LIBPANEL 1.2 README - last revised Wed Jul 25 01:07:33 EDT 1990

This is a public domain implementation of the S5R3 terminfo
curses panels layer.  It was written primarily to assist in
porting u386mon 2.0 (comp.sources.misc v14i001-4) to systems
lacking panels support.  It meets those needs and may be
useful in other applications.  u386mon 2.10 and beyond use
the package.

FUNCTIONALITY
-------------

Panels are terminfo curses(3) windows with the added feature of depth.
Panel functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure the proper
portions 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.  Stdscr beneath
all panels, and is not considered part of the stack.

A window is associated with every panel.  The panel routines enable
you to create, move, hides, and show panels, as well as position a
panel at an appropriate position in the stack.

Panel routines are a functional layer added to terminfo curses(3),
make only high-level curses calls, and work anywhere terminfo curses
does.

COMPATIBILITY
-------------

Reasonable care has been taken to ensure compatibility with the native
panel facility introducted with S5R3.2.  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 thes
implementation, and work equally well with displayed or hidden panels.
In the native 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 native panel libraries.

USE
---

To make this panels implementation work for you, install
panel.h in /usr/include and use it as follows:

#include <curses.h>
#include <panel.h>

Include -lpanel on the link command line and panel away.

TESTING
-------

A rudimentary test program, PTEST, is supplied.

Comments are appreciated, especially bug fixes.

NO FSF, LPF, FOO or LSD -- just free.

Original Author:
Warren Tucker N4HGF
{gatech,emory}!n4hgf!wht -or- wht@n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US

Packaged for Linux/ncurses by:
Zeyd M. Ben-Halim
zmbenhal@netcom.com

