cursive/Readme.md

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Cursive
=======
Cursive is a ncurses-based TUI (Text User Interface) library for rust. It is based on jeaye's [ncurses-rs](https://github.com/jeaye/ncurses-rs).
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It is designed to be safe and easy to use:
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```
[dependencies.cursive]
git = "https://github.com/Gyscos/cursive"
```
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(You will also need ncurses installed - if it isn't already, check in your package manager.)
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```rust
extern crate cursive;
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use cursive::Cursive;
use cursive::view::{Dialog,TextView};
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fn main() {
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// Creates the cursive root - required for every application.
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let mut siv = Cursive::new();
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// Create a popup window with a button that quits the application
siv.add_layer(Dialog::new(TextView::new("Hello Dialog!"))
.title("Cursive")
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.button("Quit", |s| s.quit()));
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// Starts the event loop.
siv.run();
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}
```
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![Cursive dialog example](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Gyscos/Cursive/master/doc/cursive_example.png)
_(Colors may depend on your terminal configuration.)_
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The goal is to be flexible enough, so that recreating these kind of tools would be - relatively - easy (at least on the layout front):
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* [menuconfig](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menuconfig#/media/File:Linux_x86_3.10.0-rc2_Kernel_Configuration.png)
* [nmtui](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Networking_Guide/sec-Configure_a_Network_Team_Using_the_Text_User_Interface_nmtui.html)
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A few notes :
* The main focus point is _not_ performance. This is a simple layout library, guys, not [compiz](https://www.google.com/search?q=compiz&tbm=isch) piped into [libcaca](https://www.google.com/search?q=libcaca&tbm=isch). Unless you are running it on your microwave's microcontroller, it's not going to be slow.
* The library is single-threaded. Thus, callback methods are blocking - careful what you're doing in there! Feel free to use threads on your side, though.
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* This goal is _not_ to have an equivalent to every ncurses function. You _can_ access the underlying ncurses window when creating your own custom views, so you can do what you want with that, but the main library will probably only use a subset of the ncurses features.
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Compatibility
-------------
First off, terminals are messy. A small set of features is standard, but beyond that, almost every terminal has its own implementation.
I mostly test VTE-based terminals (Gnome & Xfce), with the occasional Konsole and xterm checks.
### Output
* **Colors**: the basic 8-colors palette should be broadly supported. User-defined colors is not supported in the raw linux TTY, but should work in most terminals, although it's still kinda experimental.
* **UTF-8**: Currently Cursive really expects a UTF-8 locale. It may eventually get patched to support window borders on other locales, but it's not a priority.
Also, Cursive currently expects every codepoint to be a one-column character, so some things may break with exotic characters...
### Input
* The `key_codes` example can be a useful tool to see how the library reacts to various key presses.
* Keep in mind that if the terminal has shortcuts registered, they probably won't be transmitted to the app.
* UTF-8 input should work fine in a unicode-enabled terminal emulator, but raw linux TTY may be more capricious.
Here is the support table for input keys (All means Linux TTY and terminal emulators):
| | Key | Shift+Key | Ctrl+Key | Shift+Ctrl+Key |
|--------------------------|:----:|:----------------------:|:--------------------------:|:---------------:|
| Letters | All | All | All (except c,z,q,s,i,h,m) | None |
| Numbers | All | All | None (can crash the app) | None |
| Punctuation | All | All | None (can crash the app) | None |
| Enter, Esc | All | None | None | None |
| Left, Right arrow keys | All | VTE+Xterm | VTE+Xterm | VTE+Xterm |
| Up, Down arrow keys | All | Xterm | VTE+Xterm | Xterm |
| Ins | All | None (paste clipboard) | Xterm | None |
| Del | All | VTE+Xterm | VTE+Xterm | VTE+Xterm |
| Home, End | All | Xterm | Xterm | Xterm |
| PageUp, PageDown | All | None | Xterm | None |
| Fn keys: F1-F4 | All | None (WIP) | None (WIP) | None (WIP) |
| Fn keys: F5-F12 | All | VTE+Xterm (WIP) | VTE+Xterm (WIP) | VTE+Xterm (WIP) |
| PrtScn, ScrollLock | None | None | None | None |
| Window, Menu | None | None | None | None |
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Contribute
----------
You want to help? Great! Here is a non-exhaustive list of things you could do:
* Provide example use-case: a good idea of application for existing or new components.
* Test and reports issues: a bug won't get fixed if we don't know it's there.
* Hack the code! If you feel confident with rust, pick an issue you like and hack away!