+These functions may be macros:
+.sp
+.RS
+\fBattroff\fR, \fBwattroff\fR, \fBattron\fR, \fBwattron\fR,
+\fBattrset\fR, \fBwattrset\fR, \fBstandend\fR and \fBstandout\fR.
+.RE
+.PP
+Color pair values can only be OR'd with attributes if the pair
+number is less than 256.
+The alternate functions such as \fBcolor_set\fP can pass a color pair
+value directly.
+However, ncurses ABI 4 and 5 simply OR this value
+within the alternate functions.
+You must use ncurses ABI 6 to support more than 256 color pairs.
+.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+.SH HISTORY
+X/Open Curses is largely based on SVr4 curses,
+adding support for \*(``wide-characters\*('' (not specific to Unicode).
+Some of the X/Open differences from SVr4 curses address the way
+video attributes can be applied to wide-characters.
+But aside from that, \fBattrset\fP and \fBattr_set\fP are similar.
+SVr4 curses provided the basic features for manipulating video attributes.
+However, earlier versions of curses provided a part of these features.
+.PP
+As seen in 2.8BSD, curses assumed 7-bit characters,
+using the eighth bit of a byte to represent the \fIstandout\fP
+feature (often implemented as bold and/or reverse video).
+The BSD curses library provided functions \fBstandout\fP and \fBstandend\fP
+which were carried along into X/Open Curses due to their pervasive use
+in legacy applications.
+.PP
+Some terminals in the 1980s could support a variety of video attributes,
+although the BSD curses library could do nothing with those.
+System V (1983) provided an improved curses library.
+It defined the \fBA_\fP symbols for use by applications to manipulate the
+other attributes.
+There are few useful references for the chronology.
+.PP
+Goodheart's book
+\fIUNIX Curses Explained\fP (1991) describes SVr3 (1987),
+commenting on several functions:
+.bP
+the \fBattron\fP, \fBattroff\fP, \fBattrset\fP functions
+(and most of the functions found in SVr4 but not in BSD curses) were
+introduced by System V,
+.bP
+the alternate character set feature with \fBA_ALTCHARSET\fP was
+added in SVr2 and improved in SVr3 (by adding \fBacs_map[]\fP),
+.bP
+\fBstart_color\fP and related color-functions were introduced by System V.3.2,
+.bP
+pads, soft-keys were added in SVr3, and
+.PP
+Goodheart did not mention the background character or the \fBcchar_t\fP type.
+Those are respectively SVr4 and X/Open features.
+He did mention the \fBA_\fP constants, but did not indicate their values.
+Those were not the same in different systems,
+even for those marked as System V.
+.PP
+Different Unix systems used different sizes for the bit-fields in \fBchtype\fP
+for \fIcharacters\fP and \fIcolors\fP, and took into account the different
+integer sizes (32-bit versus 64-bit).
+.PP
+This table showing the number of bits for \fBA_COLOR\fP
+and \fBA_CHARTEXT\fP
+was gleaned from the curses header files for
+various operating systems and architectures.
+The inferred architecture and notes reflect
+the format and size of the defined constants
+as well as clues such as the alternate character set implementation.
+A 32-bit library can be used on a 64-bit system,
+but not necessarily the reverse.
+.RS
+.TS
+l l l l l l
+_ _ _ _ _ _
+l l l l l l .
+\fIYear\fR \fISystem\fR \fIArch\fP \fIColor\fR \fIChar\fR \fINotes\fR
+1992 Solaris 5.2 32 6 17 SVr4 curses
+1992 HPUX 9 32 no 8 SVr2 curses
+1992 AIX 3.2 32 no 23 SVr2 curses
+1994 OSF/1 r3 32 no 23 SVr2 curses
+1995 HP-UX 10.00 32 6 16 SVr3 \*(``curses_colr\*(''
+1995 HP-UX 10.00 32 6 8 SVr4, X/Open curses
+1995 Solaris 5.4 32/64 7 16 X/Open curses
+1996 AIX 4.2 32 7 16 X/Open curses
+1996 OSF/1 r4 32 6 16 X/Open curses
+1997 HP-UX 11.00 32 6 8 X/Open curses
+2000 U/Win 32/64 7/31 16 uses \fBchtype\fP
+.TE
+.RE
+.PP
+Notes:
+.RS 3
+.PP
+Regarding HP-UX,
+.bP
+HP-UX 10.20 (1996) added support for 64-bit PA-RISC processors in 1996.
+.bP
+HP-UX 10.30 (1997) marked \*(``curses_colr\*('' obsolete.
+That version of curses was dropped with HP-UX 11.30 in 2006.
+.PP
+Regarding OSF/1 (and Tru64),
+.bP
+These used 64-bit hardware.
+Like ncurses, the OSF/1 curses interface is not customized for 32-bit
+and 64-bit versions.
+.bP
+Unlike other systems which evolved from AT&T code,
+OSF/1 provided a new implementation for X/Open curses.
+.PP
+Regarding Solaris,
+.bP
+The initial release of Solaris was in 1992.
+.bP
+The \fIxpg4\fP (X/Open) curses was developed by MKS from 1990 to 1995.
+Sun's copyright began in 1996.
+.bP
+Sun updated the X/Open curses interface
+after 64-bit support was introduced in 1997,
+but did not modify the SVr4 curses interface.
+.PP
+Regarding U/Win,
+.bP
+Development of the curses library began in 1991, stopped in 2000.
+.bP
+Color support was added in 1998.
+.bP
+The library uses only \fBchtype\fP (no \fBcchar_t\fP).
+.RE
+.PP
+Once X/Open curses was adopted in the mid-1990s, the constraint of
+a 32-bit interface with many colors and wide-characters for \fBchtype\fP
+became a moot point.
+The \fBcchar_t\fP structure (whose size and
+members are not specified in X/Open Curses) could be extended as needed.
+.PP
+Other interfaces are rarely used now:
+.bP
+BSD curses was improved slightly in 1993/1994 using Keith Bostic's
+modification to make the library 8-bit clean for \fBnvi\fP.
+He moved \fIstandout\fP attribute to a structure member.
+.IP
+The resulting 4.4BSD curses was replaced by ncurses over the next ten years.
+.bP
+U/Win is rarely used now.
+.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+.SH EXTENSIONS
+.PP
+This implementation provides the \fBA_ITALIC\fP attribute for terminals
+which have the \fBenter_italics_mode\fP (\fBsitm\fP)
+and \fBexit_italics_mode\fP (\fBritm\fP) capabilities.
+Italics are not mentioned in X/Open Curses.
+Unlike the other video attributes, \fBA_ITALIC\fP is unrelated
+to the \fBset_attributes\fP capabilities.
+This implementation makes the assumption that
+\fBexit_attribute_mode\fP may also reset italics.
+.PP
+Each of the functions added by XSI Curses has a parameter \fIopts\fP,
+which X/Open Curses still (after more than twenty years) documents
+as reserved for future use, saying that it should be \fBNULL\fP.
+This implementation uses that parameter in ABI 6 for the functions which
+have a color-pair parameter to support \fIextended color pairs\fP:
+.bP
+For functions which modify the color, e.g.,
+\fBwattr_set\fP,
+if \fIopts\fP is set it is treated as a pointer to \fBint\fP,
+and used to set the color pair instead of the \fBshort\fP \fIpair\fP parameter.
+.bP
+For functions which retrieve the color, e.g.,
+\fBwattr_get\fP,
+if \fIopts\fP is set it is treated as a pointer to \fBint\fP,
+and used to retrieve the color pair as an \fBint\fP value,
+in addition
+retrieving it via the standard pointer to \fBshort\fP parameter.
+.PP
+The remaining functions which have \fIopts\fP,
+but do not manipulate color,
+e.g., \fBwattr_on\fP and \fBwattr_off\fP
+are not used by this implementation except to check that they are \fBNULL\fP.
+.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff