Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Finding a better terminal/consol based GUI/API
Yo yo yo,
I'm looking for a good API/GUI for my terminal/consol based programming. I've been using ncurses and bwkaz has been helping me (and I'm greatful) but its not working in my virtual consols (is that their proper name doing the ctrl+alt+F1/F2/F3...).
What I am looking for is something similar to one of the first programs that the linux install disk runs; the blue screen that allows you to check the integrity of your disks (sorry about any sp). What API is that?
What consol based API do you people suggest??
bwkaz
06-24-2004, 06:48 PM
Originally posted by Cerf
but its not working in my virtual consols (is that their proper name doing the ctrl+alt+F1/F2/F3...). Yes, that is the right name for them, AFAIK anyway.
What's not working with ncurses?
I don't know which specific disk-integrity checking program you're talking about, but I would assume that it's just using ncurses also. Maybe with ncurses' "panel" library to get multiple "windows" on top of each other?
Well I'm looking for an api/gui (what ever it is, i dont know the difference is) that has a similar feel to this... http://www.europe.redhat.com/documentation/rhl7/install-guide-es/figs/textmode/ddmain.gif .
Do you know what api/gui this is??
flukshun
06-25-2004, 12:30 AM
I'm fairly certain that app is also using ncurses, and even if it wasn't, a near identical layout could be created with it.
I'm looking for a good API/GUI for my terminal/consol based programming. I've been using ncurses and bwkaz has been helping me (and I'm greatful) but its not working in my virtual consols (is that their proper name doing the ctrl+alt+F1/F2/F3...).
I wouldn't give up on ncurses so quickly, this problem you speak of is almost certainly user error (as far as can be discerned with no specifics). ncurses is pretty much the standard, so it would be worth exploring the causes of any issues you have before finding an alternate api.
bwkaz
06-25-2004, 08:34 PM
You might also consider the form library (part of ncurses). Check the form(3) manpage (actually it's 3x, but man 3 form works so I call it section 3).
As for API vs. GUI, it's not really graphical, so it's not a GUI. ;)
The difference is, the API is what the programmer uses (ncurses, most likely), and the UI is what the user sees (and what they interact with). The API that you use will determine what your UI will look like -- Gtk looks different from Qt which looks different from (n)curses -- so they are related. I think what you want to be referring to is API.
What was going wrong when you ran your program on the VC?
Originally posted by bwkaz
What was going wrong when you ran your program on the VC?
The windows I created was fine and the correct size in the xwindow terminal but in the VC the windows looked something like
++
++
but like you suggested I'm looking back into it
bwkaz
06-25-2004, 11:15 PM
(Was the $TERM shell variable set to linux (not xterm or xterm-color) at the time?)
Maybe the code would be helpful -- or if you can figure out the minimum amount to reproduce the issue, that would be helpful also.
I have done a bit with ncurses (a text mode minesweeper clone, as if there weren't enough of those already, with mouse support though), so with any kind of luck, I might find something... I hope anyway.
evac-q8r
06-28-2004, 08:53 AM
That was created using dialog. To try to make something comparable using ncurses would be a formidable task, although not impossible. You can also use xdialog to create menus, radios, gauges, yes/no boxes with a more gui-like feel. Dialog should already be available with your distribution and if you have it installed you may do a simple man dialog for more details. The feature about dialog which makes it extremely cool is that you can even execute it from the command line. So you can put it into easily accessible scripts and not need to worry about so much compiling.
-EVAC