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panel(3X)			  Library calls 		       panel(3X)

NAME
     panel - manage overlapping curses windows

SYNOPSIS
     #include <panel.h>

     PANEL *new_panel(WINDOW *win);

     int bottom_panel(PANEL *pan);
     int top_panel(PANEL *pan);
     int show_panel(PANEL *pan);
     void update_panels(void);
     int hide_panel(PANEL *pan);

     WINDOW *panel_window(const PANEL *pan);
     int replace_panel(PANEL *pan, WINDOW *window);
     int move_panel(PANEL *pan, int starty, int startx);
     int panel_hidden(const PANEL *pan);

     PANEL *panel_above(const PANEL *pan);
     PANEL *panel_below(const PANEL *pan);

     int set_panel_userptr(PANEL *pan, const void *ptr);
     const void *panel_userptr(const PANEL *pan);

     int del_panel(PANEL *pan);

     /* ncurses extensions */
     PANEL *ground_panel(SCREEN *sp);
     PANEL *ceiling_panel(SCREEN *sp);

DESCRIPTION
     Panels  are  curses(3X)  windows  with  the added property of depth.  Panel
     functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure that the proper  por-
     tions  of	each window and the curses stdscr 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 de-
     sired 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_panel
     bottom_panel(pan) puts panel pan at the bottom of all panels.

   ceiling_panel
     ceiling_panel(sp) acts like panel_below(NULL) for the given SCREEN sp.

   del_panel
     del_panel(pan) removes the given panel pan from the stack	and  deallocates
     the PANEL structure (but not its associated window).

   ground_panel
     ground_panel(sp) acts like panel_above(NULL) for the given SCREEN sp.

   hide_panel
     hide_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_panel
     move_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  posi-
     tion  of  the  panel  in  the  stack.   Be  sure  to use this function, not
     mvwin(3X), to move a panel window.

   new_panel
     new_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_above
     panel_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_below
     panel_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_hidden
     panel_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_userptr
     panel_userptr(pan) returns the user pointer for a given panel pan.

   panel_window
     panel_window(pan) returns a pointer to the window of the given panel pan.

   replace_panel
     replace_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  re-
     sized  with  wresize(3X).	 It does not change the position of the panel in
     the stack.

   set_panel_userptr
     set_panel_userptr(pan, ptr) sets the panel's user pointer.

   show_panel
     show_panel(pan) makes a hidden panel visible by placing it on  top  of  the
     panels in the panel stack.  See "PORTABILITY" below.

   top_panel
     top_panel(pan) puts the given visible panel pan on top of all panels in the
     stack.  See "PORTABILITY" below.

   update_panels
     update_panels()  refreshes  the virtual screen to reflect the relations be-
     tween the panels in the stack, but does not call  doupdate(3X)  to  refresh
     the   physical   screen.	 Use  this  function  and  not	wrefresh(3X)  or
     wnoutrefresh(3X).

     update_panels may be called more than once before a call to  doupdate,  but
     doupdate is the function responsible for updating the physical screen.

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(3X), and returns ERR if mvwin returns
     ERR.

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  struc-
     tures  are merely similar.  The programmer is cautioned not to directly use
     PANEL fields.

     The functions show_panel and top_panel are identical  in  this  implementa-
     tion,  and  work equally well with displayed or hidden panels.  In the Sys-
     tem V implementation, show_panel is intended for making a hidden panel vis-
     ible (at the top of the stack) and top_panel is intended for making an  al-
     ready-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.

HISTORY
     A	panel  facility was documented in SVr4.2's Character User Interface Pro-
     gramming document.

     It is not part of X/Open Curses.

     A few implementations exist:

     *	 Systems based on SVr4 source code, such as Solaris,  provide  this  li-
	 brary.

     *	 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.

AUTHORS
     Warren  Tucker  <wht@n4hgf.mt-park.ga.us> originally wrote this implementa-
     tion, primarily to assist in porting u386mon to systems  without  a  native
     panel library.

     Zeyd ben-Halim repackaged it for ncurses.

     Juergen Pfeifer and Thomas E. Dickey revised and improved the library.

SEE ALSO
     curses(3X), curs_variables(3X)

ncurses 6.5			   2024-12-28			       panel(3X)

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