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This is a public domain implementation of Curses for IBM PC's and
compatibles. It was developed on an IBM PC-AT clone using a Monochrome
(Hercules compatible) display adapter. It should run on other adapters as
well, but has not been tested. There is no support for displays with more
than 25 lines, and I am also not sure of the support for CGA displays with
40 characters per line.
The curses functions included are a major subset of that provided on
System V. Specifically, pads are not included, nor are the lower-level
"terminfo" calls.
This source code is placed in the public domain and may be included in any
product in whole or in part. The only restriction on the use of this code
is that I specifically disallow the use of this free code to create a
virtually identical product for sale commercially. (In other words,
please do not delete my name from the source code, put your name in its
place, and then sell this package as if it were your own.)
Permission is specifically granted on the use of these subroutines within
any private, commercial, public domain, shareware, or whatever program.
Files
Included in this distribution are the following files:
curses.c Portable source code for curses entry points.
curses.h Header file required by all programs that access curses.
makefile A makefile to build the necessary .obj, .lib, and .exe files.
readme This file.
t.c A unit test to test the functionality of curses (and to demo
some of its features).
v_msdos.c IBM-PC (MS-DOS?) specific low-level screen and keyboard
functions.
Use
If you have access to Unix documentation, the use of curses is virtually
identical. If you do not have access to this, the best information on
curses is probably "Screen Updating and Cursor Movement Optimization: A
Library Package", by Kenneth Arnold. It is available electronically a
number of places, including the Xenix data library in the TRS-80
Professional Forum on CompuServe.
Porting
The curses routines exist in two modules:
- curses.c All curses entry points.
- v_msdos.c Routines containing machine specific code.
The machine specific entry points (within v_msdos.c) are described below:
ms_init() Perform any initializations that need to be done.
This could include accessing a terminal file,
initializing the "acs_map" array, etc.
ms_refresh() Make the display screen look like the specified window.
ms_end() Perform any necessary cleanup (freeing of allocated
memory, closing files, etc.).
ms_beep() Sound an alarm, and optionally flash the screen.
ms_kbinp() Get a single character from the terminal. Do not echo
the character.
acs_map[] Alternate character set map array. Refer to curses.h
for the mappings of the alternate character set.
These mappings were taken from the curses makefile
from System V/386.
To port the code to another system, you will need to rewrite the v_msdos.c
code for the target machine.
CURSES window structure
The WINDOW structure is used to communicate between the application
program, curses, and the machine specific implementation module. Curses.c
should be the only module modifying any of the information within this
structure. In addition, the application program should only use the
defined subroutines and macros to access the information within the
structure.
For those attempting to implement a machine-specific implementation
module, the following is a description of the fields in the WINDOW
structure:
_cury, _curx Current location of the cursor, relative to the
window (0,0 = top left corner of window).
_maxy, _maxx The size of the window in lines and columns,
respectively.
_begy, _begx The location of the upper left hand corner of this
window on the display (0,0 = top left corner of
display).
_flags Special attributes of this window. The following
flags are defined, although only those preceded by an
asterisk are actually used (the names were chosen for
compatibility with Unix curses):
_SUBWIN Window is a subwindow of another.
_ENDLINE
_FULLWIN
_SCROLLWIN
* _FLUSH Flush input on receipt of input.
_ISPAD Window may be larger than screen.
* _WINCHANGED Window has changed since last refresh.
* _WINMOVED Window has been moved since last
refresh.
_attrs Current default character attributes for window.
_clear Boolean - If true, redraw window from scratch.
_leave Boolean - If true, cursor position is not important.
_scroll Boolean - If true, window may be scrolled.
_use_idl Boolean - If true, need to wait for terminal to
update.
_use_keypad Boolean - If true, return special characters for
keypad characters (eg, KEY_INS).
_use_meta Boolean - If true, use a meta key.
_nodelay Boolean - If true, wgetch() is non-blocking and
returns ERR if no character waiting.
_y Physical description of the current window. An array
of "chtype", whose dimensions are _maxy and _maxx
(eg, chtype _y[maxy][maxx];).
_firstch Not used - First screen updating command.
_lastch Not used - Points to next screen updating command.
_notimeout Boolean - If true, wait for function key string when a
lead-in character (usually ESC) is received.
_need_idl Not used - included for compatibility with Unix
curses.
_tmarg,_bmarg Scrolling region - _tmarg is the first line (from
zero) that scrolls, _bmarg is the last line (from
zero) that scrolls.
The names of these members were chosen to be compatible with System V
curses.
Non-portable enhancements
An enhancement has been added in that the function wprintw() uses a
dynamically allocated buffer. Prior to the first call of wprintw(),
you may set the external variable "curses_prntw_size" to the number of
characters to allocate for wprintw()'s buffer. In a like manner, you may
set the external variable "curses_prntw" to point to an actual buffer.
The wprintw() buffer is an array of chars (not chtypes).
By default, curses uses a buffer size of 512 and dynamically allocates the
buffer on the first call to wprintw().
Enhancements / Bug fixes / Support
Since the target audience for this package is Unix programmers who want to
port their code to DOS (or other operating systems), documenting the
functions is left to the official sources. If you need help using curses,
please do not contact me. Instead, refer to the information in the
section entitled "Use" for where you can find the documentation.
If you need help porting to another environment, drop me a line at one of
the addresses below. If you are successful in you port, I would be
interested in distributing the implementation module(s) with future
releases of curses.
If you send me bug fixes and enhancements, I will add them to later
releases of the code (with the proper credit going to the author or
authors). Please make all enhancements compatible with System V curses.
I will also attempt to alert all known contributors of future releases
of the product.
I can be reached electronically at the following addresses:
CompuServe [72236,3516]
Delphi LARRYG
Bix LAR3RY
uucp lg@bsw.com -or- lg@risk.bsw.com
US Mail 104 Lowell Road / Salem, NH 03079 / USA
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