form

Section: Miscellaneous Library Functions (3X)
Updated:
Page Index

NAME

form - curses extension for programming forms

SYNOPSIS

#include <form.h>

DESCRIPTION

The form library provides terminal-independent facilities for composing form screens on character-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.

curses Routine Name	Manual Page Name

current_field	form_page(3X)
data_ahead	form_data(3X)
data_behind	form_data(3X)
dup_field	form_field_new(3X)
dynamic_field_info	form_field_info(3X)
field_arg	form_field_validation(3X)
field_back	form_field_attributes(3X)
field_buffer	form_field_buffer(3X)
field_count	form_field(3X)
field_fore	form_field_attributes(3X)
field_index	form_page(3X)
field_info	form_field_info(3X)
field_init	form_hook(3X)
field_just	form_field_just(3X)
field_opts	form_field_opts(3X)
field_opts_off	form_field_opts(3X)
field_opts_on	form_field_opts(3X)
field_pad	form_field_attributes(3X)
field_status	form_field_buffer(3X)
field_term	form_hook(3X)
field_type	form_field_validation(3X)
field_userptr	form_field_userptr(3X)
form_driver	form_driver(3X)
form_driver_w	form_driver(3X)*
form_fields	form_field(3X)
form_init	form_hook(3X)
form_opts	form_opts(3X)
form_opts_off	form_opts(3X)
form_opts_on	form_opts(3X)
form_page	form_page(3X)
form_request_by_name	form_requestname(3X)
form_request_name	form_requestname(3X)
form_sub	form_win(3X)
form_term	form_hook(3X)
form_userptr	form_userptr(3X)
form_win	form_win(3X)
free_field	form_field_new(3X)
free_fieldtype	form_fieldtype(3X)
free_form	form_new(3X)
link_field	form_field_new(3X)
link_fieldtype	form_fieldtype(3X)
move_field	form_field(3X)
new_field	form_field_new(3X)
new_fieldtype	form_fieldtype(3X)
new_form	form_new(3X)
new_page	form_new_page(3X)
pos_form_cursor	form_cursor(3X)
post_form	form_post(3X)
scale_form	form_win(3X)
set_current_field	form_page(3X)
set_field_back	form_field_attributes(3X)
set_field_buffer	form_field_buffer(3X)
set_field_fore	form_field_attributes(3X)
set_field_init	form_hook(3X)
set_field_just	form_field_just(3X)
set_field_opts	form_field_opts(3X)
set_field_pad	form_field_attributes(3X)
set_field_status	form_field_buffer(3X)
set_field_term	form_hook(3X)
set_field_type	form_field_validation(3X)
set_field_userptr	form_field_userptr(3X)
set_fieldtype_arg	form_fieldtype(3X)
set_fieldtype_choice	form_fieldtype(3X)
set_form_fields	form_field(3X)
set_form_init	form_hook(3X)
set_form_opts	form_field_opts(3X)
set_form_page	form_page(3X)
set_form_sub	form_win(3X)
set_form_term	form_hook(3X)
set_form_userptr	form_userptr(3X)
set_form_win	form_win(3X)
set_max_field	form_field_buffer(3X)
set_new_page	form_new_page(3X)
unfocus_current_field	form_page(3X)
unpost_form	form_post(3X)

RETURN VALUE

Routines that return pointers return NULL on error, and set errno to the corresponding error-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 out-of-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> automatically includes the header files <curses.h> and <eti.h>.

In your library list, libform.a should be before libncurses.a; that is, you want to say ``-lform -lncurses'', not the other way around (which would give you a link error when using static libraries).

PORTABILITY

These routines emulate the System V forms library. They were not supported on Version 7 or BSD versions.

The menu facility was documented in SVr4.2 in Character User Interface Programming (UNIX SVR4.2).

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.