X11 Considerations
==================
PDCurses for X11 uses the System V IPC shared memory facility, along
with sockets, to share data between the curses program and the child
process created to manage the X stuff.
When compiling your application, you need to include the <curses.h> or
<xcurses.h> that comes with PDCurses. You also need to link your code
with libXCurses. You may need to link with the following libraries under
X11R5:
Xaw Xmu Xt X11
or, under X11R6:
Xaw Xmu Xt X11 SM ICE Xext
You can run "xcurses-config --libs" to show the link parameters for your
system. If using dynamic linking, on some systems, "-lXCurses" suffices.
By calling Xinitscr() rather than initscr(), you can pass your program
name and resource overrides to PDCurses. The program name is used as the
title of the X window, and for defining X resources specific to your
program.
Interaction with stdio
----------------------
Be aware that curses programs that expect to have a normal tty
underneath them will be very disappointed! Output directed to stdout
will go to the xterm that invoked the PDCurses application, or to the
console if not invoked directly from an xterm. Similarly, stdin will
expect its input from the same place as stdout.
X Resources
-----------
PDCurses for X11 recognizes the following resources:
lines
cols
normalFont
italicFont
pointer
pointerForeColor
pointerBackColor
cursorColor
textCursor
colorBlack
colorRed
colorGreen
colorYellow
colorBlue
colorMagenta
colorCyan
colorWhite
colorBoldBlack
colorBoldRed
colorBoldGreen
colorBoldYellow
colorBoldBlue
colorBoldMagenta
colorBoldCyan
colorBoldWhite
bitmap
pixmap
translations
shmmin
borderWidth
borderColor
clickPeriod
doubleClickPeriod
composeKey
lines: Specifies the number of lines the "screen" will have.
Directly equates to LINES.
There is no theoretical maximum.
The minimum value must be 2.
Default: 24
cols: Specifies the number of columns the "screen" will have.
Directly equates to COLS.
There is no theoretical maximum.
The minimum value must be 2.
Default: 80
normalFont: The name of a fixed width font.
Default: 7x13
italicFont: The name of a fixed width font to be used for
characters with A_ITALIC attributes. Must have the
same cell size as normalFont.
Default: 7x13 (obviously not an italic font)
pointer: The name of a valid pointer cursor.
Default: xterm
pointerForeColor: The foreground color of the pointer.
Default: black
pointerBackColor: The background color of the pointer.
Default: white
textCursor: The alignment of the text cursor; horizontal or vertical.
Default: horizontal
colorBlack: The color of the COLOR_BLACK attribute.
Default: Black
colorRed: The color of the COLOR_RED attribute.
Default: red3
colorGreen: The color of the COLOR_GREEN attribute.
Default: green3
colorYellow: The color of the COLOR_YELLOW attribute.
Default: yellow3
colorBlue: The color of the COLOR_BLUE attribute.
Default: blue3
colorMagenta: The color of the COLOR_MAGENTA attribute.
Default: magenta3
colorCyan: The color of the COLOR_CYAN attribute.
Default: cyan3
colorWhite: The color of the COLOR_WHITE attribute.
Default: Grey
colorBoldBlack: COLOR_BLACK combined with A_BOLD.
Default: grey40
colorBoldRed: COLOR_RED combined with A_BOLD.
Default: red1
colorBoldGreen: COLOR_GREEN combined with A_BOLD.
Default: green1
colorBoldYellow: COLOR_YELLOW combined with A_BOLD.
Default: yellow1
colorBoldBlue: COLOR_BLUE combined with A_BOLD.
Default: blue1
colorBoldMagenta: COLOR_MAGENTA combined with A_BOLD.
Default: magenta1
colorBoldCyan: COLOR_CYAN combined with A_BOLD.
Default: cyan1
colorBoldWhite: COLOR_WHITE combined with A_BOLD.
Default: White
bitmap: The name of a valid bitmap file of depth 1 (black and white)
used for the application's icon. The file is an X bitmap.
Default: a 32x32 or 64x64 pixmap depending on the
window manager
pixmap: The name of a valid pixmap file of any depth
supported by the window manager (color) for the
application's icon, The file is an X11 pixmap. This
resource is only available if the libXpm package has
been installed (most systems have this by default).
This resource overrides the "bitmap" resource.
Default: none, uses default bitmap above
translations: Translations enable the user to customize the action
that occurs when a key, combination of keys, or a
button is pressed. The translations are similar to
those used by xterm.
Defaults:
<Key>: XCursesKeyPress()
<KeyUp>: XCursesKeyPress()
<BtnDown>: XCursesButton()
<BtnUp>: XCursesButton()
<BtnMotion>: XCursesButton()
The most useful action for KeyPress translations is
string(). The argument to the string() action can be
either a string or a hex representation of a
character; e.g., string(0x1b) will send the ASCII
escape character to the application; string("[11~")
will send [ 1 1 ~ , as separate keystrokes.
shmmin: On most systems, there are two Unix kernel parameters
that determine the allowable size of a shared memory
segment. These parameters are usually something like
SHMMIN and SHMMAX. To use shared memory, a program
must allocate a segment of shared memory that is
between these two values. Usually these values are
like 1 for SHMMIN and some large number for SHMMAX.
Sometimes the Unix kernel is configured to have a
value of SHMMIN that is bigger than the size of one
of the shared memory segments that libXCurses uses.
On these systems an error message like:
Cannot allocate shared memory for SCREEN: Invalid argument
will result. To overcome this problem, this resource
should be set to the kernel value for SHMMIN. This
ensures that a shared memory segment will always be
bigger than the kernel value for SHMMIN (and
hopefully less than SHMMAX!)
Default: 0
borderColor: The color of the border around the screen.
Default: black
borderWidth: The width in pixels of the border around the screen.
Default: 0
clickPeriod: The period (in milliseconds) between a button
press and a button release that determines if a click
of a button has occurred.
Default: 100
doubleClickPeriod: The period (in milliseconds) between two button
press events that determines if a double click
of a button has occurred.
Default: 200
composeKey: The name of the X key that defines the "compose key",
which is used to enter characters in the Latin-1
character set above 0xA0. (See "Compose Keys for
Latin-1" below.) This is used only when PDCurses is
built without XIM support. While in compose mode, the
text cursor will appear as a hollow rectangle.
Default: Multi_key
Using Resources
---------------
All applications have a top-level class name of "XCurses". If Xinitscr()
is used, it sets an application's top-level widget name. (Otherwise the
name defaults to "PDCurses".)
Examples for app-defaults or .Xdefaults:
!
! resources for XCurses class of programs
!
XCurses*lines: 30
XCurses*cols: 80
XCurses*normalFont: 9x13
XCurses*bitmap: /tmp/xcurses.xbm
XCurses*pointer: top_left_arrow
!
! resources for testcurs - XCurses
!
testcurs.colorRed: orange
testcurs.colorBlack: midnightblue
testcurs.lines: 25
*testcurs.Translations: #override \n \
<Key>F12: string(0x1b) string("[11~") \n
!
! resources for THE - XCurses
!
! resources with the * wildcard can be overridden by a parameter passed
! to initscr()
!
the*normalFont: 9x15
the*lines: 40
the*cols: 86
the*pointer: xterm
the*pointerForeColor: white
the*pointerBackColor: black
!
! resources with the . format can not be overridden by a parameter passed
! to Xinitscr()
!
the.bitmap: /home/mark/the/the64.xbm
the.pixmap: /home/mark/the/the64.xpm
Resources may also be passed as parameters to the Xinitscr() function.
Parameters are strings in the form of switches; e.g., to set the color
"red" to "indianred", and the number of lines to 30, the string passed
to Xinitscr would be: "-colorRed indianred -lines 30"
Compose Keys for Latin-1
------------------------
When built without XIM support, PDCurses for X11 provides its own,
limited compose key system for Latin-1 characters. The available
combinations are listed here. For a given character, any of the
combinations shown in the last column may be used. To generate a
character, press the "compose" key followed by one of the pairs of
keystrokes. Where no key is evident, the spacebar is used. Thus, to
generate the NO-BREAK SPACE, press the "compose" key followed by two
hits of the spacebar.
With a typical modern X server, you can get many more compose key
combinations by using XIM instead. Configure PDCurses with --enable-xim
to use XIM support.
This document is encoded in UTF-8.
+----+-----+---+---------------------------------+---------------------------+
|Hex | Dec |Chr| Description ISO 10646-1:1993(E) | Compose key combinations |
+----+-----+---+---------------------------------+---------------------------+
| A0 | 160 | | NO-BREAK SPACE | |
| A1 | 161 | ¡ | INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK | ! !! |
| A2 | 162 | ¢ | CENT SIGN | c| |c c/ c$ C$ C| |
| A3 | 163 | £ | POUND SIGN | L- L$ L= l- l$ l= |-|
| A4 | 164 | ¤ | CURRENCY SIGN | xo ox XO g$ |
| A5 | 165 | ¥ | YEN SIGN | =y y= =Y Y= Y- y$ y-|
| A6 | 166 | ¦ | BROKEN BAR | | || vb VB |^ |
| A7 | 167 | § | SECTION SIGN | SO SS s! S! so |
| A8 | 168 | ¨ | DIAERESIS | " "" |
| A9 | 169 | © | COPYRIGHT SIGN | CO co OC |
| AA | 170 | ª | FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR | sa SA a_ A_ |
| AB | 171 | « | LEFT DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTES | << |
| AC | 172 | ¬ | NOT SIGN | -, no NO |
| AD | 173 | | SOFT HYPHEN | - -- |
| AE | 174 | ® | REGISTERED SIGN | RO ro OR |
| AF | 175 | ¯ | MACRON | -^ _^ __ |
| B0 | 176 | ° | DEGREE SIGN | o 0^ 0* de DE ^0 |
| B1 | 177 | ± | PLUS-MINUS SIGN | -+ +- |
| B2 | 178 | ² | SUPERSCRIPT TWO | 2 2^ s2 ^2 |
| B3 | 179 | ³ | SUPERSCRIPT THREE | 3 3^ s3 ^3 |
| B4 | 180 | ´ | ACUTE ACCENT | ' '' |
| B5 | 181 | µ | MICRO SIGN | u /u /U *m *M |
| B6 | 182 | ¶ | PILCROW SIGN | p! P! pg PG |
| B7 | 183 | · | MIDDLE DOT | . .^ .. |
| B8 | 184 | ¸ | CEDILLA | , ,, |
| B9 | 185 | ¹ | SUPERSCRIPT ONE | 1 1^ s1 ^1 |
| BA | 186 | º | MASCULINE ORDINAL INDICATOR | o_ s0 S0 |
| BB | 187 | » | RIGHT DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTES | >> |
| BC | 188 | ¼ | VULGAR FRACTION ONE QUARTER | 14 |
| BD | 189 | ½ | VULGAR FRACTION ONE HALF | 12 |
| BE | 190 | ¾ | VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS | 34 |
| BF | 191 | ¿ | INVERTED QUESTION MARK | ? ?? |
| C0 | 192 | À | CAPITAL A WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `A A` |
| C1 | 193 | Á | CAPITAL A WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'A A' |
| C2 | 194 | Â | CAPITAL A WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT| ^A A^ A> |
| C3 | 195 | Ã | CAPITAL A WITH TILDE | ~A A~ A- |
| C4 | 196 | Ä | CAPITAL A WITH DIAERESIS | "A A" |
| C5 | 197 | Å | CAPITAL A WITH RING ABOVE | oA Ao A* OA *A |
| C6 | 198 | Æ | CAPITAL LIGATURE AE | AE |
| C7 | 199 | Ç | CAPITAL C WITH CEDILLA | ,C C, |
| C8 | 200 | È | CAPITAL E WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `E E` |
| C9 | 201 | É | CAPITAL E WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'E E' |
| CA | 202 | Ê | CAPITAL E WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT| ^E E^ E> |
| CB | 203 | Ë | CAPITAL E WITH DIAERESIS | "E E" |
| CC | 204 | Ì | CAPITAL I WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `I I` |
| CD | 205 | Í | CAPITAL I WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'I I' |
| CE | 206 | Î | CAPITAL I WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT| ^I I^ I> |
| CF | 207 | Ï | CAPITAL I WITH DIAERESIS | "I I" |
| D0 | 208 | Ð | CAPITAL ETH | D- |
| D1 | 209 | Ñ | CAPITAL N WITH TILDE | ~N N~ N- |
| D2 | 210 | Ò | CAPITAL O WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `O O` |
| D3 | 211 | Ó | CAPITAL O WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'O O' |
| D4 | 212 | Ô | CAPITAL O WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT| ^O O^ O> |
| D5 | 213 | Õ | CAPITAL O WITH TILDE | ~O O~ O- |
| D6 | 214 | Ö | CAPITAL O WITH DIAERESIS | "O O" |
| D7 | 215 | × | MULTIPLICATION SIGN | x xx XX mu MU |
| D8 | 216 | Ø | CAPITAL O WITH STROKE | /O O/ |
| D9 | 217 | Ù | CAPITAL U WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `U U` |
| DA | 218 | Ú | CAPITAL U WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'U U' |
| DB | 219 | Û | CAPITAL U WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT| ^U U^ U> |
| DC | 220 | Ü | CAPITAL U WITH DIAERESIS | "U U" |
| DD | 221 | Ý | CAPITAL Y WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'Y Y' |
| DE | 222 | Þ | CAPITAL THORN | P TH |P |
| DF | 223 | ß | SMALL SHARP S | ss |
| E0 | 224 | à | SMALL A WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `a a` |
| E1 | 225 | á | SMALL A WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'a a' |
| E2 | 226 | â | SMALL A WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT | ^a a^ a> |
| E3 | 227 | ã | SMALL A WITH TILDE | ~a a~ a- |
| E4 | 228 | ä | SMALL A WITH DIAERESIS | "a a" |
| E5 | 229 | å | SMALL A WITH RING ABOVE | oa ao Oa a* *a |
| E6 | 230 | æ | SMALL LIGATURE AE | ae |
| E7 | 231 | ç | SMALL C WITH CEDILLA | ,c c, |
| E8 | 232 | è | SMALL E WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `e e` |
| E9 | 233 | é | SMALL E WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'e e' |
| EA | 234 | ê | SMALL E WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT | ^e e^ e> |
| EB | 235 | ë | SMALL E WITH DIAERESIS | "e e" |
| EC | 236 | ì | SMALL I WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `i i` |
| ED | 237 | í | SMALL I WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'i i' |
| EE | 238 | î | SMALL I WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT | ^i i^ i> |
| EF | 239 | ï | SMALL I WITH DIAERESIS | "i i" |
| F0 | 240 | ð | SMALL ETH | d- |
| F1 | 241 | ñ | SMALL N WITH TILDE | ~n n~ n- |
| F2 | 242 | ò | SMALL O WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `o o` |
| F3 | 243 | ó | SMALL O WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'o o' |
| F4 | 244 | ô | SMALL O WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT | ^o o^ o> |
| F5 | 245 | õ | SMALL O WITH TILDE | ~o o~ o- |
| F6 | 246 | ö | SMALL O WITH DIAERESIS | "o o" |
| F7 | 247 | ÷ | DIVISION SIGN | -: :- |
| F8 | 248 | ø | SMALL O WITH OBLIQUE BAR | /o o/ |
| F9 | 249 | ù | SMALL U WITH GRAVE ACCENT | `u u` |
| FA | 250 | ú | SMALL U WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'u u' |
| FB | 251 | û | SMALL U WITH CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT | ^u u^ u> |
| FC | 252 | ü | SMALL U WITH DIAERESIS | "u u" |
| FD | 253 | ý | SMALL Y WITH ACUTE ACCENT | 'y y' |
| FE | 254 | þ | SMALL THORN | p th |p |
| FF | 255 | ÿ | SMALL Y WITH DIAERESIS | "y y" |
+----+-----+---+---------------------------------+---------------------------+
Deprecated
----------
XCursesProgramName is no longer used. To set the program name, you must
use Xinitscr(), or PDC_set_title() to set just the window title.
The XCursesExit() function is now called automatically via atexit().
(Multiple calls to it are OK, so you don't need to remove it if you've
already added it for previous versions of PDCurses.)
XCURSES is no longer defined automatically, but need not be defined,
unless you want the X11-specific prototypes. (Normal curses programs
won't need it.)
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