by Eric S. Raymond and Zeyd M. Ben-Halim
updates since release 1.9.9e by Thomas Dickey
curses. It is
not an exhaustive reference for the curses Application Programming Interface
(API); that role is filled by the curses manual pages. Rather, it
is intended to help C programmers ease into using the package.
This document is aimed at C applications programmers not yet specifically
familiar with ncurses. If you are already an experienced curses
programmer, you should nevertheless read the sections on
Mouse Interfacing, Debugging,
Compatibility with Older Versions,
and Hints, Tips, and Tricks. These will bring you up
to speed on the special features and quirks of the ncurses
implementation. If you are not so experienced, keep reading.
The curses package is a subroutine library for
terminal-independent screen-painting and input-event handling which
presents a high level screen model to the programmer, hiding differences
between terminal types and doing automatic optimization of output to change
one screen full of text into another. Curses uses terminfo, which
is a database format that can describe the capabilities of thousands of
different terminals.
The curses API may seem something of an archaism on UNIX desktops
increasingly dominated by X, Motif, and Tcl/Tk. Nevertheless, UNIX still
supports tty lines and X supports xterm(1); the curses
API has the advantage of (a) back-portability to character-cell terminals,
and (b) simplicity. For an application that does not require bit-mapped
graphics and multiple fonts, an interface implementation using curses
will typically be a great deal simpler and less expensive than one using an
X toolkit.
curses was the routines written to
provide screen-handling for the game rogue; these used the
already-existing termcap database facility for describing terminal
capabilities. These routines were abstracted into a documented library and
first released with the early BSD UNIX versions.
System III UNIX from Bell Labs featured a rewritten and much-improved
curses library. It introduced the terminfo format. Terminfo is based
on Berkeley's termcap database, but contains a number of improvements and
extensions. Parameterized capabilities strings were introduced, making it
possible to describe multiple video attributes, and colors and to handle far
more unusual terminals than possible with termcap. In the later AT&T
System V releases, curses evolved to use more facilities and offer
more capabilities, going far beyond BSD curses in power and flexibility.
ncurses, a free implementation of
the System V curses API with some clearly marked extensions.
It includes the following System V curses features:
The ncurses package can also capture and use event reports from a
mouse in some environments (notably, xterm under the X window system). This
document includes tips for using the mouse.
The ncurses package was originated by Pavel Curtis. The original
maintainer of this package is
Zeyd Ben-Halim
<zmbenhal@netcom.com>.
Eric S. Raymond
<esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
wrote many of the new features in versions after 1.8.1
and wrote most of this introduction.
Jürgen Pfeifer
wrote all of the menu and forms code as well as the
Ada95 binding.
Ongoing work is being done by
Thomas Dickey (maintainer).
Contact the current maintainers at
bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
This document also describes the panels extension library, similarly modeled on the SVr4 panels facility. This library allows you to associate backing store with each of a stack or deck of overlapping windows, and provides operations for moving windows around in the stack that change their visibility in the natural way (handling window overlaps).
Finally, this document describes in detail the menus and forms extension libraries, also cloned from System V, which support easy construction and sequences of menus and fill-in forms.
stdscr, is automatically provided for the programmer.
#include <curses.h>at the top of the program source. The screen package uses the Standard I/O library, so
<curses.h> includes
<stdio.h>. <curses.h> also includes
<termios.h>, <termio.h>, or
<sgtty.h> depending on your system. It is redundant (but
harmless) for the programmer to do these includes, too. In linking with
curses you need to have -lncurses in your LDFLAGS or on the
command line. There is no need for any other libraries.
curscr, for current screen) is a
screen image of what the terminal currently looks like. Another screen (called
stdscr, for standard screen) is provided by default to make changes
on. A window is a purely internal representation. It is used to build and store a potential image of a portion of the terminal. It doesn't bear any necessary relation to what is really on the terminal screen; it's more like a scratchpad or write buffer.
To make the section of physical screen corresponding to a window reflect the
contents of the window structure, the routine refresh() (or
wrefresh() if the window is not stdscr) is called.
A given physical screen section may be within the scope of any number of overlapping windows. Also, changes can be made to windows in any order, without regard to motion efficiency. Then, at will, the programmer can effectively say ``make it look like this,'' and let the package implementation determine the most efficient way to repaint the screen.
curscr, which knows what the terminal looks like,
and stdscr, which is what the programmer wants the terminal to look
like next. The user should never actually access curscr directly.
Changes should be made to through the API, and then the routine
refresh() (or wrefresh()) called.
Many functions are defined to use stdscr as a default screen. For
example, to add a character to stdscr, one calls addch() with
the desired character as argument. To write to a different window. use the
routine waddch() (for `w'indow-specific addch()) is provided. This
convention of prepending function names with a `w' when they are to be
applied to specific windows is consistent. The only routines which do not
follow it are those for which a window must always be specified.
In order to move the current (y, x) coordinates from one point to another, the
routines move() and wmove() are provided. However, it is
often desirable to first move and then perform some I/O operation. In order to
avoid clumsiness, most I/O routines can be preceded by the prefix 'mv' and
the desired (y, x) coordinates prepended to the arguments to the function. For
example, the calls
move(y, x); addch(ch);can be replaced by
mvaddch(y, x, ch);and
wmove(win, y, x); waddch(win, ch);can be replaced by
mvwaddch(win, y, x, ch);Note that the window description pointer (win) comes before the added (y, x) coordinates. If a function requires a window pointer, it is always the first parameter passed.
curses library sets some variables describing the terminal
capabilities.
type name description
------------------------------------------------------------------
int LINES number of lines on the terminal
int COLS number of columns on the terminal
The curses.h also introduces some #define constants and types
of general usefulness:
bool
bool doneit;)
TRUE
FALSE
ERR
OK
stdscr. These instructions will
work on any window, providing you change the function names and parameters as
mentioned above. Here is a sample program to motivate the discussion:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <curses.h>
#include <signal.h>
static void finish(int sig);
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int num = 0;
/* initialize your non-curses data structures here */
(void) signal(SIGINT, finish); /* arrange interrupts to terminate */
(void) initscr(); /* initialize the curses library */
keypad(stdscr, TRUE); /* enable keyboard mapping */
(void) nonl(); /* tell curses not to do NL->CR/NL on output */
(void) cbreak(); /* take input chars one at a time, no wait for \n */
(void) echo(); /* echo input - in color */
if (has_colors())
{
start_color();
/*
* Simple color assignment, often all we need. Color pair 0 cannot
* be redefined. This example uses the same value for the color
* pair as for the foreground color, though of course that is not
* necessary:
*/
init_pair(1, COLOR_RED, COLOR_BLACK);
init_pair(2, COLOR_GREEN, COLOR_BLACK);
init_pair(3, COLOR_YELLOW, COLOR_BLACK);
init_pair(4, COLOR_BLUE, COLOR_BLACK);
init_pair(5, COLOR_CYAN, COLOR_BLACK);
init_pair(6, COLOR_MAGENTA, COLOR_BLACK);
init_pair(7, COLOR_WHITE, COLOR_BLACK);
}
for (;;)
{
int c = getch(); /* refresh, accept single keystroke of input */
attrset(COLOR_PAIR(num % 8));
num++;
/* process the command keystroke */
}
finish(0); /* we're done */
}
static void finish(int sig)
{
endwin();
/* do your non-curses wrapup here */
exit(0);
}
curscr and stdscr must be
allocated. These function initscr() does both these things. Since it
must allocate space for the windows, it can overflow memory when attempting to
do so. On the rare occasions this happens, initscr() will terminate
the program with an error message. initscr() must always be called
before any of the routines which affect windows are used. If it is not, the
program will core dump as soon as either curscr or stdscr are
referenced. However, it is usually best to wait to call it until after you are
sure you will need it, like after checking for startup errors. Terminal status
changing routines like nl() and cbreak() should be called
after initscr().
Once the screen windows have been allocated, you can set them up for
your program. If you want to, say, allow a screen to scroll, use
scrollok(). If you want the cursor to be left in place after
the last change, use leaveok(). If this isn't done,
refresh() will move the cursor to the window's current (y, x)
coordinates after updating it.
You can create new windows of your own using the functions newwin(),
derwin(), and subwin(). The routine delwin() will
allow you to get rid of old windows. All the options described above can be
applied to any window.
addch() and move(). addch() adds a character at the
current (y, x) coordinates. move() changes the current (y, x)
coordinates to whatever you want them to be. It returns ERR if you
try to move off the window. As mentioned above, you can combine the two into
mvaddch() to do both things at once.
The other output functions, such as addstr() and printw(),
all call addch() to add characters to the window.
After you have put on the window what you want there, when you want the portion
of the terminal covered by the window to be made to look like it, you must call
refresh(). In order to optimize finding changes, refresh()
assumes that any part of the window not changed since the last
refresh() of that window has not been changed on the terminal, i.e.,
that you have not refreshed a portion of the terminal with an overlapping
window. If this is not the case, the routine touchwin() is provided
to make it look like the entire window has been changed, thus making
refresh() check the whole subsection of the terminal for changes.
If you call wrefresh() with curscr as its argument, it will
make the screen look like curscr thinks it looks like. This is useful
for implementing a command which would redraw the screen in case it get messed
up.
addch() is getch() which, if
echo is set, will call addch() to echo the character. Since the
screen package needs to know what is on the terminal at all times, if
characters are to be echoed, the tty must be in raw or cbreak mode. Since
initially the terminal has echoing enabled and is in ordinary ``cooked'' mode,
one or the other has to changed before calling getch(); otherwise,
the program's output will be unpredictable.
When you need to accept line-oriented input in a window, the functions
wgetstr() and friends are available. There is even a wscanw()
function that can do scanf()(3)-style multi-field parsing on window
input. These pseudo-line-oriented functions turn on echoing while they
execute.
The example code above uses the call keypad(stdscr, TRUE) to enable
support for function-key mapping. With this feature, the getch() code
watches the input stream for character sequences that correspond to arrow and
function keys. These sequences are returned as pseudo-character values. The
#define values returned are listed in the curses.h The
mapping from sequences to #define values is determined by
key_ capabilities in the terminal's terminfo entry.
addch() function (and some others, including box() and
border()) can accept some pseudo-character arguments which are specially
defined by ncurses. These are #define values set up in
the curses.h header; see there for a complete list (look for
the prefix ACS_).
The most useful of the ACS defines are the forms-drawing characters. You can
use these to draw boxes and simple graphs on the screen. If the terminal
does not have such characters, curses.h will map them to a
recognizable (though ugly) set of ASCII defaults.
ncurses package supports screen highlights including standout,
reverse-video, underline, and blink. It also supports color, which is treated
as another kind of highlight.
Highlights are encoded, internally, as high bits of the pseudo-character type
(chtype) that curses.h uses to represent the contents of a
screen cell. See the curses.h header file for a complete list of
highlight mask values (look for the prefix A_).
There are two ways to make highlights. One is to logical-or the value of the
highlights you want into the character argument of an addch() call,
or any other output call that takes a chtype argument.
The other is to set the current-highlight value. This is logical-or'ed with
any highlight you specify the first way. You do this with the functions
attron(), attroff(), and attrset(); see the manual
pages for details.
Color is a special kind of highlight. The package actually thinks in terms
of color pairs, combinations of foreground and background colors. The sample
code above sets up eight color pairs, all of the guaranteed-available colors
on black. Note that each color pair is, in effect, given the name of its
foreground color. Any other range of eight non-conflicting values could
have been used as the first arguments of the init_pair() values.
Once you've done an init_pair() that creates color-pair N, you can
use COLOR_PAIR(N) as a highlight that invokes that particular
color combination. Note that COLOR_PAIR(N), for constant N,
is itself a compile-time constant and can be used in initializers.
ncurses library also provides a mouse interface.
NOTE: this facility is specific to ncurses, it is not part of either
the XSI Curses standard, nor of System V Release 4, nor BSD curses.
System V Release 4 curses contains code with similar interface definitions,
however it is not documented. Other than by disassembling the library, we
have no way to determine exactly how that mouse code works.
Thus, we recommend that you wrap mouse-related code in an #ifdef using the
feature macro NCURSES_MOUSE_VERSION so it will not be compiled and linked
on non-ncurses systems.
Presently, mouse event reporting works in the following environments:
gpm(1), Alessandro
Rubini's mouse server.
The mouse interface is very simple. To activate it, you use the function
mousemask(), passing it as first argument a bit-mask that specifies
what kinds of events you want your program to be able to see. It will
return the bit-mask of events that actually become visible, which may differ
from the argument if the mouse device is not capable of reporting some of
the event types you specify.
Once the mouse is active, your application's command loop should watch
for a return value of KEY_MOUSE from wgetch(). When
you see this, a mouse event report has been queued. To pick it off
the queue, use the function getmouse() (you must do this before
the next wgetch(), otherwise another mouse event might come
in and make the first one inaccessible).
Each call to getmouse() fills a structure (the address of which you'll
pass it) with mouse event data. The event data includes zero-origin,
screen-relative character-cell coordinates of the mouse pointer. It also
includes an event mask. Bits in this mask will be set, corresponding
to the event type being reported.
The mouse structure contains two additional fields which may be significant in the future as ncurses interfaces to new kinds of pointing device. In addition to x and y coordinates, there is a slot for a z coordinate; this might be useful with touch-screens that can return a pressure or duration parameter. There is also a device ID field, which could be used to distinguish between multiple pointing devices.
The class of visible events may be changed at any time via mousemask().
Events that can be reported include presses, releases, single-, double- and
triple-clicks (you can set the maximum button-down time for clicks). If
you don't make clicks visible, they will be reported as press-release
pairs. In some environments, the event mask may include bits reporting
the state of shift, alt, and ctrl keys on the keyboard during the event.
A function to check whether a mouse event fell within a given window is also supplied. You can use this to see whether a given window should consider a mouse event relevant to it.
Because mouse event reporting will not be available in all
environments, it would be unwise to build ncurses
applications that require the use of a mouse. Rather, you should
use the mouse as a shortcut for point-and-shoot commands your application
would normally accept from the keyboard. Two of the test games in the
ncurses distribution (bs and knight) contain
code that illustrates how this can be done.
See the manual page curs_mouse(3X) for full details of the
mouse-interface functions.
ncurses routines, the routine
endwin() is provided. It restores tty modes to what they were when
initscr() was first called, and moves the cursor down to the
lower-left corner. Thus, anytime after the call to initscr, endwin()
should be called before exiting.
initscr()
initscr().
This will determine the terminal type and
initialize curses data structures. initscr() also arranges that
the first call to refresh() will clear the screen. If an error
occurs a message is written to standard error and the program
exits. Otherwise it returns a pointer to stdscr. A few functions may be
called before initscr (slk_init(), filter(),
ripoffline(), use_env(), and, if you are using multiple
terminals, newterm().)
endwin()
endwin() before exiting or
shelling out of the program. This function will restore tty modes,
move the cursor to the lower left corner of the screen, reset the
terminal into the proper non-visual mode. Calling refresh()
or doupdate() after a temporary escape from the program will
restore the ncurses screen from before the escape.
newterm(type, ofp, ifp)
newterm() instead of initscr(). newterm() should
be called once for each terminal. It returns a variable of type
SCREEN * which should be saved as a reference to that
terminal.
(NOTE: a SCREEN variable is not a screen in the sense we
are describing in this introduction, but a collection of
parameters used to assist in optimizing the display.)
The arguments are the type of the terminal (a string) and
FILE pointers for the output and input of the terminal. If
type is NULL then the environment variable $TERM is used.
endwin() should called once at wrapup time for each terminal
opened using this function.
set_term(new)
newterm(). The screen reference for the new terminal
is passed as the parameter. The previous terminal is returned by the
function. All other calls affect only the current terminal.
delscreen(sp)
newterm(); deallocates the data structures
associated with a given SCREEN reference.
refresh() and wrefresh(win)
wrefresh() copies the named window to the physical
terminal screen, taking into account what is already
there in order to do optimizations. refresh() does a
refresh of stdscr. Unless leaveok() has been
enabled, the physical cursor of the terminal is left at the
location of the window's cursor.
doupdate() and wnoutrefresh(win)
wnoutrefresh()), and then calling the routine to update the
screen (doupdate()). If the programmer wishes to output
several windows at once, a series of calls to wrefresh will result
in alternating calls to wnoutrefresh() and doupdate(),
causing several bursts of output to the screen. By calling
wnoutrefresh() for each window, it is then possible to call
doupdate() once, resulting in only one burst of output, with
fewer total characters transmitted (this also avoids a visually annoying
flicker at each update).
setupterm(term, filenum, errret)
term is the character string representing the name of the terminal
being used. filenum is the UNIX file descriptor of the terminal to
be used for output. errret is a pointer to an integer, in which a
success or failure indication is returned. The values returned can be 1 (all
is well), 0 (no such terminal), or -1 (some problem locating the terminfo
database).
The value of term can be given as NULL, which will cause the value of
TERM in the environment to be used. The errret pointer can
also be given as NULL, meaning no error code is wanted. If errret is
defaulted, and something goes wrong, setupterm() will print an
appropriate error message and exit, rather than returning. Thus, a simple
program can call setupterm(0, 1, 0) and not worry about initialization
errors.
After the call to setupterm(), the global variable cur_term is
set to point to the current structure of terminal capabilities. By calling
setupterm() for each terminal, and saving and restoring
cur_term, it is possible for a program to use two or more terminals at
once. Setupterm() also stores the names section of the terminal
description in the global character array ttytype[]. Subsequent calls
to setupterm() will overwrite this array, so you'll have to save it
yourself if need be.
NOTE: These functions are not part of the standard curses API!
trace()
TRACE_ defines
in the curses.h file for details. (It is also possible to set
a trace level by assigning a trace level value to the environment variable
NCURSES_TRACE).
_tracef()
printf(), only it outputs a newline after the end of arguments.
The output goes to a file called trace in the current directory.
ncurses distribution that can alleviate
this problem somewhat; it compacts long sequences of similar operations into
more succinct single-line pseudo-operations. These pseudo-ops can be
distinguished by the fact that they are named in capital letters.
ncurses manual pages are a complete reference for this library.
In the remainder of this document, we discuss various useful methods that
may not be obvious from the manual page descriptions.
noraw() or
nocbreak(), think again and move carefully. It's probably
better design to use getstr() or one of its relatives to
simulate cooked mode. The noraw() and nocbreak()
functions try to restore cooked mode, but they may end up clobbering
some control bits set before you started your application. Also, they
have always been poorly documented, and are likely to hurt your
application's usability with other curses libraries.
Bear in mind that refresh() is a synonym for wrefresh(stdscr).
Don't try to mix use of stdscr with use of windows declared
by newwin(); a refresh() call will blow them off the
screen. The right way to handle this is to use subwin(), or
not touch stdscr at all and tile your screen with declared
windows which you then wnoutrefresh() somewhere in your program
event loop, with a single doupdate() call to trigger actual
repainting.
You are much less likely to run into problems if you design your screen
layouts to use tiled rather than overlapping windows. Historically,
curses support for overlapping windows has been weak, fragile, and poorly
documented. The ncurses library is not yet an exception to this
rule.
There is a panels library included in the ncurses
distribution that does a pretty good job of strengthening the
overlapping-windows facilities.
Try to avoid using the global variables LINES and COLS. Use
getmaxyx() on the stdscr context instead. Reason:
your code may be ported to run in an environment with window resizes,
in which case several screens could be open with different sizes.
ncurses.
To leave ncurses mode, call endwin() as you would if you
were intending to terminate the program. This will take the screen back to
cooked mode; you can do your shell-out. When you want to return to
ncurses mode, simply call refresh() or doupdate().
This will repaint the screen.
There is a boolean function, isendwin(), which code can use to
test whether ncurses screen mode is active. It returns TRUE
in the interval between an endwin() call and the following
refresh(), FALSE otherwise.
Here is some sample code for shellout:
addstr("Shelling out...");
def_prog_mode(); /* save current tty modes */
endwin(); /* restore original tty modes */
system("sh"); /* run shell */
addstr("returned.\n"); /* prepare return message */
refresh(); /* restore save modes, repaint screen */
SIGWINCH to the application running
under xterm.
The easiest way to handle SIGWINCH
is to do an endwin,
followed by an refresh and a screen repaint you code
yourself.
The refresh will pick up the new screen size from the
xterm's environment.
That is the standard way, of course (it even works with some vendor's curses
implementations).
Its drawback is that it clears the screen to reinitialize the display, and does
not resize subwindows which must be shrunk.
Ncurses provides an extension which works better, the
resizeterm function. That function ensures that all windows
are limited to the new screen dimensions, and pads stdscr
with blanks if the screen is larger.
The ncurses library provides a SIGWINCH signal handler,
which pushes a KEY_RESIZE via the wgetch() calls.
When ncurses returns that code,
it calls resizeterm
to update the size of the standard screen's window, repainting that
(filling with blanks or truncating as needed).
It also resizes other windows,
but its effect may be less satisfactory because it cannot
know how you want the screen re-painted.
You will usually have to write special-purpose code to handle
KEY_RESIZE yourself.
initscr() function actually calls a function named
newterm() to do most of its work. If you are writing a program that
opens multiple terminals, use newterm() directly.
For each call, you will have to specify a terminal type and a pair of file
pointers; each call will return a screen reference, and stdscr will be
set to the last one allocated. You will switch between screens with the
set_term call. Note that you will also have to call
def_shell_mode and def_prog_mode on each tty yourself.
ncurses mode. An easy
way to do this is to call setupterm(), then use the functions
tigetflag(), tigetnum(), and tigetstr() to do your
testing.
A particularly useful case of this often comes up when you want to
test whether a given terminal type should be treated as `smart'
(cursor-addressable) or `stupid'. The right way to test this is to see
if the return value of tigetstr("cup") is non-NULL. Alternatively,
you can include the term.h file and test the value of the
macro cursor_address.
addchstr() family of functions for fast
screen-painting of text when you know the text doesn't contain any
control characters. Try to make attribute changes infrequent on your
screens. Don't use the immedok() option!
wresize() function allows you to resize a window in place.
The associated resizeterm() function simplifies the construction
of SIGWINCH handlers, for resizing all windows.
The define_key() function allows you
to define at runtime function-key control sequences which are not in the
terminal description.
The keyok() function allows you to temporarily
enable or disable interpretation of any function-key control sequence.
The use_default_colors() function allows you to construct
applications which can use the terminal's default foreground and
background colors as an additional "default" color.
Several terminal emulators support this feature, which is based on ISO 6429.
Ncurses supports up 16 colors, unlike SVr4 curses which defines only 8. While most terminals which provide color allow only 8 colors, about a quarter (including XFree86 xterm) support 16 colors.
ncurses
and the (undocumented!) behavior of older curses implementations. These arise
from ambiguities or omissions in the documentation of the API.
curses versions were often not documented precisely. To understand why this is a problem, remember that screen updates are calculated between two representations of the entire display. The documentation says that when you refresh a window, it is first copied to the virtual screen, and then changes are calculated to update the physical screen (and applied to the terminal). But "copied to" is not very specific, and subtle differences in how copying works can produce different behaviors in the case where two overlapping windows are each being refreshed at unpredictable intervals.
What happens to the overlapping region depends on what wnoutrefresh()
does with its argument -- what portions of the argument window it copies to the
virtual screen. Some implementations do "change copy", copying down only
locations in the window that have changed (or been marked changed with
wtouchln() and friends). Some implementations do "entire copy",
copying all window locations to the virtual screen whether or not
they have changed.
The ncurses library itself has not always been consistent on this
score. Due to a bug, versions 1.8.7 to 1.9.8a did entire copy. Versions
1.8.6 and older, and versions 1.9.9 and newer, do change copy.
For most commercial curses implementations, it is not documented and not known
for sure (at least not to the ncurses maintainers) whether they do
change copy or entire copy. We know that System V release 3 curses has logic
in it that looks like an attempt to do change copy, but the surrounding logic
and data representations are sufficiently complex, and our knowledge
sufficiently indirect, that it's hard to know whether this is reliable.
It is not clear what the SVr4 documentation and XSI standard intend. The XSI
Curses standard barely mentions wnoutrefresh(); the SVr4 documents seem to be
describing entire-copy, but it is possible with some effort and straining to
read them the other way.
It might therefore be unwise to rely on either behavior in programs that might
have to be linked with other curses implementations. Instead, you can do an
explicit touchwin() before the wnoutrefresh() call to
guarantee an entire-contents copy anywhere.
The really clean way to handle this is to use the panels library. If,
when you want a screen update, you do update_panels(), it will
do all the necessary wnoutrefresh() calls for whatever panel
stacking order you have defined. Then you can do one doupdate()
and there will be a single burst of physical I/O that will do
all your updates.
ncurses (1.8.7 or
older) you may be surprised by the behavior of the erase functions. In older
versions, erased areas of a window were filled with a blank modified by the
window's current attribute (as set by wattrset(), wattron(),
wattroff() and friends).
In newer versions, this is not so. Instead, the attribute of erased blanks
is normal unless and until it is modified by the functions bkgdset()
or wbkgdset().
This change in behavior conforms ncurses to System V Release 4 and
the XSI Curses standard.
ncurses library is intended to be base-level conformant with the
XSI Curses standard from X/Open. Many extended-level features (in fact, almost
all features not directly concerned with wide characters and
internationalization) are also supported. One effect of XSI conformance is the change in behavior described under "Background Erase -- Compatibility with Old Versions".
Also, ncurses meets the XSI requirement that every macro
entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and
will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
#undef.
ncurses library by itself provides good support for screen
displays in which the windows are tiled (non-overlapping). In the more
general case that windows may overlap, you have to use a series of
wnoutrefresh() calls followed by a doupdate(), and be
careful about the order you do the window refreshes in. It has to be
bottom-upwards, otherwise parts of windows that should be obscured will
show through. When your interface design is such that windows may dive deeper into the visibility stack or pop to the top at runtime, the resulting book-keeping can be tedious and difficult to get right. Hence the panels library.
The panel library first appeared in AT&T System V. The
version documented here is the panel code distributed
with ncurses.
#include <panel.h>and must be linked explicitly with the panels library using an
-lpanel argument. Note that they must also link the
ncurses library with -lncurses. Many linkers
are two-pass and will accept either order, but it is still good practice
to put -lpanel first and -lncurses second.
refresh()) that displays all panels in the
deck in the proper order to resolve overlaps. The standard window,
stdscr, is considered below all panels. Details on the panels functions are available in the man pages. We'll just hit the highlights here.
You create a panel from a window by calling new_panel() on a
window pointer. It then becomes the top of the deck. The panel's window
is available as the value of panel_window() called with the
panel pointer as argument.
You can delete a panel (removing it from the deck) with del_panel.
This will not deallocate the associated window; you have to do that yourself.
You can replace a panel's window with a different window by calling
replace_window. The new window may be of different size;
the panel code will re-compute all overlaps. This operation doesn't
change the panel's position in the deck.
To move a panel's window, use move_panel(). The
mvwin() function on the panel's window isn't sufficient because it
doesn't update the panels library's representation of where the windows are.
This operation leaves the panel's depth, contents, and size unchanged.
Two functions (top_panel(), bottom_panel()) are
provided for rearranging the deck. The first pops its argument window to the
top of the deck; the second sends it to the bottom. Either operation leaves
the panel's screen location, contents, and size unchanged.
The function update_panels() does all the
wnoutrefresh() calls needed to prepare for
doupdate() (which you must call yourself, afterwards).
Typically, you will want to call update_panels() and
doupdate() just before accepting command input, once in each cycle
of interaction with the user. If you call update_panels() after
each and every panel write, you'll generate a lot of unnecessary refresh
activity and screen flicker.
wnoutrefresh() or wrefresh()
operations with panels code; this will work only if the argument window
is either in the top panel or unobscured by any other panels.
The stsdcr window is a special case. It is considered below all
panels. Because changes to panels may obscure parts of stdscr,
though, you should call update_panels() before
doupdate() even when you only change stdscr.
Note that wgetch automatically calls wrefresh.
Therefore, before requesting input from a panel window, you need to be sure
that the panel is totally unobscured.
There is presently no way to display changes to one obscured panel without repainting all panels.
hide_panel for this. Use show_panel() to render it
visible again. The predicate function panel_hidden
tests whether or not a panel is hidden.
The panel_update code ignores hidden panels. You cannot do
top_panel() or bottom_panel on a hidden panel().
Other panels operations are applicable.
panel_above() and panel_below. Handed a panel
pointer, they return the panel above or below that panel. Handed
NULL, they return the bottom-most or top-most panel.
Every panel has an associated user pointer, not used by the panel code, to
which you can attach application data. See the man page documentation
of set_panel_userptr() and panel_userptr for
details.
menu library is a curses
extension that supports easy programming of menu hierarchies with a
uniform but flexible interface.
The menu library first appeared in AT&T System V. The
version documented here is the menu code distributed
with ncurses.
#include <menu.h>and must be linked explicitly with the menus library using an
-lmenu argument. Note that they must also link the
ncurses library with -lncurses. Many linkers
are two-pass and will accept either order, but it is still good practice
to put -lmenu first and -lncurses second.
The menu can then by posted, that is written to an associated window. Actually, each menu has two associated windows; a containing window in which the programmer can scribble titles or borders, and a subwindow in which the menu items proper are displayed. If this subwindow is too small to display all the items, it will be a scrollable viewport on the collection of items.
A menu may also be unposted (that is, undisplayed), and finally freed to make the storage associated with it and its items available for re-use.
The general flow of control of a menu program looks like this:
curses.
new_item().
new_menu().
post_menu().
unpost_menu().
free_menu().
free_item().
curses.
menu_opts(3x) to see how to change the default).
Both types always have a current item.
From a single-valued menu you can read the selected value simply by looking
at the current item. From a multi-valued menu, you get the selected set
by looping through the items applying the item_value()
predicate function. Your menu-processing code can use the function
set_item_value() to flag the items in the select set.
Menu items can be made unselectable using set_item_opts()
or item_opts_off() with the O_SELECTABLE
argument. This is the only option so far defined for menus, but it
is good practice to code as though other option bits might be on.
set_menu_format() allows you to set the
maximum size of the viewport or menu page that will be used
to display menu items. You can retrieve any format associated with a
menu with menu_format(). The default format is rows=16,
columns=1. The actual menu page may be smaller than the format size. This depends on the item number and size and whether O_ROWMAJOR is on. This option (on by default) causes menu items to be displayed in a `raster-scan' pattern, so that if more than one item will fit horizontally the first couple of items are side-by-side in the top row. The alternative is column-major display, which tries to put the first several items in the first column.
As mentioned above, a menu format not large enough to allow all items to fit on-screen will result in a menu display that is vertically scrollable.
You can scroll it with requests to the menu driver, which will be described in the section on menu input handling.
Each menu has a mark string used to visually tag selected items;
see the menu_mark(3x) manual page for details. The mark
string length also influences the menu page size.
The function scale_menu() returns the minimum display size
that the menu code computes from all these factors.
There are other menu display attributes including a select attribute,
an attribute for selectable items, an attribute for unselectable items,
and a pad character used to separate item name text from description
text. These have reasonable defaults which the library allows you to
change (see the menu_attribs(3x) manual page.
The outer or frame window is not otherwise touched by the menu routines. It exists so the programmer can associate a title, a border, or perhaps help text with the menu and have it properly refreshed or erased at post/unpost time. The inner window or subwindow is where the current menu page is displayed.
By default, both windows are stdscr. You can set them with the
functions in menu_win(3x).
When you call post_menu(), you write the menu to its
subwindow. When you call unpost_menu(), you erase the
subwindow, However, neither of these actually modifies the screen. To
do that, call wrefresh() or some equivalent.
menu_driver() repeatedly. The first argument of this routine
is a menu pointer; the second is a menu command code. You should write an
input-fetching routine that maps input characters to menu command codes, and
pass its output to menu_driver(). The menu command codes are
fully documented in menu_driver(3x).
The simplest group of command codes is REQ_NEXT_ITEM,
REQ_PREV_ITEM, REQ_FIRST_ITEM,
REQ_LAST_ITEM, REQ_UP_ITEM,
REQ_DOWN_ITEM, REQ_LEFT_ITEM,
REQ_RIGHT_ITEM. These change the currently selected
item. These requests may cause scrolling of the menu page if it only
partially displayed.
There are explicit requests for scrolling which also change the
current item (because the select location does not change, but the
item there does). These are REQ_SCR_DLINE,
REQ_SCR_ULINE, REQ_SCR_DPAGE, and
REQ_SCR_UPAGE.
The REQ_TOGGLE_ITEM selects or deselects the current item.
It is for use in multi-valued menus; if you use it with O_ONEVALUE
on, you'll get an error return (E_REQUEST_DENIED).
Each menu has an associated pattern buffer. The
menu_driver() logic tries to accumulate printable ASCII
characters passed in in that buffer; when it matches a prefix of an
item name, that item (or the next matching item) is selected. If
appending a character yields no new match, that character is deleted
from the pattern buffer, and menu_driver() returns
E_NO_MATCH.
Some requests change the pattern buffer directly:
REQ_CLEAR_PATTERN, REQ_BACK_PATTERN,
REQ_NEXT_MATCH, REQ_PREV_MATCH. The latter
two are useful when pattern buffer input matches more than one item
in a multi-valued menu.
Each successful scroll or item navigation request clears the pattern
buffer. It is also possible to set the pattern buffer explicitly
with set_menu_pattern().
Finally, menu driver requests above the constant MAX_COMMAND
are considered application-specific commands. The menu_driver()
code ignores them and returns E_UNKNOWN_COMMAND.
menu_opts(3x) for
details.
It is possible to change the current item from application code; this
is useful if you want to write your own navigation requests. It is
also possible to explicitly set the top row of the menu display. See
mitem_current(3x).
If your application needs to change the menu subwindow cursor for
any reason, pos_menu_cursor() will restore it to the
correct location for continuing menu driver processing.
It is possible to set hooks to be called at menu initialization and
wrapup time, and whenever the selected item changes. See
menu_hook(3x).
Each item, and each menu, has an associated user pointer on which you
can hang application data. See mitem_userptr(3x) and
menu_userptr(3x).
form library is a curses extension that supports easy
programming of on-screen forms for data entry and program control.
The form library first appeared in AT&T System V. The
version documented here is the form code distributed
with ncurses.
#include <form.h>and must be linked explicitly with the forms library using an
-lform argument. Note that they must also link the
ncurses library with -lncurses. Many linkers
are two-pass and will accept either order, but it is still good practice
to put -lform first and -lncurses second.
To make forms, you create groups of fields and connect them with form frame objects; the form library makes this relatively simple.
Once defined, a form can be posted, that is written to an associated window. Actually, each form has two associated windows; a containing window in which the programmer can scribble titles or borders, and a subwindow in which the form fields proper are displayed.
As the form user fills out the posted form, navigation and editing
keys support movement between fields, editing keys support modifying
field, and plain text adds to or changes data in a current field. The
form library allows you (the forms designer) to bind each navigation
and editing key to any keystroke accepted by curses
Fields may have validation conditions on them, so that they check input
data for type and value. The form library supplies a rich set of
pre-defined field types, and makes it relatively easy to define new ones.
Once its transaction is completed (or aborted), a form may be unposted (that is, undisplayed), and finally freed to make the storage associated with it and its items available for re-use.
The general flow of control of a form program looks like this:
curses.
new_field().
new_form().
post_form().
unpost_form().
free_form().
free_field().
curses.
In forms programs, however, the `process user requests' is somewhat more complicated than for menus. Besides menu-like navigation operations, the menu driver loop has to support field editing and data validation.
new_field():
FIELD *new_field(int height, int width, /* new field size */
int top, int left, /* upper left corner */
int offscreen, /* number of offscreen rows */
int nbuf); /* number of working buffers */
Menu items always occupy a single row, but forms fields may have
multiple rows. So new_field() requires you to specify a
width and height (the first two arguments, which mist both be greater
than zero).
You must also specify the location of the field's upper left corner on
the screen (the third and fourth arguments, which must be zero or
greater). Note that these coordinates are relative to the form
subwindow, which will coincide with stdscr by default but
need not be stdscr if you've done an explicit
set_form_win() call.
The fifth argument allows you to specify a number of off-screen rows. If
this is zero, the entire field will always be displayed. If it is
nonzero, the form will be scrollable, with only one screen-full (initially
the top part) displayed at any given time. If you make a field dynamic
and grow it so it will no longer fit on the screen, the form will become
scrollable even if the offscreen argument was initially zero.
The forms library allocates one working buffer per field; the size of
each buffer is ((height + offscreen)*width + 1, one character
for each position in the field plus a NUL terminator. The sixth
argument is the number of additional data buffers to allocate for the
field; your application can use them for its own purposes.
FIELD *dup_field(FIELD *field, /* field to copy */
int top, int left); /* location of new copy */
The function dup_field() duplicates an existing field at a
new location. Size and buffering information are copied; some
attribute flags and status bits are not (see the
form_field_new(3X) for details).
FIELD *link_field(FIELD *field, /* field to copy */
int top, int left); /* location of new copy */
The function link_field() also duplicates an existing field
at a new location. The difference from dup_field() is that
it arranges for the new field's buffer to be shared with the old one. Besides the obvious use in making a field editable from two different form pages, linked fields give you a way to hack in dynamic labels. If you declare several fields linked to an original, and then make them inactive, changes from the original will still be propagated to the linked fields.
As with duplicated fields, linked fields have attribute bits separate from the original.
As you might guess, all these field-allocations return NULL if
the field allocation is not possible due to an out-of-memory error or
out-of-bounds arguments.
To connect fields to a form, use
FORM *new_form(FIELD **fields);This function expects to see a NULL-terminated array of field pointers. Said fields are connected to a newly-allocated form object; its address is returned (or else NULL if the allocation fails).
Note that new_field() does not copy the pointer array
into private storage; if you modify the contents of the pointer array
during forms processing, all manner of bizarre things might happen. Also
note that any given field may only be connected to one form.
The functions free_field() and free_form are available
to free field and form objects. It is an error to attempt to free a field
connected to a form, but not vice-versa; thus, you will generally free
your form objects first.
O_STATIC bit)
involve sufficient complications to be covered in sections of their own
later on. We cover the functions used to get and set several basic
attributes here.
When a field is created, the attributes not specified by the
new_field function are copied from an invisible system
default field. In attribute-setting and -fetching functions, the
argument NULL is taken to mean this field. Changes to it persist
as defaults until your forms application terminates.
int field_info(FIELD *field, /* field from which to fetch */
int *height, *int width, /* field size */
int *top, int *left, /* upper left corner */
int *offscreen, /* number of offscreen rows */
int *nbuf); /* number of working buffers */
This function is a sort of inverse of new_field(); instead of
setting size and location attributes of a new field, it fetches them
from an existing one.
int move_field(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int top, int left); /* new upper-left corner */
You can, of course. query the current location through field_info().
int set_field_just(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int justmode); /* mode to set */
int field_just(FIELD *field); /* fetch mode of field */
The mode values accepted and returned by this functions are
preprocessor macros NO_JUSTIFICATION, JUSTIFY_RIGHT,
JUSTIFY_LEFT, or JUSTIFY_CENTER.
This group of four field attributes controls the visual appearance of the field on the screen, without affecting in any way the data in the field buffer.
int set_field_fore(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
chtype attr); /* attribute to set */
chtype field_fore(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
int set_field_back(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
chtype attr); /* attribute to set */
chtype field_back(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
int set_field_pad(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int pad); /* pad character to set */
chtype field_pad(FIELD *field);
int set_new_page(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int flag); /* TRUE to force new page */
chtype new_page(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
The attributes set and returned by the first four functions are normal
curses(3x) display attribute values (A_STANDOUT,
A_BOLD, A_REVERSE etc).
The page bit of a field controls whether it is displayed at the start of
a new form screen.
int set_field_opts(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int attr); /* attribute to set */
int field_opts_on(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int attr); /* attributes to turn on */
int field_opts_off(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int attr); /* attributes to turn off */
int field_opts(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
By default, all options are on. Here are the available option bits:
REQ_PREV_CHOICE and
REQ_NEXT_CHOICE will fail. Such read-only fields may be useful for
help messages.
The option values are bit-masks and can be composed with logical-or in the obvious way.
int set_field_status(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int status); /* mode to set */
int field_status(FIELD *field); /* fetch mode of field */
Setting this flag under program control can be useful if you use the same
form repeatedly, looking for modified fields each time.
Calling field_status() on a field not currently selected
for input will return a correct value. Calling field_status() on a
field that is currently selected for input may not necessarily give a
correct field status value, because entered data isn't necessarily copied to
buffer zero before the exit validation check.
To guarantee that the returned status value reflects reality, call
field_status() either (1) in the field's exit validation check
routine, (2) from the field's or form's initialization or termination
hooks, or (3) just after a REQ_VALIDATION request has been
processed by the forms driver.
int set_field_userptr(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
char *userptr); /* mode to set */
char *field_userptr(FIELD *field); /* fetch mode of field */
(Properly, this user pointer field ought to have (void *) type.
The (char *) type is retained for System V compatibility.)
It is valid to set the user pointer of the default field (with a
set_field_userptr() call passed a NULL field pointer.)
When a new field is created, the default-field user pointer is copied
to initialize the new field's user pointer.
A one-line dynamic field will have a fixed height (1) but variable width, scrolling horizontally to display data within the field area as originally dimensioned and located. A multi-line dynamic field will have a fixed width, but variable height (number of rows), scrolling vertically to display data within the field area as originally dimensioned and located.
Normally, a dynamic field is allowed to grow without limit. But it is possible to set an upper limit on the size of a dynamic field. You do it with this function:
int set_max_field(FIELD *field, /* field to alter (may not be NULL) */
int max_size); /* upper limit on field size */
If the field is one-line, max_size is taken to be a column size
limit; if it is multi-line, it is taken to be a line size limit. To disable
any limit, use an argument of zero. The growth limit can be changed whether
or not the O_STATIC bit is on, but has no effect until it is. The following properties of a field change when it becomes dynamic:
O_AUTOSKIP and O_NL_OVERLOAD are ignored.
dup_field() and link_field() calls copy
dynamic-buffer sizes. If the O_STATIC option is set on one of a
collection of links, buffer resizing will occur only when the field is
edited through that link.
field_info() will retrieve the original static size of
the field; use dynamic_field_info() to get the actual dynamic size.
A field's validation check (if any) is not called when
set_field_buffer() modifies the input buffer, nor when that buffer
is changed through a linked field.
The form library provides a rich set of pre-defined validation
types, and gives you the capability to define custom ones of your own. You
can examine and change field validation attributes with the following
functions:
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
FIELDTYPE *ftype, /* type to associate */
...); /* additional arguments*/
FIELDTYPE *field_type(FIELD *field); /* field to query */
The validation type of a field is considered an attribute of the field. As
with other field attributes, Also, doing set_field_type() with a
NULL field default will change the system default for validation of
newly-created fields. Here are the pre-defined validation types:
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_ALPHA, /* type to associate */
int width); /* maximum width of field */
The width argument sets a minimum width of data. Typically
you'll want to set this to the field width; if it's greater than the
field width, the validation check will always fail. A minimum width
of zero makes field completion optional.
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_ALNUM, /* type to associate */
int width); /* maximum width of field */
The width argument sets a minimum width of data. As with
TYPE_ALPHA, typically you'll want to set this to the field width; if it's
greater than the field width, the validation check will always fail. A
minimum width of zero makes field completion optional.
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_ENUM, /* type to associate */
char **valuelist; /* list of possible values */
int checkcase; /* case-sensitive? */
int checkunique); /* must specify uniquely? */
The valuelist parameter must point at a NULL-terminated list of
valid strings. The checkcase argument, if true, makes comparison
with the string case-sensitive. When the user exits a TYPE_ENUM field, the validation procedure tries to complete the data in the buffer to a valid entry. If a complete choice string has been entered, it is of course valid. But it is also possible to enter a prefix of a valid string and have it completed for you.
By default, if you enter such a prefix and it matches more than one value
in the string list, the prefix will be completed to the first matching
value. But the checkunique argument, if true, requires prefix
matches to be unique in order to be valid.
The REQ_NEXT_CHOICE and REQ_PREV_CHOICE input requests
can be particularly useful with these fields.
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_INTEGER, /* type to associate */
int padding, /* # places to zero-pad to */
int vmin, int vmax); /* valid range */
Valid characters consist of an optional leading minus and digits.
The range check is performed on exit. If the range maximum is less
than or equal to the minimum, the range is ignored. If the value passes its range check, it is padded with as many leading zero digits as necessary to meet the padding argument.
A TYPE_INTEGER value buffer can conveniently be interpreted
with the C library function atoi(3).
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_NUMERIC, /* type to associate */
int padding, /* # places of precision */
double vmin, double vmax); /* valid range */
Valid characters consist of an optional leading minus and digits. possibly
including a decimal point. If your system supports locale's, the decimal point
character used must be the one defined by your locale. The range check is
performed on exit. If the range maximum is less than or equal to the minimum,
the range is ignored. If the value passes its range check, it is padded with as many trailing zero digits as necessary to meet the padding argument.
A TYPE_NUMERIC value buffer can conveniently be interpreted
with the C library function atof(3).
int set_field_type(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
TYPE_REGEXP, /* type to associate */
char *regexp); /* expression to match */
The syntax for regular expressions is that of regcomp(3).
The check for regular-expression match is performed on exit.
char *field_buffer(FIELD *field, /* field to query */
int bufindex); /* number of buffer to query */
Normally, the state of the zero-numbered buffer for each field is set by
the user's editing actions on that field. It's sometimes useful to be able
to set the value of the zero-numbered (or some other) buffer from your
application:
int set_field_buffer(FIELD *field, /* field to alter */
int bufindex, /* number of buffer to alter */
char *value); /* string value to set */
If the field is not large enough and cannot be resized to a sufficiently
large size to contain the specified value, the value will be truncated
to fit.
Calling field_buffer() with a null field pointer will raise an
error. Calling field_buffer() on a field not currently selected
for input will return a correct value. Calling field_buffer() on a
field that is currently selected for input may not necessarily give a
correct field buffer value, because entered data isn't necessarily copied to
buffer zero before the exit validation check.
To guarantee that the returned buffer value reflects on-screen reality,
call field_buffer() either (1) in the field's exit validation
check routine, (2) from the field's or form's initialization or termination
hooks, or (3) just after a REQ_VALIDATION request has been processed
by the forms driver.
NULL. The principal attribute of a form is its field list. You can query and change this list with:
int set_form_fields(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
FIELD **fields); /* fields to connect */
char *form_fields(FORM *form); /* fetch fields of form */
int field_count(FORM *form); /* count connect fields */
The second argument of set_form_fields() may be a
NULL-terminated field pointer array like the one required by
new_form(). In that case, the old fields of the form are
disconnected but not freed (and eligible to be connected to other
forms), then the new fields are connected. It may also be null, in which case the old fields are disconnected (and not freed) but no new ones are connected.
The field_count() function simply counts the number of fields
connected to a given from. It returns -1 if the form-pointer argument
is NULL.
stdscr. By making this step explicit, you can associate a form with a declared frame window on your screen display. This can be useful if you want to adapt the form display to different screen sizes, dynamically tile forms on the screen, or use a form as part of an interface layout managed by panels.
The two windows associated with each form have the same functions as their analogues in the menu library. Both these windows are painted when the form is posted and erased when the form is unposted.
The outer or frame window is not otherwise touched by the form routines. It exists so the programmer can associate a title, a border, or perhaps help text with the form and have it properly refreshed or erased at post/unpost time. The inner window or subwindow is where the current form page is actually displayed.
In order to declare your own frame window for a form, you'll need to know the size of the form's bounding rectangle. You can get this information with:
int scale_form(FORM *form, /* form to query */
int *rows, /* form rows */
int *cols); /* form cols */
The form dimensions are passed back in the locations pointed to by
the arguments. Once you have this information, you can use it to
declare of windows, then use one of these functions:
int set_form_win(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
WINDOW *win); /* frame window to connect */
WINDOW *form_win(FORM *form); /* fetch frame window of form */
int set_form_sub(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
WINDOW *win); /* form subwindow to connect */
WINDOW *form_sub(FORM *form); /* fetch form subwindow of form */
Note that curses operations, including refresh(), on the form,
should be done on the frame window, not the form subwindow. It is possible to check from your application whether all of a scrollable field is actually displayed within the menu subwindow. Use these functions:
int data_ahead(FORM *form); /* form to be queried */ int data_behind(FORM *form); /* form to be queried */The function
data_ahead() returns TRUE if (a) the current
field is one-line and has undisplayed data off to the right, (b) the current
field is multi-line and there is data off-screen below it.
The function data_behind() returns TRUE if the first (upper
left hand) character position is off-screen (not being displayed).
Finally, there is a function to restore the form window's cursor to the value expected by the forms driver:
int pos_form_cursor(FORM *) /* form to be queried */If your application changes the form window cursor, call this function before handing control back to the forms driver in order to re-synchronize it.
form_driver() handles virtualized input requests
for form navigation, editing, and validation requests, just as
menu_driver does for menus (see the section on menu input handling).
int form_driver(FORM *form, /* form to pass input to */
int request); /* form request code */
Your input virtualization function needs to take input and then convert it
to either an alphanumeric character (which is treated as data to be
entered in the currently-selected field), or a forms processing request. The forms driver provides hooks (through input-validation and field-termination functions) with which your application code can check that the input taken by the driver matched what was expected.
REQ_NEXT_PAGE
REQ_PREV_PAGE
REQ_FIRST_PAGE
REQ_LAST_PAGE
REQ_NEXT_PAGE
from the last page goes to the first, and REQ_PREV_PAGE from
the first page goes to the last.
REQ_NEXT_FIELD
REQ_PREV_FIELD
REQ_FIRST_FIELD
REQ_LAST_FIELD
REQ_SNEXT_FIELD
REQ_SPREV_FIELD
REQ_SFIRST_FIELD
REQ_SLAST_FIELD
REQ_LEFT_FIELD
REQ_RIGHT_FIELD
REQ_UP_FIELD
REQ_DOWN_FIELD
REQ_NEXT_FIELD from the last field goes to the first, and
REQ_PREV_FIELD from the first field goes to the last. The
order of the fields for these (and the REQ_FIRST_FIELD and
REQ_LAST_FIELD requests) is simply the order of the field
pointers in the form array (as set up by new_form() or
set_form_fields() It is also possible to traverse the fields as if they had been sorted in screen-position order, so the sequence goes left-to-right and top-to-bottom. To do this, use the second group of four sorted-movement requests.
Finally, it is possible to move between fields using visual directions up, down, right, and left. To accomplish this, use the third group of four requests. Note, however, that the position of a form for purposes of these requests is its upper-left corner.
For example, suppose you have a multi-line field B, and two
single-line fields A and C on the same line with B, with A to the left
of B and C to the right of B. A REQ_MOVE_RIGHT from A will
go to B only if A, B, and C all share the same first line;
otherwise it will skip over B to C.
REQ_NEXT_CHAR
REQ_PREV_CHAR
REQ_NEXT_LINE
REQ_PREV_LINE
REQ_NEXT_WORD
REQ_PREV_WORD
REQ_BEG_FIELD
REQ_END_FIELD
REQ_BEG_LINE
REQ_END_LINE
REQ_LEFT_CHAR
REQ_RIGHT_CHAR
REQ_UP_CHAR
REQ_DOWN_CHAR
REQ_SCR_FLINE
REQ_SCR_BLINE
REQ_SCR_FPAGE
REQ_SCR_BPAGE
REQ_SCR_FHPAGE
REQ_SCR_BHPAGE
REQ_SCR_FCHAR
REQ_SCR_BCHAR
REQ_SCR_HFLINE
REQ_SCR_HBLINE
REQ_SCR_HFHALF
REQ_SCR_HBHALF
The following requests support editing the field and changing the edit mode:
REQ_INS_MODE
REQ_OVL_MODE
REQ_NEW_LINE
REQ_INS_CHAR
REQ_INS_LINE
REQ_DEL_CHAR
REQ_DEL_PREV
REQ_DEL_LINE
REQ_DEL_WORD
REQ_CLR_EOL
REQ_CLR_EOF
REQ_CLEAR_FIELD
REQ_NEW_LINE and REQ_DEL_PREV requests
is complicated and partly controlled by a pair of forms options.
The special cases are triggered when the cursor is at the beginning of
a field, or on the last line of the field.
First, we consider REQ_NEW_LINE:
The normal behavior of REQ_NEW_LINE in insert mode is to break the
current line at the position of the edit cursor, inserting the portion of
the current line after the cursor as a new line following the current
and moving the cursor to the beginning of that new line (you may think
of this as inserting a newline in the field buffer).
The normal behavior of REQ_NEW_LINE in overlay mode is to clear the
current line from the position of the edit cursor to end of line.
The cursor is then moved to the beginning of the next line.
However, REQ_NEW_LINE at the beginning of a field, or on the
last line of a field, instead does a REQ_NEXT_FIELD.
O_NL_OVERLOAD option is off, this special action is
disabled.
Now, let us consider REQ_DEL_PREV:
The normal behavior of REQ_DEL_PREV is to delete the previous
character. If insert mode is on, and the cursor is at the start of a
line, and the text on that line will fit on the previous one, it
instead appends the contents of the current line to the previous one
and deletes the current line (you may think of this as deleting a
newline from the field buffer).
However, REQ_DEL_PREV at the beginning of a field is instead
treated as a REQ_PREV_FIELD.
If the
O_BS_OVERLOAD option is off, this special action is
disabled and the forms driver just returns E_REQUEST_DENIED.
See Form Options for discussion of how to set and clear the overload options.
REQ_NEXT_CHOICE
REQ_PREV_CHOICE
TYPE_ENUM has built-in successor
and predecessor functions. When you define a field type of your own
(see Custom Validation Types), you can associate
our own ordering functions.
curses value
greater than KEY_MAX and less than or equal to the constant
MAX_COMMAND. If your input-virtualization routine returns a
value above MAX_COMMAND, the forms driver will ignore it.
typedef void (*HOOK)(); /* pointer to function returning void */
int set_form_init(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
HOOK hook); /* initialization hook */
HOOK form_init(FORM *form); /* form to query */
int set_form_term(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
HOOK hook); /* termination hook */
HOOK form_term(FORM *form); /* form to query */
int set_field_init(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
HOOK hook); /* initialization hook */
HOOK field_init(FORM *form); /* form to query */
int set_field_term(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
HOOK hook); /* termination hook */
HOOK field_term(FORM *form); /* form to query */
These functions allow you to either set or query four different hooks.
In each of the set functions, the second argument should be the
address of a hook function. These functions differ only in the timing
of the hook call.
set_current_field() call
set_form_page() call
You can set a default hook for all fields by passing one of the set functions a NULL first argument.
You can disable any of these hooks by (re)setting them to NULL, the default value.
int set_current_field(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
FIELD *field); /* field to shift to */
FIELD *current_field(FORM *form); /* form to query */
int field_index(FORM *form, /* form to query */
FIELD *field); /* field to get index of */
The function field_index() returns the index of the given field
in the given form's field array (the array passed to new_form() or
set_form_fields()).
The initial current field of a form is the first active field on the
first page. The function set_form_fields() resets this.
It is also possible to move around by pages.
int set_form_page(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
int page); /* page to go to (0-origin) */
int form_page(FORM *form); /* return form's current page */
The initial page of a newly-created form is 0. The function
set_form_fields() resets this.
int set_form_opts(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
int attr); /* attribute to set */
int form_opts_on(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
int attr); /* attributes to turn on */
int form_opts_off(FORM *form, /* form to alter */
int attr); /* attributes to turn off */
int form_opts(FORM *form); /* form to query */
By default, all options are on. Here are the available option bits:
REQ_NEW_LINE as described in Editing Requests. The value of this option is
ignored on dynamic fields that have not reached their size limit;
these have no last line, so the circumstances for triggering a
REQ_NEXT_FIELD never arise.
REQ_DEL_PREV as described in
Editing Requests.
form library gives you the capability to define custom
validation types of your own. Further, the optional additional arguments
of set_field_type effectively allow you to parameterize validation
types. Most of the complications in the validation-type interface have to
do with the handling of the additional arguments within custom validation
functions.
FIELD *link_fieldtype(FIELDTYPE *type1,
FIELDTYPE *type2);
This function creates a field type that will accept any of the values
legal for either of its argument field types (which may be either
predefined or programmer-defined).
If a set_field_type() call later requires arguments, the new
composite type expects all arguments for the first type, than all arguments
for the second. Order functions (see Order Requests)
associated with the component types will work on the composite; what it does
is check the validation function for the first type, then for the second, to
figure what type the buffer contents should be treated as.
typedef int (*HOOK)(); /* pointer to function returning int */
FIELDTYPE *new_fieldtype(HOOK f_validate, /* field validator */
HOOK c_validate) /* character validator */
int free_fieldtype(FIELDTYPE *ftype); /* type to free */
At least one of the arguments of new_fieldtype() must be
non-NULL. The forms driver will automatically call the new type's
validation functions at appropriate points in processing a field of
the new type.
The function free_fieldtype() deallocates the argument
fieldtype, freeing all storage associated with it.
Normally, a field validator is called when the user attempts to leave the field. Its first argument is a field pointer, from which it can get to field buffer 0 and test it. If the function returns TRUE, the operation succeeds; if it returns FALSE, the edit cursor stays in the field.
A character validator gets the character passed in as a first argument. It too should return TRUE if the character is valid, FALSE otherwise.
set_field_type(). If
no such arguments are defined for the field type, this pile pointer
argument will be NULL.
In order to arrange for such arguments to be passed to your validation
functions, you must associate a small set of storage-management functions
with the type. The forms driver will use these to synthesize a pile
from the trailing arguments of each set_field_type() argument, and
a pointer to the pile will be passed to the validation functions.
Here is how you make the association:
typedef char *(*PTRHOOK)(); /* pointer to function returning (char *) */
typedef void (*VOIDHOOK)(); /* pointer to function returning void */
int set_fieldtype_arg(FIELDTYPE *type, /* type to alter */
PTRHOOK make_str, /* make structure from args */
PTRHOOK copy_str, /* make copy of structure */
VOIDHOOK free_str); /* free structure storage */
Here is how the storage-management hooks are used:
make_str
set_field_type(). It gets one
argument, a va_list of the type-specific arguments passed to
set_field_type(). It is expected to return a pile pointer to a data
structure that encapsulates those arguments.
copy_str
free_str
make_str and copy_str functions may return NULL to
signal allocation failure. The library routines will that call them will
return error indication when this happens. Thus, your validation functions
should never see a NULL file pointer and need not check specially for it.
TYPE_ENUM is. For such types, it is possible to define
successor and predecessor functions to support the REQ_NEXT_CHOICE
and REQ_PREV_CHOICE requests. Here's how:
typedef int (*INTHOOK)(); /* pointer to function returning int */
int set_fieldtype_arg(FIELDTYPE *type, /* type to alter */
INTHOOK succ, /* get successor value */
INTHOOK pred); /* get predecessor value */
The successor and predecessor arguments will each be passed two arguments;
a field pointer, and a pile pointer (as for the validation functions). They
are expected to use the function field_buffer() to read the
current value, and set_field_buffer() on buffer 0 to set the next
or previous value. Either hook may return TRUE to indicate success (a
legal next or previous value was set) or FALSE to indicate failure.
Use that code as a model, and evolve it towards what you really want.
You will avoid many problems and annoyances that way. The code
in the ncurses library has been specifically exempted from
the package copyright to support this.
If your custom type defines order functions, have do something intuitive with a blank field. A useful convention is to make the successor of a blank field the types minimum value, and its predecessor the maximum.