ncurses 6.2 - patch 20210109

[ncurses.git] / man / curs_getcchar.3x

diff --git a/man/curs_getcchar.3x b/man/curs_getcchar.3x
index 91b996197c58bb448920a6330ffb07a0e1196436..fafe782514615ea3e0e38b2da33e662733716e4f 100644 (file)
--- a/man/curs_getcchar.3x
+++ b/man/curs_getcchar.3x
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"***************************************************************************

-.\" Copyright (c) 2001-2003,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.              *
+.\" Copyright 2019,2020 Thomas E. Dickey                                     *
+.\" Copyright 2001-2015,2017 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            *
 .\"                                                                          *
 .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a  *
 .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the            *


@@ -26,8 +27,12 @@
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"

-.\" $Id: curs_getcchar.3x,v 1.8 2006/07/15 22:51:07 wcmbrine Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_getcchar.3x,v 1.24 2020/02/02 23:34:34 tom Exp $

 .TH curs_getcchar 3X ""
 .TH curs_getcchar 3X ""

+.de bP
+.ie n  .IP \(bu 4
+.el    .IP \(bu 2
+..

 .SH NAME
 \fBgetcchar\fP,
 \fBsetcchar\fP \- Get a wide character string and rendition from a \fBcchar_t\fP or set a \fBcchar_t\fP from a wide-character string
 .SH NAME
 \fBgetcchar\fP,
 \fBsetcchar\fP \- Get a wide character string and rendition from a \fBcchar_t\fP or set a \fBcchar_t\fP from a wide-character string


@@ -56,24 +61,21 @@
 .br
 .B "        short \fIcolor_pair\fP,"
 .br
 .br
 .B "        short \fIcolor_pair\fP,"
 .br

-.B "        void *\fIopts\fP );"
+.B "        const void *\fIopts\fP );"

 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .SH DESCRIPTION

+.SS getcchar

 .PP
 The \fBgetcchar\fP function gets a wide-character string
 and rendition from a \fBcchar_t\fP argument.
 When \fIwch\fP is not a null pointer,
 the \fBgetcchar\fP function does the following:
 .PP
 The \fBgetcchar\fP function gets a wide-character string
 and rendition from a \fBcchar_t\fP argument.
 When \fIwch\fP is not a null pointer,
 the \fBgetcchar\fP function does the following:

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 Extracts information from a \fBcchar_t\fP value \fIwcval\fP
 Extracts information from a \fBcchar_t\fP value \fIwcval\fP

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 Stores the character attributes in the location pointed to by \fIattrs\fP
 Stores the character attributes in the location pointed to by \fIattrs\fP

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 Stores the color-pair in the location pointed to by \fIcolor_pair\fP
 Stores the color-pair in the location pointed to by \fIcolor_pair\fP

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 Stores the wide-character string,
 characters referenced by \fIwcval\fP, into the array pointed to by \fIwch\fP.
 .PP
 Stores the wide-character string,
 characters referenced by \fIwcval\fP, into the array pointed to by \fIwch\fP.
 .PP


@@ -82,46 +84,61 @@ When
 is a null pointer, the
 \fBgetcchar\fP
 function does the following:
 is a null pointer, the
 \fBgetcchar\fP
 function does the following:

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 Obtains the number of wide characters pointed to by \fIwcval\fP
 Obtains the number of wide characters pointed to by \fIwcval\fP

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 Does not change the data referenced by
 \fIattrs\fP
 or
 \fIcolor_pair\fP
 Does not change the data referenced by
 \fIattrs\fP
 or
 \fIcolor_pair\fP

+.SS setcchar

 .PP
 The \fBsetcchar\fP function initializes the location pointed to by \fIwcval\fP
 by using:
 .PP
 The \fBsetcchar\fP function initializes the location pointed to by \fIwcval\fP
 by using:

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 The character attributes in
 \fIattrs\fP
 The character attributes in
 \fIattrs\fP

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 The color pair in
 \fIcolor_pair\fP
 The color pair in
 \fIcolor_pair\fP

-.TP 5
--
+.bP

 The wide-character string pointed to by \fIwch\fP.
 The string must be L'\\0' terminated,
 The wide-character string pointed to by \fIwch\fP.
 The string must be L'\\0' terminated,

-contain at most one character with strictly positive width,
-which must be the first,
-and contain no characters of negative width.
-.SH NOTES
+contain at most one spacing character,
+which must be the first.
+.IP
+Up to \fBCCHARW_MAX\fP\-1 nonspacing characters may follow.
+Additional nonspacing characters are ignored.
+.IP
+The string may contain a single control character instead.
+In that case, no nonspacing characters are allowed.
+.SH EXTENSIONS

 .PP
 .PP

-The \fIopts\fP argument is reserved for future use.
-Currently, an application must provide a null pointer as \fIopts\fP.
+X/Open Curses documents the \fIopts\fP argument as reserved for future use,
+saying that it must be null.
+This implementation 
+uses that parameter in ABI 6 for the functions which have a color-pair
+parameter to support extended color pairs:
+.bP
+For  functions  which modify the color, e.g., \fBsetcchar\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 pair parameter.
+.bP
+For functions which retrieve the color, e.g., \fBgetcchar\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.
+.SH NOTES

 .PP
 The \fIwcval\fP argument may be a value generated by a call to
 \fBsetcchar\fP or by a function that has a \fBcchar_t\fP output argument.
 If \fIwcval\fP is constructed by any other means, the effect is unspecified.
 .PP
 The \fIwcval\fP argument may be a value generated by a call to
 \fBsetcchar\fP or by a function that has a \fBcchar_t\fP output argument.
 If \fIwcval\fP is constructed by any other means, the effect is unspecified.

-.SH RETURN VALUES
+.SH RETURN VALUE

 .PP
 When \fIwch\fP is a null pointer,
 \fBgetcchar\fP returns the number of wide characters referenced by
 .PP
 When \fIwch\fP is a null pointer,
 \fBgetcchar\fP returns the number of wide characters referenced by

-\fIwcval\fP.
+\fIwcval\fP,
+including one for a trailing null.

 .PP
 When \fIwch\fP is not a null pointer,
 \fBgetcchar\fP returns \fBOK\fP upon successful completion,
 .PP
 When \fIwch\fP is not a null pointer,
 \fBgetcchar\fP returns \fBOK\fP upon successful completion,


@@ -129,16 +146,57 @@ and \fBERR\fP otherwise.
 .PP
 Upon successful completion, \fBsetcchar\fP returns \fBOK\fP.
 Otherwise, it returns \fBERR\fP.
 .PP
 Upon successful completion, \fBsetcchar\fP returns \fBOK\fP.
 Otherwise, it returns \fBERR\fP.

+.SH PORTABILITY
+The \fBCCHARW_MAX\fP symbol is specific to ncurses.
+X/Open Curses does not provide details for the layout of the \fBcchar_t\fP
+structure.
+It tells what data are stored in it:
+.bP
+a spacing character (\fBwchar_t\fP, i.e., 32-bits).
+.bP
+non-spacing characters (again, \fBwchar_t\fP's).
+.bP
+attributes (at least 16 bits, inferred from the various ACS- and WACS-flags).
+.bP
+color pair (at least 16 bits, inferred from the \fBunsigned short\fP type).
+.PP
+The non-spacing characters are optional,
+in the sense that zero or more may be stored in a \fBcchar_t\fP.
+XOpen/Curses specifies a limit:
+.RS 4
+.PP
+Implementations may limit the number of non-spacing characters that can be
+associated with a spacing character, provided any limit is at least 5.
+.RE
+.PP
+The Unix implementations at the time follow that limit:
+.bP
+AIX\ 4 and OSF1\ 4 use the same declaration with an array of 5 non-spacing
+characters \fIz\fP and a single spacing character \fIc\fP.
+.bP
+HP-UX\ 10 uses an opaque structure with 28 bytes,
+which is large enough for the 6 \fBwchar_t\fP values.
+.bP
+Solaris xpg4 curses uses a single array of 6 \fBwchar_t\fP values.
+.PP
+This implementation's \fBcchar_t\fP was defined in 1995
+using \fB5\fP for the total of spacing and non-spacing characters
+(\fBCCHARW_MAX\fP).
+That was probably due to a misreading of the AIX\ 4 header files,
+because the X/Open Curses document was not generally available at that time.
+Later (in 2002), this detail was overlooked when beginning to implement
+the functions using the structure.
+.PP
+In practice, even four non-spacing characters may seem enough.
+X/Open Curses documents possible uses for non-spacing characters,
+including using them for ligatures between characters
+(a feature apparently not supported by any curses implementation).
+Unicode does not limit the (analogous) number of combining characters,
+so some applications may be affected.

 .SH SEE ALSO
 .PP
 Functions:
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .PP
 Functions:

+\fBcurs_attr\fR(3X),
+\fBcurs_color\fR(3X),

 \fBcurses\fR(3X),
 \fBcurses\fR(3X),

-\fBwcwidth\fR(3X),
-\fBcurs_attr_get\fR(3X),
-\fBcan_change_color\fR(3X).
-.\"#
-.\"# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
-.\"# Local Variables:
-.\"# mode:nroff
-.\"# fill-column:79
-.\"# End:
+\fBwcwidth\fR(3).