+ curses supports color attributes on terminals with that
+ capability. To use these routines start_color must be
called, usually right after initscr. Colors are always
used in pairs (referred to as color-pairs). A color-pair
consists of a foreground color (for characters) and a
@@ -90,51 +93,152 @@
The routine pair_content allows a programmer to find out
how a given color-pair is currently defined.
- RoutineDescriptions
+
+
+ The curses library combines these inputs to produce the
+ actual foreground and background colors shown on the
+ screen:
+
+ o per-character video attributes (e.g., via waddch),
+
+ o the window attribute (e.g., by wattrset), and
+
+ o the background character (e.g., wbkgdset).
+
+ Per-character and window attributes are usually set by a
+ parameter containing video attributes including a COL-
+ OR_PAIR value. Some functions such as wattr_set use a
+ separate parameter which is the color pair number.
+
+ The background character is a special case: it includes a
+ character value, just as if it were passed to waddch.
+
+ The curses library does the actual work of combining these
+ color pairs in an internal function called from waddch:
+
+ o If the parameter passed to waddch is blank, and it us-
+ es the special color pair 0,
+
+ ocurses next checks the window attribute.
+
+ o If the window attribute does not use color pair 0,
+ curses uses the color pair from the window at-
+ tribute.
+
+ o Otherwise, curses uses the background character.
+
+ o If the parameter passed to waddch is notblank, or it
+ does not use the special color pair 0, curses prefers
+ the color pair from the parameter, if it is nonzero.
+ Otherwise, it tries the window attribute next, and fi-
+ nally the background character.
+
+ Some curses functions such as wprintw call waddch. Those
+ do not combine its parameter with a color pair. Conse-
+ quently those calls use only the window attribute or the
+ background character.
+
+
+
The start_color routine requires no arguments. It must be
- called if the programmer wants to use colors, and before
- any other color manipulation routine is called. It is
- good practice to call this routine right after initscr.
- start_color initializes eight basic colors (black, red,
- green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white), and two
- global variables, COLORS and COLOR_PAIRS (respectively
- defining the maximum number of colors and color-pairs the
- terminal can support). It also restores the colors on the
- terminal to the values they had when the terminal was just
- turned on.
-
- The init_pair routine changes the definition of a color-
- pair. It takes three arguments: the number of the color-
- pair to be changed, the foreground color number, and the
+ called if the programmer wants to use colors, and before
+ any other color manipulation routine is called. It is
+ good practice to call this routine right after initscr.
+ start_color does this:
+
+ o It initializes two global variables, COLORS and COL-
+ OR_PAIRS (respectively defining the maximum number of
+ colors and color-pairs the terminal can support).
+
+ o It initializes the special color pair 0 to the default
+ foreground and background colors. No other color
+ pairs are initialized.
+
+ o It restores the colors on the terminal to the values
+ they had when the terminal was just turned on.
+
+ o If the terminal supports the initc (initialize_color)
+ capability, start_color initializes its internal table
+ representing the red, green and blue components of the
+ color palette.
+
+ The components depend on whether the terminal uses CGA
+ (aka "ANSI") or HLS (i.e., the hls (hue_lightness_sat-
+ uration) capability is set). The table is initialized
+ first for eight basic colors (black, red, green, yel-
+ low, blue, magenta, cyan, and white), and after that
+ (if the terminal supports more than eight colors) the
+ components are initialized to 1000.
+
+ start_color does not attempt to set the terminal's
+ color palette to match its built-in table. An appli-
+ cation may use init_color to alter the internal table
+ along with the terminal's color.
+
+ These limits apply to color values and color pairs. Val-
+ ues outside these limits are not legal, and may result in
+ a runtime error:
+
+ oCOLORS corresponds to the terminal database's max_col-
+ ors capability, which is typically a signed 16-bit in-
+ teger (see terminfo(5)).
+
+ o color values are expected to be in the range 0 to COL-
+ ORS-1, inclusive (including 0 and COLORS-1).
+
+ o a special color value -1 is used in certain extended
+ functions to denote the defaultcolor (see use_de-
+ fault_colors).
+
+ oCOLOR_PAIRS corresponds to the terminal database's
+ max_pairs capability, which is typically a signed
+ 16-bit integer (see terminfo(5)).
+
+ o legal color pair values are in the range 1 to COL-
+ OR_PAIRS-1, inclusive.
+
+ o color pair 0 is special; it denotes "no color".
+
+ Color pair 0 is assumed to be white on black, but is
+ actually whatever the terminal implements before color
+ is initialized. It cannot be modified by the applica-
+ tion.
+
+ The init_pair routine changes the definition of a color-
+ pair. It takes three arguments: the number of the color-
+ pair to be changed, the foreground color number, and the
background color number. For portable applications:
- - The value of the first argument must be between 1 and
- COLOR_PAIRS-1.
+ o The first argument must be a legal color pair value.
+ If default colors are used (see use_default_colors)
+ the upper limit is adjusted to allow for extra pairs
+ which use a default color in foreground and/or back-
+ ground.
- - The value of the second and third arguments must be
- between 0 and COLORS. Color pair 0 is assumed to be
- white on black, but is actually whatever the terminal
- implements before color is initialized. It cannot be
- modified by the application.
+ o The second and third arguments must be legal color
+ values.
- If the color-pair was previously initialized, the screen
- is refreshed and all occurrences of that color-pair are
+ If the color-pair was previously initialized, the screen
+ is refreshed and all occurrences of that color-pair are
changed to the new definition.
- As an extension, ncurses allows you to set color pair 0
- via the assume_default_colors routine, or to specify the
- use of default colors (color number -1) if you first in-
+ As an extension, ncurses allows you to set color pair 0
+ via the assume_default_colors routine, or to specify the
+ use of default colors (color number -1) if you first in-
voke the use_default_colors routine.
- The init_color routine changes the definition of a color.
- It takes four arguments: the number of the color to be
- changed followed by three RGB values (for the amounts of
- red, green, and blue components). The value of the first
- argument must be between 0 and COLORS. (See the section
- Colors for the default color index.) Each of the last
- three arguments must be a value between 0 and 1000. When
- init_color is used, all occurrences of that color on the
- screen immediately change to the new definition.
+ The init_color routine changes the definition of a color.
+ It takes four arguments: the number of the color to be
+ changed followed by three RGB values (for the amounts of
+ red, green, and blue components). The first argument must
+ be a legal color value; default colors are not allowed
+ here. (See the section Colors for the default color in-
+ dex.) Each of the last three arguments must be a value in
+ the range 0 through 1000. When init_color is used, all
+ occurrences of that color on the screen immediately change
+ to the new definition.
The has_colors routine requires no arguments. It returns
TRUE if the terminal can manipulate colors; otherwise, it
@@ -148,30 +252,34 @@
change their definitions; other, it returns FALSE. This
routine facilitates writing terminal-independent programs.
- The color_content routine gives programmers a way to find
+ The color_content routine gives programmers a way to find
the intensity of the red, green, and blue (RGB) components
in a color. It requires four arguments: the color number,
- and three addresses of shorts for storing the information
- about the amounts of red, green, and blue components in
- the given color. The value of the first argument must be
- between 0 and COLORS. The values that are stored at the
- addresses pointed to by the last three arguments are be-
- tween 0 (no component) and 1000 (maximum amount of compo-
- nent).
-
- The pair_content routine allows programmers to find out
- what colors a given color-pair consists of. It requires
- three arguments: the color-pair number, and two addresses
- of shorts for storing the foreground and the background
- color numbers. The value of the first argument must be
- between 1 and COLOR_PAIRS-1. The values that are stored
- at the addresses pointed to by the second and third argu-
- ments are between 0 and COLORS.
-
- Colors
+ and three addresses of shorts for storing the information
+ about the amounts of red, green, and blue components in
+ the given color. The first argument must be a legal color
+ value, i.e., 0 through COLORS-1, inclusive. The values
+ that are stored at the addresses pointed to by the last
+ three arguments are in the range 0 (no component) through
+ 1000 (maximum amount of component), inclusive.
+
+ The pair_content routine allows programmers to find out
+ what colors a given color-pair consists of. It requires
+ three arguments: the color-pair number, and two addresses
+ of shorts for storing the foreground and the background
+ color numbers. The first argument must be a legal color
+ value, i.e., in the range 1 through COLOR_PAIRS-1, inclu-
+ sive. The values that are stored at the addresses pointed
+ to by the second and third arguments are in the range 0
+ through COLORS, inclusive.
+
+
+
In <curses.h> the following macros are defined. These are
- the default colors. curses also assumes that COLOR_BLACK
- is the default background color for all terminals.
+ the standard colors (ISO-6429). curses also assumes that
+ COLOR_BLACK is the default background color for all termi-
+ nals.
COLOR_BLACKCOLOR_RED
@@ -184,37 +292,36 @@
-
RETURN VALUE
- The routines can_change_color() and has_colors() return
+
+ The routines can_change_color() and has_colors() return
TRUE or FALSE.
All other routines return the integer ERR upon failure and
- an OK (SVr4 specifies only "an integer value other than
+ an OK (SVr4 specifies only "an integer value other than
ERR") upon successful completion.
- X/Open defines no error conditions. This implementation
- will return ERR on attempts to use color values outside
- the range 0 to COLORS-1 (except for the default colors ex-
- tension), or use color pairs outside the range 0 to COL-
- OR_PAIR-1. Color values used in init_color must be in the
- range 0 to 1000. An error is returned from all functions
- if the terminal has not been initialized. An error is re-
- turned from secondary functions such as init_pair if
+ X/Open defines no error conditions. This implementation
+ will return ERR on attempts to use color values outside
+ the range 0 to COLORS-1 (except for the default colors ex-
+ tension), or use color pairs outside the range 0 to COL-
+ OR_PAIRS-1. Color values used in init_color must be in
+ the range 0 to 1000. An error is returned from all func-
+ tions if the terminal has not been initialized. An error
+ is returned from secondary functions such as init_pair if
start_color was not called.
- init_color
- returns an error if the terminal does not sup-
- port this feature, e.g., if the initial-
- ize_color capability is absent from the termi-
- nal description.
+ init_color
+ returns an error if the terminal does not support
+ this feature, e.g., if the initialize_color capa-
+ bility is absent from the terminal description.
- start_color
- returns an error If the color table cannot be
- allocated.
+ start_color
+ returns an error if the color table cannot be al-
+ located.
In the ncurses implementation, there is a separate color
activation flag, color palette, color pairs table, and as-
sociated COLORS and COLOR_PAIRS counts for each screen;
@@ -232,21 +339,21 @@
Several caveats apply on 386 and 486 machines with VGA-
compatible graphics:
- - COLOR_YELLOW is actually brown. To get yellow, use
- COLOR_YELLOW combined with the A_BOLD attribute.
+ o COLOR_YELLOW is actually brown. To get yellow, use
+ COLOR_YELLOW combined with the A_BOLD attribute.
- - The A_BLINK attribute should in theory cause the
- background to go bright. This often fails to work,
- and even some cards for which it mostly works (such
- as the Paradise and compatibles) do the wrong thing
- when you try to set a bright "yellow" background (you
- get a blinking yellow foreground instead).
+ o The A_BLINK attribute should in theory cause the back-
+ ground to go bright. This often fails to work, and
+ even some cards for which it mostly works (such as the
+ Paradise and compatibles) do the wrong thing when you
+ try to set a bright "yellow" background (you get a
+ blinking yellow foreground instead).
- - Color RGB values are not settable.
+ o Color RGB values are not settable.