.\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 2002-2017,2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+.\" Copyright (c) 2002-2018,2019 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_get_wstr.3x,v 1.14 2018/07/28 22:15:59 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_get_wstr.3x,v 1.19 2019/11/30 20:59:22 tom Exp $
.TH curs_get_wstr 3X ""
+.ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
+.el .ds `` ``
+.ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq
+.el .ds '' ''
+.de bP
+.ie n .IP \(bu 4
+.el .IP \(bu 2
+..
.na
.hy 0
.SH NAME
returns an error if the associated call to \fBwget_wch\fP failed.
.RE
.PP
-Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor movement using
+Functions with a \*(``mv\*('' prefix first perform a cursor movement using
\fBwmove\fP, and return an error if the position is outside the window,
or if the window pointer is null.
.SH PORTABILITY
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.
+.PP
+X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) is unclear regarding whether
+the terminating \fInull \fP\fBwchar_t\fP
+value is counted in the length parameter \fIn\fP.
+X/Open Curses, Issue 7 revised the corresponding description
+of \fBwgetnstr\fP to address this issue.
+The unrevised description of \fBwget_nwstr\fP can be interpreted either way.
+This implementation counts the terminator in the length.
+.PP
+X/Open Curses does not specify what happens if the length \fIn\fP is negative.
+.bP
+For analogy with \fBwgetnstr\fP,
+ncurses 6.2 uses a limit (based on \fBLINE_MAX\fP).
+.bP
+Some other implementations (such as Solaris xcurses) do the same,
+while others (PDCurses) do not allow this.
+.bP
+NetBSD 7 curses imitates ncurses 6.1 in this regard,
+treating a \fB\-1\fP as an indefinite number of characters.
.SH SEE ALSO
Functions:
\fBcurses\fR(3X),