form

Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (3FORM)
Updated:
Index Return to Main Contents

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	page(3FORM)
data_ahead	data(3FORM)
data_behind	data(3FORM)
dup_field	field_new(3FORM)
dynamic_field_info	field_info(3FORM)
field_arg	field_validation(3FORM)
field_back	field_attributes(3FORM)
field_buffer	field_buffer(3FORM)
field_count	field(3FORM)
field_fore	field_attributes(3FORM)
field_index	page(3FORM)
field_info	field_info(3FORM)
field_init	hook(3FORM)
field_just	field_just(3FORM)
field_opts	field_opts(3FORM)
field_opts_off	field_opts(3FORM)
field_opts_on	field_opts(3FORM)
field_pad	field_attributes(3FORM)
field_status	field_buffer(3FORM)
field_term	hook(3FORM)
field_type	field_validation(3FORM)
field_userptr	field_userptr(3FORM)
form_driver	driver(3FORM)
form_fields	field(3FORM)
form_init	hook(3FORM)
form_opts	opts(3FORM)
form_opts_off	opts(3FORM)
form_opts_on	opts(3FORM)
form_page	page(3FORM)
form_request_by_name	requestname(3FORM)
form_request_name	requestname(3FORM)
form_sub	win(3FORM)
form_term	hook(3FORM)
form_userptr	userptr(3FORM)
form_win	win(3FORM)
free_field	field_new(3FORM)
free_fieldtype	fieldtype(3FORM)
free_form	new(3FORM)
link_field	field_new(3FORM)
link_fieldtype	fieldtype(3FORM)
move_field	field(3FORM)
new_field	field_new(3FORM)
new_fieldtype	fieldtype(3FORM)
new_form	new(3FORM)
new_page	new_page(3FORM)
pos_form_cursor	cursor(3FORM)
post_form	post(3FORM)
scale_form	win(3FORM)
set_current_field	page(3FORM)
set_field_back	field_attributes(3FORM)
set_field_buffer	field_buffer(3FORM)
set_field_fore	field_attributes(3FORM)
set_field_init	hook(3FORM)
set_field_just	field_just(3FORM)
set_field_opts	field_opts(3FORM)
set_field_pad	field_attributes(3FORM)
set_field_status	field_buffer(3FORM)
set_field_term	hook(3FORM)
set_field_type	field_validation(3FORM)
set_field_userptr	field_userptr(3FORM)
set_fieldtype_arg	fieldtype(3FORM)
set_fieldtype_choice	fieldtype(3FORM)
set_form_fields	field(3FORM)
set_form_init	hook(3FORM)
set_form_opts	field_opts(3FORM)
set_form_page	page(3FORM)
set_form_sub	win(3FORM)
set_form_term	hook(3FORM)
set_form_userptr	userptr(3FORM)
set_form_win	win(3FORM)
set_max_field	field_buffer(3FORM)
set_new_page	new_page(3FORM)
unpost_form	post(3FORM)

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).
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 using most linkers).

PORTABILITY

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

AUTHORS

Juergen Pfeifer. Manual pages and adaptation for ncurses by Eric S. Raymond.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Current Default Values for Field Attributes
Routine Name Index

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 19:49:21 GMT, April 27, 2011