Clarify public name of curses.window

@serhiy-storchaka

BPO	43738
Nosy	@serhiy-storchaka

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2021-04-05.23:37:41.319>
labels = ['type-feature', '3.9', '3.10', 'docs']
title = 'Clarify public name of curses.window'
updated_at = <Date 2021-04-06.07:44:00.293>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/rmccampbell7'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-04-06.07:44:00.293>
actor = 'serhiy.storchaka'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2021-04-05.23:37:41.319>
creator = 'rmccampbell7'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 43738
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['390266', '390289']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['docs@python', 'serhiy.storchaka', 'rmccampbell7']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = None
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue43738'
versions = ['Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10']

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Until 3.8 the curses window class was not directly available in code, but now it is available as _curses.window. This is not explicitly stated in the documentation (although it is consistent with how the method signatures are written). It is useful to have a public name for the type to aid IDE's with explicit type annotations, i.e.

@curses.wrapper
def main(stdscr: curses.window):
    stdscr.addstr(...)

See python/typeshed#5180, which adds this name to type hints in the typeshed project.

This name should be more clearly documented so programmers can annotate the type without worrying that it may change (which will cause a runtime error unless it is quoted).

It could help also in help().

curses.window was already documented in GH-138414 (backported to 3.14). #151643 documents also curses.panel.panel and curses.panel.error and adds docstrings to all four classes.

gh-87904: Document curses classes (GH-151643)

[3.15] gh-87904: Document curses classes (GH-151643) (GH-152048)

gh-87904: Report the public module name in curses types and exceptions (

And now, python -m pydoc curses and python -m pydoc curses.panel show also all classes and their methods.

pythongh-87904: Document curses classes (pythonGH-151643)

[3.14] gh-87904: Document curses classes (GH-151643) (GH-153751)

[3.13] gh-87904: Document curses classes (GH-151643) (GH-153752)

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Clarify public name of curses.window #87904

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Clarify public name of curses.window #87904

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rmccampbell7 commented on Apr 5, 2021

serhiy-storchaka commented on Apr 6, 2021

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serhiy-storchaka commented on Jun 18, 2026

serhiy-storchaka commented on Jun 27, 2026

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