Re: Problems with overlapping windows

[Thomas Dickey]

On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, Stephan Beal wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 6:18 PM, Jiri Fogl <address@hidden> wrote:
> > Hi, I'd like to ask if there are some circumstances I should be aware of when
> > creating overlapping windows.
>
> Overlapping windows are fundamentally problematic (and painful) in
> curses. Use the PANEL interface instead, as those can be stacked,
> moved, etc. In my experience, the easiest way to set up the screen
> when using overlapping stuff:
>
> a) Create a PANEL with the same size as stdscr. i use this as my "root window".
> b) any "smaller" windows get stacked somewhere above that root. To
> hide a window i can either use the PANEL's hide API or move it to the
> bottom of the stack (under the root panel).
>
> Note that panels cannot be embedded within each other - a panel is a
> top-level component with an associated WINDOW (of the same size as the
> panel) on which it draws. The panel can be subdivided into smaller
> areas by creating (non-overlapping) subwindows of the panel's main
> window element.
>
> It takes some practice, but it's MUCH less painful than working with
> overlapping windows.

The only drawback is that _portable_ curses applications can't rely on
panel being available, since it's an add-on (not present in HPUX or AIX
curses).

ncurses has it, of course - so you should use panels...

--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net