man/curs_printw.3x

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.\" $Id: curs_printw.3x,v 1.53 2024/04/20 19:18:18 tom Exp $
.TH curs_printw 3X 2024-04-20 "ncurses @NCURSES_MAJOR@.@NCURSES_MINOR@" "Library calls"
.ie \n(.g \{\
.ds `` \(lq
.ds '' \(rq
.\}
.el \{\
.ie t .ds `` ``
.el   .ds `` ""
.ie t .ds '' ''
.el   .ds '' ""
.\}
.
.de bP
.ie n  .IP \(bu 4
.el    .IP \(bu 2
..
.SH NAME
\fB\%printw\fP,
\fB\%wprintw\fP,
\fB\%mvprintw\fP,
\fB\%mvwprintw\fP,
\fB\%vwprintw\fP,
\fB\%vw_printw\fP \-
write formatted output to a \fIcurses\fR window
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fB#include <curses.h>
.PP
\fBint printw(const char *\fIfmt\fP, ...);
\fBint wprintw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fP, const char *\fIfmt\fP, ...);
\fBint mvprintw(int \fIy\fP, int \fIx\fP, const char *\fIfmt\fP, ...);
\fBint mvwprintw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fP, int \fIy\fP, int \fIx\fP, const char *\fIfmt\fP, ...);
.PP
\fBint vw_printw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fP, const char *\fIfmt\fP, va_list \fIvarglist\fP);
.PP
\fI/* obsolete */\fP
\fBint vwprintw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fP, const char *\fIfmt\fP, va_list \fIvarglist\fP);
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fB\%printw\fP,
\fB\%wprintw\fP,
\fB\%mvprintw\fP,
and
\fB\%mvwprintw\fP
are analogous to \fI\%printf\fP(3).
In effect,
the string that would be output by \fI\%printf\fP(3) is instead output
as though \fB\%waddstr\fP(3X) were used with
.I win
(or
.BR \%stdscr )
as its first argument.
.PP
\fB\%vwprintw\fP
and
\fB\%vw_printw\fP are analogous to \fI\%vprintf\fP(3),
and perform a \fB\%wprintw\fP using a variable argument list.
The third argument is a \fI\%va_list\fP,
a pointer to a list of arguments,
as defined in \fI\%stdarg.h\fP.
.SH RETURN VALUE
These functions return
.B ERR
upon failure and
.B OK
upon success.
.PP
In
.IR \%ncurses ,
failure occurs if the library cannot allocate enough memory for the
buffer into which the output is formatted,
or if the window pointer
.I win
is null.
.PP
Functions prefixed with \*(``mv\*('' first perform cursor movement and
fail if the position
.RI ( y ,
.IR x )
is outside the window boundaries.
.SH NOTES
No wide character counterpart functions are defined by the
\*(``wide\*(''
.I \%ncurses
configuration nor by any standard.
To format and write a wide-character string to a
.I curses
window,
consider using \fI\%swprintf\fP(3) and \fB\%waddwstr\fP(3X) or similar.
.SH PORTABILITY
X/Open Curses,
Issue 4 describes these functions.
It specifies no error conditions for them.
.PP
.I \%ncurses
defines \fB\%vw_printw\fP and \fB\%vwprintw\fP identically to support
legacy applications.
However,
the latter is obsolete.
.bP
X/Open Curses,
Issue 4 Version 2 (1996),
marked \fB\%vwprintw\fP as requiring \fI\%varargs.h\fP and
\*(``TO BE WITHDRAWN\*('',
and specified \fB\%vw_printw\fP using the \fI\%stdarg.h\fP interface.
.bP
X/Open Curses, Issue 5, Draft 2
(December 2007) marked \fBvwprintw\fP (along with
\fBvwscanw\fP and the \fItermcap\fP interface) as withdrawn.
After incorporating review comments,
this became
X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009).
.bP
.I \%ncurses
provides \fB\%vwprintw\fP,
but marks it as deprecated.
.SH HISTORY
While \fB\%printw\fP was implemented in 4BSD
(November 1980),
.\" https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4BSD/usr/src/lib/\
.\"   libcurses/printw.c
it was unused until 4.2BSD
(August 1983),
which employed it for games.
That early version of
.I curses
preceded the ANSI C standard of 1989.
It did not use \fI\%varargs.h\fP,
though that had been available since Seventh Edition Unix (1979).
.\" https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V7/usr/include/\
.\"  varargs.h
In 1991
(a couple of years after SVr4 was generally available,
and after the C standard was published),
other developers updated the library,
using \fI\%stdarg.h\fP internally in 4.4BSD
.IR curses .
Even with this improvement,
BSD
.I curses
did not use function prototypes
(nor even declare functions)
in \fI\%curses.h\fP until 1992.
.PP
SVr2 (1984) documented \fB\%printw\fP and \fB\%wprintw\fP tersely as
\*(``printf on \fB\%stdscr\fP\*('' and
\*(``printf on \fIwin\fP\*('',
respectively.
.PP
SVr3 (1987) added \fB\%mvprintw\fP and \fB\%mvwprintw\fP,
with a three-line summary asserting that they were analogous to
\fI\%printf\fP(3),
explaining that the string that \fI\%printf\fP(3) would write to the
standard output stream would instead be output using \fB\%waddstr\fP to
the given window.
SVr3 also implemented \fB\%vwprintw\fP,
describing its third parameter as a \fI\%va_list\fP,
defined in \fI\%varargs.h\fP,
and referred the reader to the manual pages for \fI\%varargs\fP and
\fI\%vprintf\fP for detailed descriptions.
.PP
SVr4 (1989) introduced no new variations of \fI\%printw\fP,
but provided for using either \fI\%varargs.h\fP or \fI\%stdarg.h\fP to
define the \fI\%va_list\fP type.
.\" either header declares "va_list", but only one can be used
.PP
X/Open Curses, Issue 4 (1995),
defined \fB\%vw_printw\fP to replace \fB\%vwprintw\fP,
stating that its \fI\%va_list\fP type is defined in \fI\%stdarg.h\fP.
.SH SEE ALSO
\fB\%curses\fP(3X),
\fB\%curs_addstr\fP(3X),
\fB\%curs_scanw\fP(3X),
\fB\%printf\fP(3),
\fB\%vprintf\fP(3)