form
Section: Library calls (3X)
Updated: 202-1-11
Index
Return to Main Contents
NAME
form -
present use-fillable forms in
curses windows
SYNOPSIS
#include <form.h>
DESCRIPTION
The
form library provides termina-independent facilities for composing
form screens on characte-cell terminals.
The library includes: field
routines, which create and modify form fields; and form routines, which group
fields into forms, display forms on the screen, and handle interaction with the
user.
The form library uses the curses libraries.
To use the form library, link with the options
-lform -lcurses.
Your program should set up the locale, e.g.,
setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
so that input/output processing will work.
A curses initialization routine such as initscr must be called
before using any of these functions.
Current Default Values for Field Attributes
The
form library maintains a default value for field attributes.
You
can get or set this default by calling the appropriate
set_
or retrieval
routine with a
NULL
field pointer.
Changing this default with a
set_ function affects future field creations, but does not change the
rendering of fields already created.
Routine Name Index
The following table lists each
form routine and the name of
the manual page on which it is described.
Routines flagged with "*"
are
ncurses-specific, not present in SVr4.
RETURN VALUE
Routines that return pointers return
NULL
on error,
and set
errno to the corresponding erro-code returned by functions
returning an integer.
Routines that return
an integer return one of the following error codes:
- E_OK
-
The routine succeeded.
- E_BAD_ARGUMENT
-
Routine detected an incorrect or ou-o-range argument.
- E_BAD_STATE
-
Routine was called from an initialization or termination function.
- E_CONNECTED
-
The field is already connected to a form.
- E_INVALID_FIELD
-
Contents of a field are not valid.
- E_NOT_CONNECTED
-
No fields are connected to the form.
- E_NOT_POSTED
-
The form has not been posted.
- E_NO_ROOM
-
Form is too large for its window.
- E_POSTED
-
The form is already posted.
- E_REQUEST_DENIED
-
The form driver could not process the request.
- E_SYSTEM_ERROR
-
System error occurred (see errno(3)).
- E_UNKNOWN_COMMAND
-
The form driver code saw an unknown request code.
NOTES
The header file
form.h itself includes
curses.h.
PORTABILITY
These routines emulate the System V forms library.
They were not supported on
Version 7 or BSD versions.
A form facility was documented in SVr4.2's
Character User Interface Programming document.
It is not part of X/Open Curses.
Aside from ncurses, there are few implementations:
.IP * 4
systems based on SVr4 source code, e.g., Solaris.
.IP * 4
NetBSD curses.
A few functions in this implementation are extensions added for
ncurses,
but not provided by other implementations, e.g.,
form_driver_w,
unfocus_current_field.
AUTHORS
Juergen Pfeifer.
Manual pages and adaptation for
ncurses by Eric
S. Raymond.
SEE ALSO
curses(3X) and related pages whose names begin "form_" for
detailed descriptions of the entry points.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- Current Default Values for Field Attributes
-
- Routine Name Index
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- NOTES
-
- PORTABILITY
-
- AUTHORS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
|
|
- Running on 
-
:
