The use_default_colors() and assume_default_colors() func-
tions are extensions to the curses library. They are used
with terminals that support ISO 6429 color, or equivalent.
@@ -111,47 +111,77 @@
These functions return the integer ERR upon failure and OK
on success. They will fail if either the terminal does
not support the orig_pair or orig_colors capability. If
- the initialize_pair capability is found, this causes an
- error as well.
+ the initialize_pair capability is not found, this causes
+ an error as well.
-
NOTES
- Associated with this extension, the init_pair(3x) function
+
+ Associated with this extension, the init_pair function
accepts negative arguments to specify default foreground
or background colors.
+ The use_default_colors() function was added to support
+ ded. This is a full-screen application which uses curses
+ to manage only part of the screen. The bottom portion of
+ the screen, which is of adjustable size, is left uncolored
+ to display the results from shell commands. The top por-
+ tion of the screen colors filenames using a scheme like
+ the "color ls" programs. Attempting to manage the back-
+ ground color of the screen for this application would give
+ unsatisfactory results for a variety of reasons. This
+ extension was devised after noting that color xterm (and
+ similar programs) provides a background color which does
+ not necessarily correspond to any of the ANSI colors.
+ While a special terminfo entry could be constructed using
+ nine colors, there was no mechanism provided within curses
+ to account for the related orig_pair and back_color_erase
+ capabilities.
+
+ The assume_default_colors() function was added to solve a
+ different problem: support for applications which would
+ use environment variables and other configuration to
+ bypass curses' notion of the terminal's default colors,
+ setting specific values.
+
-
PORTABILITY
- These 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 them be con-
+
+ These 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 them be con-
ditioned using NCURSES_VERSION.