NAME
curses —
screen functions with
“optimal” cursor motion
LIBRARY
Curses Library (libcurses, -lcurses)
SYNOPSIS
cc |
[flags]
files -lcurses
[libraries] |
DESCRIPTION
These routines give the user a method of updating screens with reasonable
optimization. They keep an image of the current screen, and the user sets up
an image of a new one. Then the
refresh() tells the routines
to make the current screen look like the new one. In order to initialize the
routines, the routine
initscr() must be called before any of
the other routines that deal with windows and screens are used. The routine
endwin() should be called before exiting. The routine
start_color() must be called before any of the other
routines that deal with color are used.
FUNCTIONS
ENVIRONMENT
-
-
COLUMNS
- The number of columns in the terminal if set. This is
usually automatically configured by querying the kernel.
-
-
CURSES_TRACE_MASK
- An integer mask that enables specific debugging traces.
Enabled only in the debug build of curses.
-
-
CURSES_TRACE_FILE
- A file where to output debugging information. Enabled only
in the debug build of curses.
-
-
ESCDELAY
- The maximum delay in milliseconds between characters in
multi-character keystrokes (such are arrow keys) where the adjacent
characters are considered part of the same multi-character sequence. The
default is 300 milliseconds.
-
-
LINES
- The number of lines in the terminal if set. is usually
automatically configured by querying the kernel.
-
-
TABSIZE
- The number of spaces making up a tab. The default is 8 if
not specified by the terminal description.
-
-
TERM
- The terminal type of the current terminal.
SEE ALSO
ioctl(2),
getenv(3),
tty(4),
terminfo(5)
Ken Arnold, Screen
Updating and Cursor Movement Optimization: A Library Package.
STANDARDS
The
NetBSD Curses library complies with the X/Open
Curses specification, part of the Single Unix Specification.
HISTORY
The Curses package appeared in
4.0BSD.
AUTHORS
Ken Arnold
Julian Coleman
Brett Lymn
Roy Marples