curs_window(3) UNIX Programmer's Manual curs_window(3)
newwin, delwin, mvwin, subwin, derwin, mvderwin, dupwin,
wsyncup, syncok, wcursyncup, wsyncdown - create curses
windows
#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);
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 win-
dow is created by calling newwin(0,0,0,0).
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.
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.
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.
(This position is relative to the screen, and not to the
window orig.) The window is made in the middle of the win-
dow orig, so that changes made to one window will affect
both windows. The subwindow shares memory with the window
orig. When using this routine, it is necessary to call
touchwin or touchline on orig before calling wrefresh on the
subwindow.
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curs_window(3) UNIX Programmer's Manual curs_window(3)
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) in-
side 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.
Calling dupwin creates an exact duplicate of the window win.
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.
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 neces-
sary to call it manually.
The routine wcursyncup updates the current cursor position
of all the ancestors of the window to reflect the current
cursor position of the window.
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.
This implementation also maintains a list of win-
dows, 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
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curs_window(3) UNIX Programmer's Manual curs_window(3)
if the window is really a pad, or if some part of
the window would be placed off-screen.
syncok
returns an error if the window pointer is null.
If many small changes are made to the window, the wsyncup
option could degrade performance.
Note that syncok may be a macro.
The subwindow functions (subwin, derwin, mvderwin, wsyncup,
wsyncdown, wcursyncup, syncok) are flaky, incompletely im-
plemented, 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.
The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions.
curses(3), curs_refresh(3), curs_touch(3)
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