panel - manage overlapping curses windows
Contents
Description
Panels are ncurses(3NCURSES) windows with the added property of depth. Panel functions allow the use of
stacked windows and ensure that the proper portions of each window and the cursesstdscr window are
hidden or displayed when panels are added, moved, modified, or removed. The set of currently visible
panels is the stack of panels. The stdscr window is beneath all panels, and is not considered part of
the stack.
A window is associated with each panel. The panel routines enable you to create, move, hide, and show
panels. You can relocate a panel to any desired position in the stack.
Panel routines are a functional layer added to curses, make only high-level curses calls, and work
anywhere curses does.
Functions
bottom_panelbottom_panel(pan) puts panel pan at the bottom of all panels.
ceiling_panelceiling_panel(sp) acts like panel_below(NULL) for the given SCREENsp.
del_paneldel_panel(pan) removes the given panel pan from the stack and deallocates the PANEL structure (but not
its associated window).
ground_panelground_panel(sp) acts like panel_above(NULL) for the given SCREENsp.
hide_panelhide_panel(pan) removes the given panel pan from the panel stack and thus hides it from view. The PANEL
structure is not lost, merely removed from the stack.
move_panelmove_panel(pan,starty,startx) moves the given panel pan's window so that its upper-left corner is at
starty, startx. It does not change the position of the panel in the stack. Be sure to use this
function, not mvwin(3NCURSES), to move a panel window.
new_panelnew_panel(win) allocates a PANEL structure, associates it with win, places the panel on the top of the
stack (causes it to be displayed above any other panel) and returns a pointer to the new panel.
panel_abovepanel_above(pan) returns a pointer to the panel above pan. If the panel argument is “(PANEL*)0”, it
returns a pointer to the bottom panel in the stack.
panel_belowpanel_below(pan) returns a pointer to the panel just below pan. If the panel argument is “(PANEL*)0”,
it returns a pointer to the top panel in the stack.
panel_hiddenpanel_hidden(pan) returns FALSE if the panel pan is in the panel stack, and TRUE if it is not. If the
panel is a null pointer, it returns ERR.
panel_userptrpanel_userptr(pan) returns the user pointer for a given panel pan.
panel_windowpanel_window(pan) returns a pointer to the window of the given panel pan.
replace_panelreplace_panel(pan,window) replaces the current window of panel pan with window This is useful if, for
example, you want to resize a panel. In ncurses, you can call replace_panel to resize a panel using a
window resized with wresize(3NCURSES). It does not change the position of the panel in the stack.
set_panel_userptrset_panel_userptr(pan,ptr) sets the panel's user pointer.
show_panelshow_panel(pan) makes a hidden panel visible by placing it on top of the panels in the panel stack. See
“PORTABILITY” below.
top_paneltop_panel(pan) puts the given visible panel pan on top of all panels in the stack. See “PORTABILITY”
below.
update_panelsupdate_panels() refreshes the virtual screen to reflect the relations between the panels in the stack,
but does not call doupdate(3NCURSES) to refresh the physical screen. Use this function and not
wrefresh(3NCURSES) or wnoutrefresh(3NCURSES).
update_panels may be called more than once before a call to doupdate, but doupdate is the function
responsible for updating the physical screen.
History
A panel facility was documented in SVr4.2's CharacterUserInterfaceProgramming document.
It is not part of X/Open Curses.
A few implementations exist:
• Systems based on SVr4 source code, such as Solaris, provide this library.
• ncurses (since version 0.6 in 1993) and PDCurses (since version 2.2 in 1995) provide a panel library
whose common ancestor is a public domain implementation by Warren Tucker published in u386mon 2.20
(1990).
According to Tucker, the System V panel library was first released in SVr3.2 (1988), and his
implementation helped with a port to SVr3.1 (1987).
Several developers have improved each of these; they are no longer the same as Tucker's
implementation.
• NetBSD 8 (2018) has a panel library begun by Valery Ushakov in 2015, based on the System V
documentation.
Name
panel - manage overlapping curses windows
Notes
The header file panel.h itself includes the header file curses.h.
Portability
Reasonable care has been taken to ensure compatibility with the native panel facility introduced in
System V; inspection of the SVr4 manual pages suggests the programming interface never changed. The
PANEL data structures are merely similar. The programmer is cautioned not to directly use PANEL fields.
The functions show_panel and top_panel are identical in this implementation, and work equally well with
displayed or hidden panels. In the System V implementation, show_panel is intended for making a hidden
panel visible (at the top of the stack) and top_panel is intended for making an already-visible panel
move to the top of the stack. You are cautioned to use the correct function to ensure compatibility with
System V panel libraries.
Return Value
Each routine that returns a pointer returns NULL if an error occurs. Each routine that returns an int
value returns OK if it executes successfully and ERR if not.
Except as noted, the pan and window parameters must be non-null. If either is null, an error is
returned.
The move_panel function uses mvwin(3NCURSES), and returns ERR if mvwin returns ERR.
See Also
ncurses(3NCURSES), curses_variables(3NCURSES) ncurses 6.5 2024-12-28 panel(3NCURSES)
Synopsis
#include<panel.h>PANEL*new_panel(WINDOW*win);intbottom_panel(PANEL*pan);inttop_panel(PANEL*pan);intshow_panel(PANEL*pan);voidupdate_panels(void);inthide_panel(PANEL*pan);WINDOW*panel_window(constPANEL*pan);intreplace_panel(PANEL*pan,WINDOW*window);intmove_panel(PANEL*pan,intstarty,intstartx);intpanel_hidden(constPANEL*pan);PANEL*panel_above(constPANEL*pan);PANEL*panel_below(constPANEL*pan);intset_panel_userptr(PANEL*pan,constvoid*ptr);constvoid*panel_userptr(constPANEL*pan);intdel_panel(PANEL*pan);/*ncursesextensions*/PANEL*ground_panel(SCREEN*sp);PANEL*ceiling_panel(SCREEN*sp);
