Cdk - Curses Development Kit

cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lcdk [ library ... ]

#include <cdk.h>

Cdk provides functions to use a large number of pre-defined curses widgets. To use the Cdk widgets the header file cdk.h must be included in the source.

The widgets available from Cdk are listed below.

Widget_Type                 Manual_Page_Name
Alphalist                   cdk_alphalist (3)
Calendar                    cdk_calendar (3)
Dialog                      cdk_dialog (3)
Entry Field                 cdk_entry (3)
File Viewer                 cdk_viewer (3)
Graph                       cdk_graph (3)
Histogram                   cdk_histogram (3)
Item List                   cdk_itemlist (3)
Label                       cdk_label (3)
Marquee                     cdk_marquee (3)
Matrix                      cdk_matrix (3)
Multiple Line Entry Field   cdk_mentry (3)
Numeric Scale               cdk_scale (3)
Numeric Slider              cdk_slider (3)
Pulldown Menu               cdk_menu (3)
Radio List                  cdk_radio (3)
Scrolling List              cdk_scroll (3)
Scrolling Selection List    cdk_selection (3)
Scrolling Window            cdk_swindow (3)
Numeric Slider              cdk_slider (3)
Template                    cdk_template (3)

The rest of the manual pages are Manual_Page_Name Description cdk_binding (3) Outlines how to create user definable key bindings. cdk_display (3) Shows how to add special display attributes, colors, and justification into a widget. cdk_draw (3) Outlines the basic drawing capabilities of Cdk. cdk_screen (3) Demonstrates the use of screens within Cdk. cdk_misc (3) Outlines miscellaneous functions provided with the Cdk library. cdk_process (3) Demonstrates the use of the pre and post process function class.

Cdk is a library of functions which allow a programmer to quickly create a full screen interactive program with ease. The Cdk widgets support the following features: \(bu Ncurses library. 5 Instead of using the standard curses library, Cdk can take advantage of the colors that Ncurses provides. To learn how to take advantage of Cdk's color capabilities, read the cdk_display manual page. \(bu Key Bindings. 5 Individual keys can be overridden with a call-back. The call-back is set up using the bindCDKObject function. To learn more about this read the cdk_binding manual page. \(bu Pre and Post Processing. 5 Certain widgets allow the user to trap a character before and after the character has been applied to the widget. This allows programmers to 'filter' character input. To learn more about this read the cdk_process manual page. \(bu Self Test Widgets. 5 With the use of the inject function class and the activate function, programmers can have the widgets test themselves. This allows the programmer to perform automated tests on a final program. \(bu Special Display Formats 5 There are special character format commands that can be inserted into any string in Cdk and the contents will get mapped to a chtype (see the curses manual page) with character attributes. This allows the programmer to insert format types on each character if they wish. \(bu The Ability To Build Predefined Screens 5 Widgets can be associated to any given screen. If there is more than one screen defined, then Cdk has the ability to "flip" from one screen to another with ease. See the cdk_screen manual page for more details.

All of the widgets have a member of the structure called exitType. This member states how the widget exited. There are three values in which to check for, they are as follows:

Value Meaning vNORMAL This means the widget exited normally. This value is set when the widget is given the characters TAB or RETURN. vEARLY_EXIT This means the widget exited early. This value is set when characters are injected into the widget via the injectCDKXXX function and the character injected does not exit the widget. (ie: TAB or RETURN) vESCAPE_HIT This value states the user hit ESCAPE to leave the widget. vNEVER_ACTIVATED This is the initial state of the value. This means that the widget has not been activated.

cdk(3), cdk_binding(3), cdk_display(3), cdk_screen(3)

The header file <cdk.h> automatically includes the header files <curses.h>, <stdlib.h>, <string.h>, <ctype.h>, <unistd.h>, <dirent.h>, <time.h>, <errno.h>, <pwd.h>, <grp.h>, <sys/stat.h>, and <sys/types.h>. The <curses.h> header file includes <stdio.h> and <unctrl.h>.

If you have Ncurses installed on your machine add -DNCURSES to the compile line to include the Ncurses header files instead.