The defined messages are used through calls routines that manipulate the messages. You first need to set the
curses(3) environment up and then tell the message system which window to use for displaying message by calling the function
msg_window().
All variable argument lists in the functions are used as are arguments to
sprintf(3). The messages may have
sprintf(3) conversions in them and the corresponding parameters should match. Messages are identified by name using the notation ‘MENU_name' where “name” is the name in the message source file. (The definitions are accessed by including the generated .h file into a source file wanting to use the message routines.)
The function
msg_string() just returns a pointer to the actual message string. The functions
msg_clear(),
msg_standout() and
msg_standend() respectively clear the message window, set standout mode and clear standout mode.
The functions
msg_display() and
msg_display_add() cause a defined message to be displayed in the message window and does the requested conversions before printing. The difference is that
msg_display() clears the window before displaying the message. These functions fill paragraphs for readability. The
msg_table_add() function behaves like
msg_display_add() but does not fill text.
The remaining functions deal with a prompt facility. A prompt message is either taken from the message directory or from a given string. The message is processed with
sprintf(3) and then displayed. If the parameter
def is non-
NULL and not a string of zero length, a default value is printed in brackets. The user is allowed to type in a response. If the user types just the newline character, the default is returned in the value. The parameter
max_chars is the length of the parameter
val, where the results are stored. The parameters
def and
val may point to the same character array. If the default is chosen, the character array is not changed. The functions
msg_echo() and
msg_noecho() control whether the prompt routine echo or don't echo the input that is typed by the user.
msg_prompt_win() uses the specified curses window instead of the default one.
msg_row() return the current row - i.e.: getcury(msg_win) + getbegy(msg_win).