The slk* functions manipulate the set of soft function-key
- labels that exist on many terminals. For those terminals
+ labels that exist on many terminals. For those terminals
that do not have soft labels, curses takes over the bottom
- line of stdscr, reducing the size of stdscr and the vari-
- able LINES. curses standardizes on eight labels of up to
- eight characters each. In addition to this, the ncurses
- implementation supports a mode where it simulates 12
- labels of up to five characters each. This is most common
- for todays PC like enduser devices. Please note that
- ncurses simulates this mode by taking over up to two lines
- at the bottom of the screen, it doesn't try to use any
- hardware support for this mode.
-
- The slk_init routine must be called before initscr or
+ line of stdscr, reducing the size of stdscr and the vari-
+ able LINES. curses standardizes on eight labels of up to
+ eight characters each. In addition to this, the ncurses
+ implementation supports a mode where it simulates 12 la-
+ bels of up to five characters each. This is useful for
+ today's PC-like enduser devices. ncurses simulates this
+ mode by taking over up to two lines at the bottom of the
+ screen; it does not try to use any hardware support for
+ this mode.
+
+ The slk_init routine must be called before initscr or
newterm is called. If initscr eventually uses a line from
stdscr to emulate the soft labels, then fmt determines how
- the labels are arranged on the screen. Setting fmt to 0
- indicates a 3-2-3 arrangement of the labels, 1 indicates a
- 4-4 arrangement and 2 indicates the PC like 4-4-4 mode. If
- fmt is set to 3, it is again the PC like 4-4-4 mode, but
- in addition an index line is generated, helping the user
- to identify the key numbers easily.
-
- The slk_set routine requires labnum to be a label number,
- from 1 to 8 (resp. 12); label must be the string to be put
- on the label, up to eight (resp. five) characters in
- length. A null string or a null pointer sets up a blank
- label. fmt is either 0, 1, or 2, indicating whether the
- label is to be left-justified, centered, or right-justi-
- fied, respectively, within the label.
+ the labels are arranged on the screen:
+
+ 0 indicates a 3-2-3 arrangement of the labels.
+
+ 1 indicates a 4-4 arrangement
+
+ 2 indicates the PC-like 4-4-4 mode.
+
+ 3 is again the PC-like 4-4-4 mode, but in addition
+ an index line is generated, helping the user to
+ identify the key numbers easily.
+
+ The slk_set routine (and the slk_wset routine for the
+ wide-character library) has three parameters:
+
+ labnum
+ is the label number, from 1 to 8 (12 for fmt
+ in slk_init is 2 or 3);
+
+ label
+ is be the string to put on the label, up to
+ eight (five for fmt in slk_init is 2 or 3)
+ characters in length. A null string or a null
+ pointer sets up a blank label.
+
+ fmt is either 0, 1, or 2, indicating whether the
+ label is to be left-justified, centered, or
+ right-justified, respectively, within the la-
+ bel.
The slk_refresh and slk_noutrefresh routines correspond to
the wrefresh and wnoutrefresh routines.
The slk_label routine returns the current label for label
- number labnum, with leading and trailing blanks stripped.
+ number labnum, with leading and trailing blanks stripped.
- The slk_clear routine clears the soft labels from the
+ The slk_clear routine clears the soft labels from the
screen.
- The slk_restore routine restores the soft labels to the
+ The slk_restore routine restores the soft labels to the
screen after a slk_clear has been performed.
- The slk_touch routine forces all the soft labels to be
+ The slk_touch routine forces all the soft labels to be
output the next time a slk_noutrefresh is performed.
The slk_attron, slk_attrset, slk_attroff and slk_attr rou-
tines correspond to attron, attrset, attroff and attr_get.
- They have an effect only if soft labels are simulated on
- the bottom line of the screen. The default highlight for
+ They have an effect only if soft labels are simulated on
+ the bottom line of the screen. The default highlight for
soft keys is A_STANDOUT (as in System V curses, which does
not document this fact).
- The slk_color routine corresponds to color_set. It has an
- effect only if soft labels are simulated on the bottom
+ The slk_color routine corresponds to color_set. It has an
+ effect only if soft labels are simulated on the bottom
line of the screen.
-
-
These routines return ERR upon failure and OK (SVr4 speci-
fies only "an integer value other than ERR") upon success-
- ful completion. slk_attr returns the attribute used for
- the soft keys.
+ ful completion.
- slk_label returns NULL on error.
+ X/Open defines no error conditions. In this implementa-
+ tion
+ slk_attr
+ returns the attribute used for the soft keys.
-
-
NOTES
+ slk_attroff, slk_attron, slk_clear,
+ slk_noutrefresh, slk_refresh, slk_touch
+ return an error if the terminal or the soft-
+ keys were not initialized.
+
+ slk_attrset
+ returns an error if the terminal or the soft-
+ keys were not initialized.
+
+ slk_attr_set
+ returns an error if the terminal or the soft-
+ keys were not initialized, or the color pair
+ is outside the range 0..COLOR_PAIRS-1, or opts
+ is not null.
+
+ slk_color
+ returns an error if the terminal or the soft-
+ keys were not initialized, or the color pair
+ is outside the range 0..COLOR_PAIRS-1.
+
+ slk_init
+ returns an error if the format parameter is
+ outside the range 0..3.
+
+ slk_label
+ returns NULL on error.
+
+ slk_set
+ returns an error if the terminal or the soft-
+ keys were not initialized, or the labnum pa-
+ rameter is outside the range of label counts,
+ or if the format parameter is outside the
+ range 0..2, or if memory for the labels cannot
+ be allocated.
+
+
+
Most applications would use slk_noutrefresh because a wre-fresh is likely to follow soon.
-
-
PORTABILITY
- The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4, describes these func-
- tions. It changes the argument type of the attribute-
- manipulation functions slk_attron, slk_attroff,
- slk_attrset to be attr_t, and adds const qualifiers. The
- format codes 2 and 3 for slk_init() and the function
- slk_attr are specific to ncurses.
+
+ The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4, describes these func-
+ tions. It changes the argument type of the attribute-ma-
+ nipulation functions slk_attron, slk_attroff, slk_attrset
+ to be attr_t, and adds const qualifiers. The format codes
+ 2 and 3 for slk_init and the function slk_attr are specif-
+ ic to ncurses.
-