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30 * @Id: curs_initscr.3x,v 1.12 2003/05/10 20:33:49 jmc Exp @
34 <TITLE>curs_initscr 3x</TITLE>
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39 <H1>curs_initscr 3x</H1>
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43 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">curs_initscr(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">curs_initscr(3x)</A></STRONG>
50 <STRONG>initscr</STRONG>, <STRONG>newterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>endwin</STRONG>, <STRONG>isendwin</STRONG>, <STRONG>set_term</STRONG>, <STRONG>delscreen</STRONG> -
51 <STRONG>curses</STRONG> screen initialization and manipulation routines
55 <H2>SYNOPSIS</H2><PRE>
56 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
58 <STRONG>WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*initscr(void);</STRONG>
59 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>endwin(void);</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>bool</STRONG> <STRONG>isendwin(void);</STRONG>
61 <STRONG>SCREEN</STRONG> <STRONG>*newterm(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*type,</STRONG> <STRONG>FILE</STRONG> <STRONG>*outfd,</STRONG> <STRONG>FILE</STRONG> <STRONG>*infd);</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>SCREEN</STRONG> <STRONG>*set_term(SCREEN</STRONG> <STRONG>*new);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>delscreen(SCREEN*</STRONG> <STRONG>sp);</STRONG>
67 <H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
68 <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> is normally the first <STRONG>curses</STRONG> routine to call when
69 initializing a program. A few special routines sometimes
70 need to be called before it; these are <STRONG>slk_init</STRONG>, <STRONG>filter</STRONG>,
71 <STRONG>ripoffline</STRONG>, <STRONG>use_env</STRONG>. For multiple-terminal applications,
72 <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> may be called before <STRONG>initscr</STRONG>.
74 The initscr code determines the terminal type and initial-
75 izes all <STRONG>curses</STRONG> data structures. <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> also causes the
76 first call to <STRONG>refresh</STRONG> to clear the screen. If errors
77 occur, <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> writes an appropriate error message to
78 standard error and exits; otherwise, a pointer is returned
79 to <STRONG>stdscr</STRONG>.
81 A program that outputs to more than one terminal should
82 use the <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> routine for each terminal instead of
83 <STRONG>initscr</STRONG>. A program that needs to inspect capabilities, so
84 it can continue to run in a line-oriented mode if the ter-
85 minal cannot support a screen-oriented program, would also
86 use <STRONG>newterm</STRONG>. The routine <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> should be called once
87 for each terminal. It returns a variable of type <STRONG>SCREEN</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG>
88 which should be saved as a reference to that terminal.
89 The arguments are the <EM>type</EM> of the terminal to be used in
90 place of <STRONG>$TERM</STRONG>, a file pointer for output to the terminal,
91 and another file pointer for input from the terminal (if
92 <EM>type</EM> is <STRONG>NULL</STRONG>, <STRONG>$TERM</STRONG> will be used). The program must also
93 call <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> for each terminal being used before exiting
94 from <STRONG>curses</STRONG>. If <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> is called more than once for the
95 same terminal, the first terminal referred to must be the
96 last one for which <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> is called.
98 A program should always call <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> before exiting or
99 escaping from <STRONG>curses</STRONG> mode temporarily. This routine
100 restores tty modes, moves the cursor to the lower left-
101 hand corner of the screen and resets the terminal into the
102 proper non-visual mode. Calling <STRONG>refresh</STRONG> or <STRONG>doupdate</STRONG> after
103 a temporary escape causes the program to resume visual
106 The <STRONG>isendwin</STRONG> routine returns <STRONG>TRUE</STRONG> if <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> has been
107 called without any subsequent calls to <STRONG>wrefresh</STRONG>, and <STRONG>FALSE</STRONG>
110 The <STRONG>set_term</STRONG> routine is used to switch between different
111 terminals. The screen reference <STRONG>new</STRONG> becomes the new cur-
112 rent terminal. The previous terminal is returned by the
113 routine. This is the only routine which manipulates
114 <STRONG>SCREEN</STRONG> pointers; all other routines affect only the
117 The <STRONG>delscreen</STRONG> routine frees storage associated with the
118 <STRONG>SCREEN</STRONG> data structure. The <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> routine does not do
119 this, so <STRONG>delscreen</STRONG> should be called after <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> if a par-
120 ticular <STRONG>SCREEN</STRONG> is no longer needed.
124 <H2>RETURN VALUE</H2><PRE>
125 <STRONG>endwin</STRONG> returns the integer <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> upon
126 successful completion.
128 Routines that return pointers always return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
133 Note that <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> and <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> may be macros.
137 <H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
138 These functions are described in the XSI Curses standard,
139 Issue 4. It specifies that portable applications must not
140 call <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> more than once.
142 Old versions of curses, e.g., BSD 4.4, may have returned a
143 null pointer from <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> when an error is detected,
144 rather than exiting. It is safe but redundant to check
145 the return value of <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> in XSI Curses.
149 <H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
150 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_kernel.3x.html">curs_kernel(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_refresh.3x.html">curs_refresh(3x)</A></STRONG>,
151 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_slk.3x.html">curs_slk(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_util.3x.html">curs_util(3x)</A></STRONG>
155 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">curs_initscr(3x)</A></STRONG>
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