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ncursescurses

ncurses program will print white on black no matter what color i set it to

I have an ncurses-based text application i am writing. I have a function called colorPlot:

void colorPlot(int x, int y, int foregroundColor, int backgroundColor, char plotChar)
{
    init_pair(0, foregroundColor, backgroundColor);
    attrset(COLOR_PAIR(0));
    mvaddch(y, x, plotChar);
}

But whenever i try to call it in my main function:

int main(void) {
    initscr();
    start_color();

    colorPlot(1, 1, COLOR_RED, COLOR_WHITE, '@');

    refresh();

    getch();

    endwin();
}

It only prints white-on-black. Why isn't it printing red-on-white?

Solution

  • Color pair 0 (see manual for start_color) is reserved:

    color pair 0 is special; it denotes "no color".

    Color pair 0 is assumed to be white on black, but is actually whatever the terminal implements before color is initialized. It cannot be modified by the application.