Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 18:34:04 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC <softweyr@xmission.com> To: stefan.veith@mail.online-club.de (Stefan Veith) Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Documentation for header files? Message-ID: <199708230034.SAA22909@xmission.xmission.com> In-Reply-To: <199708221210.OAA23583@rpops002.rp-online.de> from "Stefan Veith" at Aug 22, 97 02:12:22 pm
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> I am quite new to FreeBSD (and Unix in general) and I want to continue C (++
> ) -programming in the BSD environment. That is why I have this question: Is
> there any documentation for the header files because the man pages do not
> say anything about these files and the files themselves are only poor
> commented.
I don't really understand what documentation you want on header files;
header files simply declare typenames, data structures, and function
prototypes for the various library functions and system calls.
In general, header files that are needed to perform a function will be
found in the "SYNOPSIS" section of the man page for the function.
> And, in addition to that, I would like to know with the help of which header
> file I can erase the screen, display boxes or coloured text (my Zortech
> Compiler for DOS used disp.h).
You can't do that with any header file. You can, however, do screen
formatting using the "curses" library. Try the command "man 3 erase".
I'd recommend a good book or two on UNIX programming to start with. A
good start would be "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by
W. Richard Stevens, known around here as APUE. It has good examples
and will introduce you to many of the functions of UNIX.
You should also know about the command "apropos", also known as "man -k".
Typing "apropos topic" or "man -k topic" will search the "NAME" section
of the man pages for the topic you're looking for. I found references
to the ncurses library under topics "clear", "erase", and "box."
The man pages may seem a little terse at the beginning, and don't provide
much in the way of examples, but they are *quite* complete.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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