form_cursor(3X)

📦
version 6.6_p20260516 · 6 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, fedora 44

💖 form_cursor(3X) — Library calls 💖

okay bestie, pull up a chair 🪑 because this is a lil page from the ncurses manual, and it's literally all about putting a cursor back where it belongs. it's short. it's sweet. it's giving "small but mighty" energy. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

pos_form_cursor — position a form window cursor 🎯

like. the whole job. right there in the name. iconic.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <form.h>

int pos_form_cursor(FORM *form);

that's it. that's the whole vibe. one include, one function call, one FORM * pointer. chef's kiss 👑

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so pos_form_cursor does one very specific little thing and it does it well: it restores the cursor to the position required for the forms driver to continue processing requests. 💅

and why would you even need that, you ask? great question, bestie. because sometimes you're out here calling curses routines to do some screen-painting in response to a form operation — and once you've done all that decorating 🎨, the cursor has wandered off to god knows where. this function is the "babe come back, the driver needs you at your post" of the forms library. fr fr.

🫶 RETURN VALUE 🫶

this routine returns one of the following, and you should absolutely check which one you got:

  • E_OK — the routine succeeded. slay!! 🎉 everything worked, go take a lil nap.
  • E_BAD_ARGUMENT — routine detected an incorrect or out-of-range argument. 😭 something you passed in was simply not it.
  • E_NOT_POSTED — the form has not been posted. you skipped a step, bestie. the form isn't out there yet.
  • E_SYSTEM_ERROR — system error occurred (see errno(3)). 💀 not your fault, the system is just having a day.

🌈 PORTABILITY 🌈

these routines emulate the System V forms library. they were not supported on Version 7 or BSD versions. so if you're time-traveling back to an old-school system expecting this to work… it's not gonna. periodt. 🕰️

💜 AUTHORS 💜

  • Juergen Pfeifer.
  • Manual pages and adaptation for new curses by Eric S. Raymond.

absolute legends, both of them. we love a credited icon 👑✨

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

  • curses(3X)
  • form(3X)

go read those too, bestie, they're part of the same lil universe 🪐

lowkey reminder: this page lives in the ncurses world, so if you're doing anything with forms at all, you're in the right place 🫶

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this manual page came to you from ncurses 6.6, dated 2024-03-16, and that's the source/version + date sign-off, so you know exactly which flavor of the docs you just read. mwah 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from