panel - panel stack extension for curses
#include <panel.h>
cc [flags] sourcefiles -lpanel -lncurses
PANEL *new_panel(WINDOW *win);
int bottom_panel(PANEL *pan);
int top_panel(PANEL *pan);
int show_panel(PANEL *pan);
void update_panels(void);
int hide_panel(PANEL *pan);
WINDOW *panel_window(const PANEL *pan);
int replace_panel(PANEL *pan, WINDOW
*window);
int move_panel(PANEL *pan, int starty, int
startx);
int panel_hidden(const PANEL *pan);
PANEL *panel_above(const PANEL *pan);
PANEL *panel_below(const PANEL *pan);
int set_panel_userptr(PANEL *pan, const void
*ptr);
const void *panel_userptr(const PANEL *pan);
int del_panel(PANEL *pan);
/* ncurses-extensions */
PANEL *ground_panel(SCREEN *sp);
PANEL *ceiling_panel(SCREEN *sp);
Panels are
ncurses(3NCURSES) windows with the added feature of depth.
Panel functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure the proper
portions of each window and the curses
stdscr window are hidden or
displayed when panels are added, moved, modified or removed. The set of
currently visible panels is the stack of panels. The
stdscr window is
beneath all panels, and is not considered part of the stack.
A window is associated with every panel. The panel routines enable you to
create, move, hide, and show panels, as well as position a panel at any
desired location in the stack.
Panel routines are a functional layer added to
ncurses(3NCURSES), make
only high-level curses calls, and work anywhere terminfo curses does.
bottom_panel(pan) puts panel
pan at the bottom of
all panels.
ceiling_panel(sp) acts like
panel_below(NULL), for
the given
SCREEN sp.
del_panel(pan) removes the given panel
pan from the
stack and deallocates the
PANEL structure (but not its associated
window).
ground_panel(sp) acts like
panel_above(NULL), for
the given
SCREEN sp.
hide_panel(pan) removes the given panel
pan from the
panel stack and thus hides it from view. The
PANEL structure is not
lost, merely removed from the stack.
move_panel(pan,starty,startx)
moves the given panel
pan's window so that its upper-left corner is at
starty,
startx. It does not change the position of the panel in
the stack. Be sure to use this function, not
mvwin(3X), to move a panel
window.
new_panel(win) allocates a
PANEL structure,
associates it with
win, places the panel on the top of the stack
(causes it to be displayed above any other panel) and returns a pointer to the
new panel.
panel_above(pan) returns a pointer to the panel above
pan. If the panel argument is
(PANEL *)0, it returns a pointer
to the bottom panel in the stack.
panel_below(pan) returns a pointer to the panel just below
pan. If the panel argument is
(PANEL *)0, it returns a pointer
to the top panel in the stack.
panel_hidden(pan) returns
TRUE if the panel
pan is in the panel stack,
FALSE if it is not. If the panel is a
null pointer, return
ERR.
panel_userptr(pan) returns the user pointer for a given
panel
pan.
panel_window(pan) returns a pointer to the window of the
given panel
pan.
replace_panel(pan,window) replaces the
current window of panel
pan with
window This is useful, for
example if you want to resize a panel. In
ncurses, you can call
replace_panel to resize a panel using a window resized with
wresize(3NCURSES). It does not change the position of the panel in the
stack.
set_panel_userptr(pan,ptr) sets the panel's
user pointer.
show_panel(pan) makes a hidden panel visible by placing it
on top of the panels in the panel stack. See
COMPATIBILITY below.
top_panel(pan) puts the given visible panel
pan on
top of all panels in the stack. See
COMPATIBILITY below.
update_panels() refreshes the
virtual screen to reflect the
relations between the panels in the stack, but does not call
doupdate(3X) to refresh the
physical screen. Use this function
and not
wrefresh(3X) or
wnoutrefresh(3X).
update_panels may be called more than once before a call to
doupdate, but
doupdate is the function responsible for updating
the
physical screen.
Each routine that returns a pointer returns
NULL if an error occurs. Each
routine that returns an int value returns
OK if it executes
successfully and
ERR if not.
Except as noted, the
pan and
window parameters must be non-null.
If those are null, an error is returned.
The
move_panel function uses
mvwin(3X), and will return an error
if
mvwin returns an error.
Reasonable care has been taken to ensure compatibility with the native panel
facility introduced in System V (inspection of the SVr4 manual pages suggests
the programming interface is unchanged). The
PANEL data structures are
merely similar. The programmer is cautioned not to directly use
PANEL
fields.
The functions
show_panel and
top_panel are identical in this
implementation, and work equally well with displayed or hidden panels. In the
native System V implementation,
show_panel is intended for making a
hidden panel visible (at the top of the stack) and
top_panel is
intended for making an already-visible panel move to the top of the stack. You
are cautioned to use the correct function to ensure compatibility with native
panel libraries.
In your library list, libpanel.a should be before libncurses.a; that is, you
should say “-lpanel -lncurses”, not the other way around (which
would give a link-error with static libraries).
The panel facility was documented in SVr4.2 in
Character User Interface
Programming (UNIX SVR4.2).
It is not part of X/Open Curses.
A few implementations exist:
- •
- Systems based on SVr4 source code, e.g., Solaris, provide
this library.
- •
-
ncurses (since version 0.6 in 1993) and
PDCurses (since version 2.2 in 1995) provide a panel library whose
common ancestor was a public domain implementation by Warren Tucker
published in u386mon 2.20 (1990).
- According to Tucker, the SystemV panel library was first
released in SVr3.2 (1988), and his implementation helped with a port to
SVr3.1 (1987).
- Several developers have improved each of these; they are no
longer the same as Tucker's implementation.
- •
- NetBSD 8 (2018) has a panel library begun by Valery Ushakov
in 2015. This is based on the AT&T documentation.
panel.h interface for the panels library
libpanel.a the panels library itself
ncurses(3NCURSES),
curses_variables(3NCURSES),
This describes
ncurses version 6.4 (patch 20221231).
Originally written by Warren Tucker <
[email protected]>, primarily
to assist in porting
u386mon to systems without a native panels
library.
Repackaged for ncurses by Zeyd ben-Halim.
Juergen Pfeifer and Thomas E. Dickey revised/improved the library.