- The unctrl routine returns a character string which is a printable rep-
- resentation of the character c, ignoring attributes. Control charac-
- ters are displayed in the ^X notation. Printing characters are dis-
- played as is. The corresponding wunctrl returns a printable represen-
+ The unctrl routine returns a character string which is a printable rep-
+ resentation of the character c, ignoring attributes. Control charac-
+ ters are displayed in the ^X notation. Printing characters are dis-
+ played as is. The corresponding wunctrl returns a printable represen-
tation of a wide character.
- The keyname routine returns a character string corresponding to the key
- c:
+ The keyname routine returns a character string corresponding to the key
+ c:
- o Printable characters are displayed as themselves, e.g., a one-char-
+ o Printable characters are displayed as themselves, e.g., a one-char-
acter string containing the key.
- o Control characters are displayed in the ^X notation.
+ o Control characters are displayed in the ^X notation.
- o DEL (character 127) is displayed as ^?.
+ o DEL (character 127) is displayed as ^?.
- o Values above 128 are either meta characters (if the screen has not
- been initialized, or if meta(3x) has been called with a TRUE param-
- eter), shown in the M-X notation, or are displayed as themselves.
+ o Values above 128 are either meta characters (if the screen has not
+ been initialized, or if meta(3X) has been called with a TRUE param-
+ eter), shown in the M-X notation, or are displayed as themselves.
In the latter case, the values may not be printable; this follows
the X/Open specification.
- o Values above 256 may be the names of the names of function keys.
+ o Values above 256 may be the names of the names of function keys.
- o Otherwise (if there is no corresponding name) the function returns
+ o Otherwise (if there is no corresponding name) the function returns
null, to denote an error. X/Open also lists an "UNKNOWN KEY" re-
turn value, which some implementations return rather than null.
- The corresponding key_name returns a character string corresponding to
- the wide-character value w. The two functions do not return the same
+ The corresponding key_name returns a character string corresponding to
+ the wide-character value w. The two functions do not return the same
set of strings; the latter returns null where the former would display
a meta character.
- The filter routine, if used, must be called before initscr or newterm
- are called. Calling filter causes these changes in initialization:
+ The filter routine, if used, must be called before initscr or newterm
+ are called. Calling filter causes these changes in initialization:
- oLINES is set to 1;
+ oLINES is set to 1;
- o the capabilities clear, cud1, cud, cup, cuu1, cuu, vpa are dis-
+ o the capabilities clear, cud1, cud, cup, cuu1, cuu, vpa are dis-
abled;
- o the capability ed is disabled if bce is set;
+ o the capability ed is disabled if bce is set;
- o and the home string is set to the value of cr.
+ o and the home string is set to the value of cr.
- The nofilter routine cancels the effect of a preceding filter call.
+ The nofilter routine cancels the effect of a preceding filter call.
That allows the caller to initialize a screen on a different device,
- using a different value of $TERM. The limitation arises because the
- filter routine modifies the in-memory copy of the terminal information.
+ using a different value of $TERM. The limitation arises because the
+ filter routine modifies the in-memory copy of the terminal information.
- The use_env routine, if used, should be called before initscr or
- newterm are called (because those compute the screen size). It modi-
- fies the way ncurses treats environment variables when determining the
+ The use_env routine, if used, should be called before initscr or
+ newterm are called (because those compute the screen size). It modi-
+ fies the way ncurses treats environment variables when determining the
screen size.
- o Normally ncurses looks first at the terminal database for the
+ o Normally ncurses looks first at the terminal database for the
screen size.
- If use_env was called with FALSE for parameter, it stops here un-
- less use_tioctl was also called with TRUE for parameter.
+ If use_env was called with FALSE for parameter, it stops here un-
+ less use_tioctl was also called with TRUE for parameter.
- o Then it asks for the screen size via operating system calls. If
+ o Then it asks for the screen size via operating system calls. If
successful, it overrides the values from the terminal database.
- o Finally (unless use_env was called with FALSE parameter), ncurses
- examines the LINES or COLUMNS environment variables, using a value
+ o Finally (unless use_env was called with FALSE parameter), ncurses
+ examines the LINES or COLUMNS environment variables, using a value
in those to override the results from the operating system or ter-
minal database.
- Ncurses also updates the screen size in response to SIGWINCH, un-
- less overridden by the LINES or COLUMNS environment variables,
+ Ncurses also updates the screen size in response to SIGWINCH, un-
+ less overridden by the LINES or COLUMNS environment variables,
- The use_tioctl routine, if used, should be called before initscr or
- newterm are called (because those compute the screen size). After
- use_tioctl is called with TRUE as an argument, ncurses modifies the
+ The use_tioctl routine, if used, should be called before initscr or
+ newterm are called (because those compute the screen size). After
+ use_tioctl is called with TRUE as an argument, ncurses modifies the
last step in its computation of screen size as follows:
- o checks if the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables are set to a
+ o checks if the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables are set to a
number greater than zero.
- o for each, ncurses updates the corresponding environment variable
+ o for each, ncurses updates the corresponding environment variable
with the value that it has obtained via operating system call or
from the terminal database.
- oncurses re-fetches the value of the environment variables so that
+ oncurses re-fetches the value of the environment variables so that
it is still the environment variables which set the screen size.
- The use_env and use_tioctl routines combine as summarized here:
+ The use_env and use_tioctl routines combine as summarized here:
- use_envuse_tioctlSummary
+ use_envuse_tioctlSummary
----------------------------------------------------------------
- TRUE FALSE This is the default behavior. ncurses
+ TRUE FALSE This is the default behavior. ncurses
uses operating system calls unless over-
ridden by $LINES or $COLUMNS environment
variables.
- TRUE TRUE ncurses updates $LINES and $COLUMNS
+
+ TRUE TRUE ncurses updates $LINES and $COLUMNS
based on operating system calls.
- FALSE TRUE ncurses ignores $LINES and $COLUMNS, us-
+ FALSE TRUE ncurses ignores $LINES and $COLUMNS, us-
es operating system calls to obtain
size.
- FALSE FALSE ncurses relies on the terminal database
+ FALSE FALSE ncurses relies on the terminal database
to determine size.
- The putwin routine writes all data associated with window (or pad) win
- into the file to which filep points. This information can be later re-
- trieved using the getwin function.
+ The putwin routine writes all data associated with window (or pad) win
+ into the file to which filep points. This information can be later re-
+ trieved using the getwin function.
- The getwin routine reads window related data stored in the file by
- putwin. The routine then creates and initializes a new window using
+ The getwin routine reads window related data stored in the file by
+ putwin. The routine then creates and initializes a new window using
that data. It returns a pointer to the new window. There are a few
caveats:
- o the data written is a copy of the WINDOW structure, and its associ-
+ o the data written is a copy of the WINDOW structure, and its associ-
ated character cells. The format differs between the wide-charac-
- ter (ncursesw) and non-wide (ncurses) libraries. You can transfer
+ ter (ncursesw) and non-wide (ncurses) libraries. You can transfer
data between the two, however.
- o the retrieved window is always created as a top-level window (or
+ o the retrieved window is always created as a top-level window (or
pad), rather than a subwindow.
- o the window's character cells contain the color pair value, but not
- the actual color numbers. If cells in the retrieved window use
+ o the window's character cells contain the color pair value, but not
+ the actual color numbers. If cells in the retrieved window use
color pairs which have not been created in the application using
- init_pair, they will not be colored when the window is refreshed.
+ init_pair, they will not be colored when the window is refreshed.
- The delay_output routine inserts an ms millisecond pause in output.
+ The delay_output routine inserts an ms millisecond pause in output.
This routine should not be used extensively because padding characters
are used rather than a CPU pause. If no padding character is speci-
- fied, this uses napms to perform the delay.
+ fied, this uses napms to perform the delay.
- The flushinp routine throws away any typeahead that has been typed by
+ The flushinp routine throws away any typeahead that has been typed by
the user and has not yet been read by the program.
- Except for flushinp, routines that return an integer return ERR upon
- failure and OK (SVr4 specifies only "an integer value other than ERR")
+ Except for flushinp, routines that return an integer return ERR upon
+ failure and OK (SVr4 specifies only "an integer value other than ERR")
upon successful completion.
- Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
+ Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
X/Open does not define any error conditions. In this implementation
- flushinp
+ flushinp
returns an error if the terminal was not initialized.
- putwin
- returns an error if the associated fwrite calls return an er-
+ putwin
+ returns an error if the associated fwrite calls return an er-
ror.
- The SVr4 documentation describes the action of filter only in the
+ The SVr4 documentation describes the action of filter only in the
vaguest terms. The description here is adapted from the XSI Curses
- standard (which erroneously fails to describe the disabling of cuu).
+ standard (which erroneously fails to describe the disabling of cuu).
- The keyname function may return the names of user-defined string capa-
- bilities which are defined in the terminfo entry via the -x option of
- tic. This implementation automatically assigns at run-time keycodes to
+ The keyname function may return the names of user-defined string capa-
+ bilities which are defined in the terminfo entry via the -x option of
+ tic. This implementation automatically assigns at run-time keycodes to
user-defined strings which begin with "k". The keycodes start at
KEY_MAX, but are not guaranteed to be the same value for different runs
because user-defined codes are merged from all terminal descriptions
- which have been loaded. The use_extended_names(3x) function controls
+ which have been loaded. The use_extended_names(3X) function controls
whether this data is loaded when the terminal description is read by
the library.
- The nofilter and use_tioctl routines are specific to ncurses. They
+ The nofilter and use_tioctl routines are specific to ncurses. They
were not supported on Version 7, BSD or System V implementations. It
- is recommended that any code depending on ncurses extensions be condi-
+ is recommended that any code depending on ncurses extensions be condi-
tioned using NCURSES_VERSION.
- The putwin and getwin functions have several issues with portability:
+ The putwin and getwin functions have several issues with portability:
- o The files written and read by these functions use an implementa-
+ o The files written and read by these functions use an implementa-
tion-specific format. Although the format is an obvious target for
standardization, it has been overlooked.
Interestingly enough, according to the copyright dates in Solaris
- source, the functions (along with scr_init, etc.) originated with
+ source, the functions (along with scr_init, etc.) originated with
the University of California, Berkeley (in 1982) and were later (in
1988) incorporated into SVr4. Oddly, there are no such functions
in the 4.3BSD curses sources.
- o Most implementations simply dump the binary WINDOW structure to the
+ o Most implementations simply dump the binary WINDOW structure to the
file. These include SVr4 curses, NetBSD and PDCurses, as well as
- older ncurses versions. This implementation (as well as the X/Open
+ older ncurses versions. This implementation (as well as the X/Open
variant of Solaris curses, dated 1995) uses textual dumps.
The implementations which use binary dumps use block-I/O (the
- fwrite and fread functions). Those that use textual dumps use
+ fwrite and fread functions). Those that use textual dumps use
buffered-I/O. A few applications may happen to write extra data in
the file using these functions. Doing that can run into problems
mixing block- and buffered-I/O. This implementation reduces the
@@ -294,64 +300,64 @@
The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions. It states
- that unctrl and wunctrl will return a null pointer if unsuccessful, but
+ that unctrl and wunctrl will return a null pointer if unsuccessful, but
does not define any error conditions. This implementation checks for
three cases:
- o the parameter is a 7-bit US-ASCII code. This is the case that
+ o the parameter is a 7-bit US-ASCII code. This is the case that
X/Open Curses documented.
- o the parameter is in the range 128-159, i.e., a C1 control code. If
- use_legacy_coding has been called with a 2 parameter, unctrl re-
- turns the parameter, i.e., a one-character string with the parame-
- ter as the first character. Otherwise, it returns "~@", "~A",
+ o the parameter is in the range 128-159, i.e., a C1 control code. If
+ use_legacy_coding(3X) has been called with a 2 parameter, unctrl
+ returns the parameter, i.e., a one-character string with the param-
+ eter as the first character. Otherwise, it returns "~@", "~A",
etc., analogous to "^@", "^A", C0 controls.
- X/Open Curses does not document whether unctrl can be called before
+ X/Open Curses does not document whether unctrl can be called before
initializing curses. This implementation permits that, and returns
the "~@", etc., values in that case.
- o parameter values outside the 0 to 255 range. unctrl returns a null
+ o parameter values outside the 0 to 255 range. unctrl returns a null
pointer.
- The strings returned by unctrl in this implementation are determined at
+ The strings returned by unctrl in this implementation are determined at
compile time, showing C1 controls from the upper-128 codes with a "~"
prefix rather than "^". Other implementations have different conven-
tions. For example, they may show both sets of control characters with
"^", and strip the parameter to 7 bits. Or they may ignore C1 controls
and treat all of the upper-128 codes as printable. This implementation
uses 8 bits but does not modify the string to reflect locale. The
- use_legacy_coding function allows the caller to change the output of
- unctrl.
-
- Likewise, the meta(3x) function allows the caller to change the output
- of keyname, i.e., it determines whether to use the "M-" prefix for
- "meta" keys (codes in the range 128 to 255). Both use_legacy_coding
- and meta succeed only after curses is initialized. X/Open Curses does
- not document the treatment of codes 128 to 159. When treating them as
- "meta" keys (or if keyname is called before initializing curses), this
- implementation returns strings "M-^@", "M-^A", etc.
-
- X/Open Curses documents unctrl as declared in <unctrl.h>, which ncurses
- does. However, ncurses' <curses.h> includes <unctrl.h>, matching the
+ use_legacy_coding(3X) function allows the caller to change the output
+ of unctrl.
+
+ Likewise, the meta(3X) function allows the caller to change the output
+ of keyname, i.e., it determines whether to use the "M-" prefix for
+ "meta" keys (codes in the range 128 to 255). Both use_legacy_cod-
+ ing(3X) and meta(3X) succeed only after curses is initialized. X/Open
+ Curses does not document the treatment of codes 128 to 159. When
+ treating them as "meta" keys (or if keyname is called before initializ-
+ ing curses), this implementation returns strings "M-^@", "M-^A", etc.
+
+ X/Open Curses documents unctrl as declared in <unctrl.h>, which ncurses
+ does. However, ncurses' <curses.h> includes <unctrl.h>, matching the
behavior of SVr4 curses. Other implementations may not do that.
- If ncurses is configured to provide the sp-functions extension, the
- state of use_env and use_tioctl may be updated before creating each
- screen rather than once only (curs_sp_funcs(3x)). This feature of
- use_env is not provided by other implementation of curses.
+ If ncurses is configured to provide the sp-functions extension, the
+ state of use_env and use_tioctl may be updated before creating each
+ screen rather than once only (curs_sp_funcs(3X)). This feature of
+ use_env is not provided by other implementation of curses.