1panel(3X)                                                            panel(3X)
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4

NAME

6       panel - panel stack extension for curses
7

SYNOPSIS

9       #include <panel.h>
10
11       cc [flags] sourcefiles -lpanel -lncurses
12
13       PANEL *new_panel(WINDOW *win);
14
15       int bottom_panel(PANEL *pan);
16       int top_panel(PANEL *pan);
17       int show_panel(PANEL *pan);
18       void update_panels(void);
19       int hide_panel(PANEL *pan);
20
21       WINDOW *panel_window(const PANEL *pan);
22       int replace_panel(PANEL *pan, WINDOW *window);
23       int move_panel(PANEL *pan, int starty, int startx);
24       int panel_hidden(const PANEL *pan);
25
26       PANEL *panel_above(const PANEL *pan);
27       PANEL *panel_below(const PANEL *pan);
28
29       int set_panel_userptr(PANEL *pan, const void *ptr);
30       const void *panel_userptr(const PANEL *pan);
31
32       int del_panel(PANEL *pan);
33
34       /* ncurses-extensions */
35       PANEL *ground_panel(SCREEN *sp);
36       PANEL *ceiling_panel(SCREEN *sp);
37

DESCRIPTION

39       Panels  are  curses(3X) windows with the added feature of depth.  Panel
40       functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure the  proper  por‐
41       tions  of  each  window and the curses stdscr window are hidden or dis‐
42       played when panels are added, moved, modified or removed.  The  set  of
43       currently  visible panels is the stack of panels.  The stdscr window is
44       beneath all panels, and is not considered part of the stack.
45
46       A window is associated with every panel.  The panel routines enable you
47       to  create, move, hide, and show panels, as well as position a panel at
48       any desired location in the stack.
49
50       Panel routines are a functional layer added to  curses(3X),  make  only
51       high-level curses calls, and work anywhere terminfo curses does.
52

FUNCTIONS

54   bottom_panel
55       bottom_panel(pan) puts panel pan at the bottom of all panels.
56
57   ceiling_panel
58       ceiling_panel(sp) acts like panel_below(NULL), for the given SCREEN sp.
59
60   del_panel
61       del_panel(pan)  removes the given panel pan from the  stack and deallo‐
62       cates the PANEL structure (but not its associated window).
63
64   ground_panel
65       ground_panel(sp) acts like panel_above(NULL), for the given SCREEN sp.
66
67   hide_panel
68       hide_panel(pan) removes the given panel pan from the  panel  stack  and
69       thus  hides  it  from  view.   The  PANEL structure is not lost, merely
70       removed from the stack.
71
72   move_panel
73       move_panel(pan,starty,startx) moves the given  panel  pan's  window  so
74       that  its  upper-left  corner is at starty, startx.  It does not change
75       the position of the panel in the stack.  Be sure to use this  function,
76       not mvwin(3X), to move a panel window.
77
78   new_panel
79       new_panel(win)  allocates   a  PANEL structure, associates it with win,
80       places the panel on the top of the stack (causes  it to  be   displayed
81       above any other panel) and returns a pointer to the new panel.
82
83   panel_above
84       panel_above(pan)  returns  a  pointer  to  the panel above pan.  If the
85       panel argument is (PANEL *)0, it returns a pointer to the bottom  panel
86       in the stack.
87
88   panel_below
89       panel_below(pan) returns a pointer to the panel just below pan.  If the
90       panel argument is (PANEL *)0, it returns a pointer to the top panel  in
91       the stack.
92
93   panel_hidden
94       panel_hidden(pan)  returns TRUE if the panel pan is in the panel stack,
95       FALSE if it is not.  If the panel is a null pointer, return ERR.
96
97   panel_userptr
98       panel_userptr(pan) returns the user pointer for a given panel pan.
99
100   panel_window
101       panel_window(pan) returns a pointer to the window of  the  given  panel
102       pan.
103
104   replace_panel
105       replace_panel(pan,window) replaces the current window of panel pan with
106       window This is useful, for example if you want to resize a  panel.   In
107       ncurses,  you  can  call replace_panel to resize a panel using a window
108       resized with wresize(3X).  It does not change the position of the panel
109       in the stack.
110
111   set_panel_userptr
112       set_panel_userptr(pan,ptr) sets the panel's user pointer.
113
114   show_panel
115       show_panel(pan)  makes  a  hidden panel visible by placing it on top of
116       the panels in the panel stack.  See COMPATIBILITY below.
117
118   top_panel
119       top_panel(pan) puts the given visible panel pan on top of all panels in
120       the stack.  See COMPATIBILITY below.
121
122   update_panels
123       update_panels()  refreshes  the virtual screen to reflect the relations
124       between the panels in the stack, but  does  not  call  doupdate(3X)  to
125       refresh the physical screen.  Use this function and not wrefresh(3X) or
126       wnoutrefresh(3X).
127
128       update_panels may be called more than once before a call  to  doupdate,
129       but  doupdate  is  the  function  responsible for updating the physical
130       screen.
131

DIAGNOSTICS

133       Each routine that returns a pointer returns NULL if  an  error  occurs.
134       Each  routine  that returns an int value returns OK if it executes suc‐
135       cessfully and ERR if not.
136
137       Except as noted, the pan and window parameters must  be  non-null.   If
138       those are null, an error is returned.
139
140       The  move_panel  function  uses  mvwin(3X), and will return an error if
141       mvwin returns an error.
142

COMPATIBILITY

144       Reasonable care has been taken  to   ensure   compatibility  with   the
145       native   panel  facility introduced in System V (inspection of the SVr4
146       manual pages suggests the programming  interface  is  unchanged).   The
147       PANEL  data  structures  are  merely  similar.  The  programmer is cau‐
148       tioned not to directly use PANEL fields.
149
150       The functions show_panel and top_panel are identical in this  implemen‐
151       tation,  and work equally well with displayed or hidden panels.  In the
152       native System V implementation, show_panel is  intended  for  making  a
153       hidden  panel  visible  (at  the  top  of  the  stack) and top_panel is
154       intended for making an already-visible panel move to  the  top  of  the
155       stack.  You are cautioned to use the correct function to ensure compat‐
156       ibility with native panel libraries.
157

NOTE

159       In your library list, libpanel.a should be  before  libncurses.a;  that
160       is, you should say “-lpanel -lncurses”, not the other way around (which
161       would give a link-error with static libraries).
162

PORTABILITY

164       The panel facility was documented in SVr4.2 in Character User Interface
165       Programming (UNIX SVR4.2).
166
167       It is not part of X/Open Curses.
168
169       A few implementations exist:
170
171       ·   Systems  based  on  SVr4  source  code, e.g., Solaris, provide this
172           library.
173
174       ·   ncurses (since version 0.6 in 1993) and PDCurses (since version 2.2
175           in 1995) provide a panel library whose common ancestor was a public
176           domain implementation by Warren Tucker published  in  u386mon  2.20
177           (1990).
178
179           According  to  Tucker, the SystemV panel library was first released
180           in SVr3.2 (1988), and his implementation  helped  with  a  port  to
181           SVr3.1 (1987).
182
183           Several  developers have improved each of these; they are no longer
184           the same as Tucker's implementation.
185
186       ·   NetBSD 8 (2018) has a panel library  begun  by  Valery  Ushakov  in
187           2015.  This is based on the AT&T documentation.
188

FILES

190       panel.h interface for the panels library
191
192       libpanel.a the panels library itself
193

SEE ALSO

195       curses(3X), curs_variables(3X),
196
197       This describes ncurses version 6.2 (patch 20200222).
198

AUTHOR

200       Originally  written by Warren Tucker <wht@n4hgf.mt-park.ga.us>, primar‐
201       ily to assist in porting u386mon to systems  without  a  native  panels
202       library.
203
204       Repackaged for ncurses by Zeyd ben-Halim.
205
206       Juergen Pfeifer and Thomas E. Dickey revised/improved the library.
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209
210                                                                     panel(3X)
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