Category : C++ Source Code
Archive   : CURSESP.ZIP
Filename : CHANGES.TXT

PC Curses - A retouch
=====================

This is some notes about changes to PC curses 1.3. The original
source code is from Bjorn Larsson. It was dated 1987, and this
suggested the software has not been touched for a very long time.

This PC curses is not mine! It is a PD package that I improve for
my own use. There have been substantial changes/improvements which
will make life much easier for a PC programmer who would want his
program to compile under UNIX curses. Be ware though that there
are curses in SysV UNIX and also in BSD. These two are not totally
compatible. Many functions are not available in BSD curses.

- It is updated to ANSI-C compatible and C++ compatible. A header
file is provided for C++. This is done with BorlandC++ . If your
compiler does not work well with it, you have to modify it. It
is fairly straight forward. There is no special linking procedure.

- A colour scheme for text attributes have been built for EGA/VGA
monitor. The documentation is in file colours.txt

- An extra routine wgetatpos(win, y, x) is defined as a macro. This
allow a you to peek at location x, y of window win. It returns
a word of two bytes. To get the character simply AND it witth 0xff

Example:

To get the character code back.

c = wgetatpos(win, y, x) & 0xff;

This macro is handy for users to peek at a point in the current
window. With it, you can save a location on the window, overwrite
it with something else. Then finally put back what was there
before. It is also handy for changing attributes of certain spots
in a window without having to redraw everything.

In paralell with this macro a routine wputatpos(win, y, x, c)
is written to put back what you get from wgetatpos(). This is
for you to restore the character at the position.

Note that c is a 2 bytes integer returned by wgetatpos(win, y, x).
It has both colour attributes and ascii code of the character.

- The two routines mentioned above are supposed to be part of curses.
They are clones of mvwinch() and mvwinsch(). Unfortunately the
two proper routines do appear to be buggy. So I will have to fix
these before everyone can use it.

// End of changes.txt