm
+ mouse protocols which can be used in customized terminal
+ descriptions.
+
+ The terminal database building blocks for this mouse feature also
+ have an experimental capability <EM>xm</EM>. The "xm" capability
+ describes the mouse response. Currently there is no interpreter
+ which would use this information to make the mouse support
+ completely data-driven.
+
+ <EM>xm</EM> shows the format of the mouse responses. In this experimental
+ capability, the parameters are
+
+ <EM>p1</EM> y-ordinate
+
+ <EM>p2</EM> x-ordinate
+
+ <EM>p3</EM> button
+
+ <EM>p4</EM> state, e.g., pressed or released
+
+ <EM>p5</EM> y-ordinate starting region
+
+ <EM>p6</EM> x-ordinate starting region
+
+ <EM>p7</EM> y-ordinate ending region
+
+ <EM>p8</EM> x-ordinate ending region
+
+ Here are examples from the terminal database for the most
+ commonly used xterm mouse protocols:
+
+ xterm+x11mouse|X11 xterm mouse protocol,
+ kmous=\E[M, XM=\E[?1000%?%p1%{1}%=%th%el%;,
+ xm=\E[M
+ %?%p4%t%p3%e%{3}%;%' '%+%c
+ %p2%'!'%+%c
+ %p1%'!'%+%c,
+
+ xterm+sm+1006|xterm SGR-mouse,
+ kmous=\E[<, XM=\E[?1006;1000%?%p1%{1}%=%th%el%;,
+ xm=\E[<%i%p3%d;
+ %p1%d;
+ %p2%d;
+ %?%p4%tM%em%;,
+
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Extended-key-definitions">Extended key-definitions</a></H3><PRE>
- Several terminals provide the ability to send distinct strings for com-
- binations of modified special keys. There is no standard for what
+ Several terminals provide the ability to send distinct strings for
+ combinations of modified special keys. There is no standard for what
those keys can send.
Since 1999, <STRONG>xterm</STRONG> has supported <EM>shift</EM>, <EM>control</EM>, <EM>alt</EM>, and <EM>meta</EM> modifiers
which produce distinct special-key strings. In a terminal description,
ncurses has no special knowledge of the modifiers used. Applications
- can use the <EM>naming</EM> <EM>convention</EM> established for <STRONG>xterm</STRONG> to find these spe-
- cial keys in the terminal description.
+ can use the <EM>naming</EM> <EM>convention</EM> established for <STRONG>xterm</STRONG> to find these
+ special keys in the terminal description.
Starting with the curses convention that <EM>key</EM> <EM>names</EM> begin with "k" and
that shifted special keys are an uppercase name, ncurses' terminal
which ncurses will allocate at runtime to <EM>key-codes</EM>. To use these keys
in an ncurses program, an application could do this:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> using a list of extended key <EM>names</EM>, ask <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tigetstr(3x)</A></STRONG> for their val-
- ues, and
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> using a list of extended key <EM>names</EM>, ask <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tigetstr(3x)</A></STRONG> for their
+ values, and
<STRONG>o</STRONG> given the list of values, ask <STRONG><A HREF="key_defined.3x.html">key_defined(3x)</A></STRONG> for the <EM>key-code</EM>
which would be returned for those keys by <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getch.3x.html">wgetch(3x)</A></STRONG>.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
- The "-x" extension feature of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> and <STRONG>infocmp</STRONG> has been adopted in Net-
- BSD curses. That implementation stores user-defined capabilities, but
- makes no use of these capabilities itself.
+ The "-x" extension feature of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> and <STRONG>infocmp</STRONG> has been adopted in
+ NetBSD curses. That implementation stores user-defined capabilities,
+ but makes no use of these capabilities itself.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>.
+ <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>.
+
+ The terminal database section <EM>NCURSES</EM> <EM>USER-DEFINABLE</EM> <EM>CAPABILITIES</EM>
+ summarizes commonly-used user-defined capabilities which are used in
+ the terminal descriptions. Some of those features are mentioned in
+ <STRONG>screen(1)</STRONG> or <STRONG>tmux(1)</STRONG>.
+
+ <EM>XTerm</EM> <EM>Control</EM> <EM>Sequences</EM> provides further information on the <STRONG>xterm</STRONG>
+ features which are used in these extended capabilities.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff