There are two ways to prepare a form or menu for processing. By default, the form is initialized or made ready when it is displayed on the screen. When the form is removed from the screen, the temporary memory remains allocated in case you wish to process the same form again.
Since initializing the form does allocate memory, this process can fail if memory is low. If you want to ensure that you have enough memory to put the form on the screen, or if you have a very large form which takes a long time to initialize, you may want more control over when the initialization takes place. The function fm_ready() provides the second method of initializing a form. When you call fm_ready(), all of the initialization work is performed, and an internal flag is set to indicate that you have initialized the form yourself. fm_ready() can be called for either data forms or menus.
All of the temporary space allocated by Vermont Views will, of course, be freed when you free the form by calling fm_free() or mn_free().
fm_up(), fm_updbg(), fm_updflds(), and fm_ready() are all public functions available for your use. See the Function Reference for complete descriptions of these functions, and Chapter 35, "Controlling Form Processing at Lower Levels."
