Re: NCurses APIs available for use

[Thomas Dickey]

On Thu, Apr 25, 2024 at 09:19:09PM +0000, Zaki, Ahmed wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to get a definitive list of APIs available for use from Ncurses. 

API means "application programming interface".

> I looked at the man pages but one thing I found was that many functions are
> exported from the shared library which are not documented.

sure - that's an implementation detail, not part of the "application
programming interface".
 
> I am referring to functions that have the prefix “_nc_” .
> 
> Are those functions intended to be exported by the shared library ?

Some are exported, to be used by the ncurses utilities (tic, infocmp,
tset, tabs, clear).  Since those are part of ncurses, they're not
limited to the "application programming interface".

Some are exported from one module of the library to another.
Again, not part of the "application programming interface".

If using versioned symbols, many of the _nc_ names are hidden -
and the ones which are not, are exported as a detail of ncurses's
implementation.  The trace- and memleaks-manpages mention a few
of these, but they're solely of use to developers who build their
own copy of ncurses, for analyzing problems which may or may not
result in an update to ncurses.  The purpose and parameters to any
of these symbols can change without affecting application developers.

Along those lines, a third of the symbols (900 of 2953) exported by glibc
are likewise not part of its API.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
https://invisible-island.net

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