Manpages - curs_window.3x
Table of Contents
NAME
newwin, delwin, mvwin, subwin, derwin, mvderwin, dupwin, wsyncup, syncok, wcursyncup, wsyncdown - create curses windows
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
WINDOW *newwin( int */nlines/, int ncols,* int */begin_y/, int
begin_x);*
int delwin(WINDOW **/win/);*
int mvwin(WINDOW **/win/, int y, int x);*
WINDOW *subwin(WINDOW **/orig/,* int */nlines/, int ncols,* int
*/begin_y/, int begin_x);*
WINDOW *derwin(WINDOW **/orig/,* int */nlines/, int ncols,* int
*/begin_y/, int begin_x);*
int mvderwin(WINDOW **/win/, int par_y, int par_x);*
WINDOW *dupwin(WINDOW **/win/);*
void wsyncup(WINDOW **/win/);*
int syncok(WINDOW **/win/, bool bf);*
void wcursyncup(WINDOW **/win/);*
void wsyncdown(WINDOW **/win/);*
DESCRIPTION
newwin
Calling newwin creates and returns a pointer to a new window with the given number of lines and columns. The upper left-hand corner of the window is at
line begin/_/y,
column begin/_/x
If either nlines or ncols is zero, they default to
LINES - begin/_/y and
COLS - begin/_/x.
A new full-screen window is created by calling newwin(0,0,0,0).
Regardless of the function used for creating a new window (e.g., newwin, subwin, derwin, newpad), rather than a duplicate (with dupwin), all of the window modes are initialized to the default values. These functions set window modes after a window is created:
idcok, idlok, immedok, keypad, leaveok, nodelay, scrollok, setscrreg, syncok, wbkgdset, wbkgrndset, and wtimeout
delwin
Calling delwin deletes the named window, freeing all memory associated with it (it does not actually erase the window’s screen image). Subwindows must be deleted before the main window can be deleted.
mvwin
Calling mvwin moves the window so that the upper left-hand corner is at position (x, y). If the move would cause the window to be off the screen, it is an error and the window is not moved. Moving subwindows is allowed, but should be avoided.
subwin
Calling subwin creates and returns a pointer to a new window with the given number of lines, nlines, and columns, ncols. The window is at position (begin/_/y, begin/_/x) on the screen. The subwindow shares memory with the window orig, so that changes made to one window will affect both windows. When using this routine, it is necessary to call touchwin or touchline on orig before calling wrefresh on the subwindow.
derwin
Calling derwin is the same as calling subwin, except that begin/_/y and begin/_/x are relative to the origin of the window orig rather than the screen. There is no difference between the subwindows and the derived windows.
Calling mvderwin moves a derived window (or subwindow) inside its parent window. The screen-relative parameters of the window are not changed. This routine is used to display different parts of the parent window at the same physical position on the screen.
dupwin
Calling dupwin creates an exact duplicate of the window win.
wsyncup
Calling wsyncup touches all locations in ancestors of win that are changed in win. If syncok is called with second argument TRUE then wsyncup is called automatically whenever there is a change in the window.
wsyncdown
The wsyncdown routine touches each location in win that has been touched in any of its ancestor windows. This routine is called by wrefresh, so it should almost never be necessary to call it manually.
wcursyncup
The routine wcursyncup updates the current cursor position of all the ancestors of the window to reflect the current cursor position of the window.
RETURN VALUE
Routines that return an integer return the integer ERR upon failure and OK (SVr4 only specifies “an integer value other than ERR”) upon successful completion.
Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
X/Open defines no error conditions. In this implementation
- delwin
- returns an error if the window pointer is null, or if the window is the parent of another window.
- derwin
- returns an error if the parent window pointer is null, or if any of its ordinates or dimensions is negative, or if the resulting window does not fit inside the parent window.
- dupwin
returns an error if the window pointer is null.
This implementation also maintains a list of windows, and checks that the pointer passed to delwin is one that it created, returning an error if it was not..
- mvderwin
- returns an error if the window pointer is null, or if some part of the window would be placed off-screen.
- mvwin
- returns an error if the window pointer is null, or if the window is really a pad, or if some part of the window would be placed off-screen.
- newwin
- will fail if either of its beginning ordinates is negative, or if either the number of lines or columns is negative.
- syncok
- returns an error if the window pointer is null.
- subwin
- returns an error if the parent window pointer is null, or if any of its ordinates or dimensions is negative, or if the resulting window does not fit inside the parent window.
The functions which return a window pointer may also fail if there is insufficient memory for its data structures. Any of these functions will fail if the screen has not been initialized, i.e., with initscr or newterm.
NOTES
If many small changes are made to the window, the wsyncup option could degrade performance.
Note that syncok may be a macro.
BUGS
The subwindow functions (subwin, derwin, mvderwin, wsyncup, wsyncdown, wcursyncup, syncok) are flaky, incompletely implemented, and not well tested.
The System V curses documentation is very unclear about what wsyncup and wsyncdown actually do. It seems to imply that they are only supposed to touch exactly those lines that are affected by ancestor changes. The language here, and the behavior of the curses implementation, is patterned on the XPG4 curses standard. The weaker XPG4 spec may result in slower updates.
PORTABILITY
The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions.
SEE ALSO
*curses*(3X), *curs_refresh*(3X), *curs_touch*(3X), *curs_variables*(3X)