- This page summarizes variables provided by the curses library. A more
- complete description is given in the curses(3x) manual page.
+ This page summarizes variables provided by the curses library. A more
+ complete description is given in the curses(3X) manual page.
Depending on the configuration, these may be actual variables, or
- macros (see curs_threads(3x) and curs_opaque(3x)) which provide read-
- only access to curses's state. In either case, applications should
+ macros (see curs_threads(3X) and curs_opaque(3X)) which provide read-
+ only access to curses's state. In either case, applications should
treat them as read-only to avoid confusing the library.
After initializing curses, this variable contains the number of color
pairs which the terminal can support. Usually the number of color
- pairs will be the product COLORS*COLORS, however this is not always
+ pairs will be the product COLORS*COLORS, however this is not always
true:
- o a few terminals use HLS colors, which do not follow this rule
+ o a few terminals use HLS colors, which do not follow this rule
- o terminals supporting a large number of colors are limited by the
- number of color pairs that can be represented in a signedshort
+ o terminals supporting a large number of colors are limited by the
+ number of color pairs that can be represented in a signedshort
value.
@@ -101,7 +102,7 @@
This variable holds the number of milliseconds to wait after reading an
escape character, to distinguish between an individual escape character
entered on the keyboard from escape sequences sent by cursor- and func-
- tion-keys (see curses(3x).
+ tion-keys (see curses(3X)).
- This variable holds the number of columns used by the curses library
+ This variable holds the number of columns used by the curses library
when converting a tab character to spaces as it adds the tab to a win-
- dow (see curs_addch(3x).
+ dow (see curs_addch(3X).
- This implementation of curses uses a special window curscr to record
+ This implementation of curses uses a special window curscr to record
its updates to the terminal screen.
+ This is referred to as the "physical screen" in the curs_refresh(3X)
+ and curs_outopts(3X) manual pages.
+
- This implementation of curses uses a special window newscr to hold up-
- dates to the terminal screen before applying them to curscr.
+ This implementation of curses uses a special window newscr to hold up-
+ dates to the terminal screen before applying them to curscr.
+
+ This is referred to as the "virtual screen" in the curs_kernel(3X),
+ curs_refresh(3X) and curs_outopts(3X) manual pages.
- Upon initializing curses, a default window called stdscr, which is the
+ Upon initializing curses, a default window called stdscr, which is the
size of the terminal screen, is created. Many curses functions use
this window.
- The curses library is initialized using either initscr(3x), or
- newterm(3x).
+ The curses library is initialized using either initscr(3X), or
+ newterm(3X).
- If curses is configured to use separate curses/terminfo libraries, most
+ If curses is configured to use separate curses/terminfo libraries, most
of these variables reside in the curses library.
- ESCDELAY and TABSIZE are extensions, not provided in most other imple-
- mentations of curses.
+ TABSIZE is a feature of SVr4 curses which is not documented by X/Open
+ curses.
+
+ o In SVr4 curses, TABSIZE is initially set from the terminal descrip-
+ tion's init_tabs capability. After that, it can be altered by the
+ applications using SVr4 curses.
+
+ SVr4 curses uses the current value of TABSIZE to compute the posi-
+ tion of tabstops for updating both the virtual screen with add-
+ ch(3X) as well as the physical screen with mvcur(3X).
+
+ o This implementation uses the current value of TABSIZE only for up-
+ dating the virtual screen. It uses the terminal description's it
+ (init_tabs) capability for computing hardware tabs (i.e., tab stops
+ on the physical screen).
+
+ o Other implementations differ. For instance, NetBSD curses allows
+ TABSIZE to be set through an environment variable. This implemen-
+ tation does not.
+
+ NetBSD curses does not support hardware tabs; it uses the init_tabs
+ capability and the TABSIZE variable only for updating the virtual
+ screen.
- ESCDELAY is an extension in AIX curses:
+ ESCDELAY is an extension in AIX curses:
- o In AIX, the units for ESCDELAY are fifths of a millisecond.
+ o In AIX, the units for ESCDELAY are fifths of a millisecond.
- o The default value for AIX's ESCDELAY is 0.1 seconds.
+ o The default value for AIX's ESCDELAY is 0.1 seconds.
- o AIX also enforces a limit of 10,000 seconds for ESCDELAY; this im-
+ o AIX also enforces a limit of 10,000 seconds for ESCDELAY; this im-
plementation currently has no upper limit.
- This implementation has long used ESCDELAY with units of milliseconds,
- making it impossible to be completely compatible with AIX. Likewise,
- most users have either decided to override the value, or rely upon its
+ This implementation has long used ESCDELAY with units of milliseconds,
+ making it impossible to be completely compatible with AIX. Likewise,
+ most users have either decided to override the value, or rely upon its
default value.