[Tutor] Is this the preferred way to change terminal screen color using curses?

[boB Stepp]

I wanted to be able to change the background screen color of a
terminal window using curses.  My weak Google-Foo did not turn up a
clear example of how to do this despite much searching.  The two
_obvious_curses methods to attempt this seemed to be
window.bkgdset(ch, attr) to initially set a window's background
attributes and window.bkgd(ch, attr) to change them to new values.
The thing that has puzzled me is that "ch" is a mandatory parameter to
supply.  So after a variety of experimental efforts I came up with the
following approach which seems to do what I want to do -- just change
the terminal's background color at will.  But since I did *not* locate
any clear examples online on how to do this, I cannot help but wonder
if there is an easier approach to do what I want to do?

My code follows.  As always I am open to any constructive criticism
even if it is off this email's topic, though this code is not meant to
be a polished product.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import curses

def start_cli(stdscr):
    max_height, max_width = stdscr.getmaxyx()
    curses.init_pair(1, curses.COLOR_BLACK, curses.COLOR_CYAN)
    PAIR_BLACK_ON_CYAN = curses.color_pair(1)
    stdscr.clear()
    stdscr.bkgdset(' ', PAIR_BLACK_ON_CYAN)

    # Fill screen with spaces to color screen background:
    for y in range(max_height):
        try:
            stdscr.addstr(y, 0, ' ' * max_width)
        except curses.error as error:
            if y == max_height - 1:
                # Ignore error from writing to lower right-hand screen corner:
                pass
            else:
                raise error

    # Make cursor invisible to ensure *entire* screen is colored:
    curses.curs_set(0)
    stdscr.refresh()

    # Pause program until user presses key:
    stdscr.getkey()

    # Change background screen color:
    curses.init_pair(2, curses.COLOR_BLACK, curses.COLOR_RED)
    PAIR_BLACK_ON_RED = curses.color_pair(2)
    change_bkgd_color(stdscr, PAIR_BLACK_ON_RED)
    stdscr.getkey()

def change_bkgd_color(window_obj, color_pair):
    window_obj.bkgd(' ', color_pair)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    input("Press ENTER to change screen to first color, then press"
            " any key for next color change until the program exits.")
    curses.wrapper(start_cli)

-- 
boB