[fanfix.git] / README.md

Jexer - Java Text User Interface library
========================================

WARNING: THIS IS ALPHA CODE!  PLEASE CONSIDER FILING BUGS AS YOU
ENCOUNTER THEM.

This library is intended to implement a text-based windowing system
loosely reminiscient of Borland's [Turbo
Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision) library.  For those
wishing to use the actual C++ Turbo Vision library, see [Sergio
Sigala's updated version](http://tvision.sourceforge.net/) that runs
on many more platforms.

Two backends are available:

* System.in/out to a command-line ECMA-48 / ANSI X3.64 type terminal
  (tested on Linux + xterm).  I/O is handled through terminal escape
  sequences generated by the library itself: ncurses is not required
  or linked to.  xterm mouse tracking using UTF8 and SGR coordinates
  are supported.  For the demo application, this is the default
  backend on non-Windows platforms.

* Java Swing UI.  This backend can be selected by setting
  jexer.Swing=true.  The default window size for Swing is 132x40,
  which is set in jexer.session.SwingSession.  For the demo
  application, this is the default backend on Windows platforms.

The demo application showing the existing UI controls is available via
'java -jar jexer.jar' or 'java -Djexer.Swing=true -jar jexer.jar' .

Additional backends can be created by subclassing
jexer.backend.Backend and passing it into the TApplication
constructor.


License
-------

This project is licensed LGPL ("GNU Lesser General Public License",
sometimes called the "Library GPL") version 3 or greater.  You may
freely use Jexer in both closed source (proprietary) and open source
applications, however any changes you make to the Jexer code must be
made available to your users.

See the file LICENSE for the full license text, which includes both
the GPL v3 and the LGPL supplemental terms.


Acknowledgements
----------------

Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font [made available
here](http://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/) .


Usage
-----

Usage patterns are still being worked on, but in general the goal will
be to build applications as follows:

```Java
import jexer.*;

public class MyApplication extends TApplication {

    public MyApplication() {
        super(BackendType.SWING); // Could also use BackendType.XTERM

        // Create standard menus for File and Window
        addFileMenu();
        addWindowMenu();
    }

    public static void main(String [] args) {
        MyApplication app = new MyApplication();
        (new Thread(app)).start();
    }
}
```

See the file demos/Demo1.java for detailed examples.


Known Issues / Arbitrary Decisions
----------------------------------

Some arbitrary design decisions had to be made when either the
obviously expected behavior did not happen or when a specification was
ambiguous.  This section describes such issues.

  - TTerminalWindow will hang on input from the remote if the
    TApplication is exited before the TTerminalWindow's process has
    closed on its own.  This is due to a Java limitation/interaction
    between blocking reads (which is necessary to get UTF8 translation
    correct) and file streams.

  - See jexer.tterminal.ECMA48 for more specifics of terminal
    emulation limitations.

  - TTerminalWindow uses cmd.exe on Windows.  Output will not be seen
    until enter is pressed, due to cmd.exe's use of line-oriented
    input (see the ENABLE_LINE_INPUT flag for GetConsoleMode() and
    SetConsoleMode()).

  - TTerminalWindow launches 'script -fqe /dev/null' on non-Windows
    platforms.  This is a workaround for the C library behavior of
    checking for a tty: script launches $SHELL in a pseudo-tty.  This
    works on Linux but might not on other Posix-y platforms.

  - Java's InputStreamReader as used by the ECMA48 backend requires a
    valid UTF-8 stream.  The default X10 encoding for mouse
    coordinates outside (160,94) can corrupt that stream, at best
    putting garbage keyboard events in the input queue but at worst
    causing the backend reader thread to throw an Exception and exit
    and make the entire UI unusable.  Mouse support therefore requires
    a terminal that can deliver either UTF-8 coordinates (1005 mode)
    or SGR coordinates (1006 mode).  Most modern terminals can do
    this.

  - jexer.session.TTYSession calls 'stty size' once every second to
    check the current window size, performing the same function as
    ioctl(TIOCGWINSZ) but without requiring a native library.

  - jexer.io.ECMA48Terminal calls 'stty' to perform the equivalent of
    cfmakeraw().  The terminal is (blindly!) put back in 'stty sane
    cooked' mode when exiting.


System Properties
-----------------

The following properties control features of Jexer:

  jexer.Swing
  -----------

  Used only by jexer.demos.Demo1.  If true, use the Swing interface
  for the demo application.  Default: true on Windows platforms
  (os.name starts with "Windows"), false on non-Windows platforms.

  jexer.Swing.cursorStyle
  -----------------------

  Used by jexer.io.SwingScreen.  Selects the cursor style to draw.
  Valid values are: underline, block, outline.  Default: underline.


Roadmap
-------

Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0:

0.0.2: STABILIZE EXISTING

- ECMA48Backend running on socket

0.0.3: FINISH PORTING

- TTreeView
  - Also add keyboard navigation
- TDirectoryList
  - Also add keyboard navigation
- TFileOpen

0.0.4: NEW STUFF

- Making TMenu keyboard accelerators active/inactive
- TStatusBar
- TEditor
- TWindow
  - "Smart placement" for new windows

0.0.5: BUG HUNT

- TSubMenu keyboard mnemonic not working
- Swing performance.  Even with double buffering it isn't great.

0.1.0: BETA RELEASE

- TSpinner
- TComboBox
- TListBox
- TCalendar
- TColorPicker

Wishlist features (2.0):

- TTerminal
  - Handle resize events (pass to child process)
- Screen
  - Allow complex characters in putCharXY() and detect them in putStrXY().
- Drag and drop
  - TEditor
  - TField
  - TText
  - TTerminal
  - TComboBox


Screenshots
-----------

![Several Windows Open Including A Terminal](/screenshots/screenshot1.png?raw=true "Several Windows Open Including A Terminal")

![Yo Dawg...](/screenshots/yodawg.png?raw=true "Yo Dawg, I heard you like text windowing systems, so I ran a text windowing system inside your text windowing system so you can have a terminal in your terminal.")
Commit	Line	Data
	1	Jexer - Java Text User Interface library
	2	========================================
	3
	4	WARNING: THIS IS ALPHA CODE! PLEASE CONSIDER FILING BUGS AS YOU
	5	ENCOUNTER THEM.
	6
	7	This library is intended to implement a text-based windowing system
	8	loosely reminiscient of Borland's [Turbo
	9	Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision) library. For those
	10	wishing to use the actual C++ Turbo Vision library, see [Sergio
	11	Sigala's updated version](http://tvision.sourceforge.net/) that runs
	12	on many more platforms.
	13
	14	Two backends are available:
	15
	16	* System.in/out to a command-line ECMA-48 / ANSI X3.64 type terminal
	17	(tested on Linux + xterm). I/O is handled through terminal escape
	18	sequences generated by the library itself: ncurses is not required
	19	or linked to. xterm mouse tracking using UTF8 and SGR coordinates
	20	are supported. For the demo application, this is the default
	21	backend on non-Windows platforms.
	22
	23	* Java Swing UI. This backend can be selected by setting
	24	jexer.Swing=true. The default window size for Swing is 132x40,
	25	which is set in jexer.session.SwingSession. For the demo
	26	application, this is the default backend on Windows platforms.
	27
	28	The demo application showing the existing UI controls is available via
	29	'java -jar jexer.jar' or 'java -Djexer.Swing=true -jar jexer.jar' .
	30
	31	Additional backends can be created by subclassing
	32	jexer.backend.Backend and passing it into the TApplication
	33	constructor.
	34
	35
	36
	37	License
	38	-------
	39
	40	This project is licensed LGPL ("GNU Lesser General Public License",
	41	sometimes called the "Library GPL") version 3 or greater. You may
	42	freely use Jexer in both closed source (proprietary) and open source
	43	applications, however any changes you make to the Jexer code must be
	44	made available to your users.
	45
	46	See the file LICENSE for the full license text, which includes both
	47	the GPL v3 and the LGPL supplemental terms.
	48
	49
	50
	51	Acknowledgements
	52	----------------
	53
	54	Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font [made available
	55	here](http://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/) .
	56
	57
	58
	59	Usage
	60	-----
	61
	62	Usage patterns are still being worked on, but in general the goal will
	63	be to build applications as follows:
	64
	65	```Java
	66	import jexer.*;
	67
	68	public class MyApplication extends TApplication {
	69
	70	public MyApplication() {
	71	super(BackendType.SWING); // Could also use BackendType.XTERM
	72
	73	// Create standard menus for File and Window
	74	addFileMenu();
	75	addWindowMenu();
	76	}
	77
	78	public static void main(String [] args) {
	79	MyApplication app = new MyApplication();
	80	(new Thread(app)).start();
	81	}
	82	}
	83	```
	84
	85	See the file demos/Demo1.java for detailed examples.
	86
	87
	88
	89	Known Issues / Arbitrary Decisions
	90	----------------------------------
	91
	92	Some arbitrary design decisions had to be made when either the
	93	obviously expected behavior did not happen or when a specification was
	94	ambiguous. This section describes such issues.
	95
	96	- TTerminalWindow will hang on input from the remote if the
	97	TApplication is exited before the TTerminalWindow's process has
	98	closed on its own. This is due to a Java limitation/interaction
	99	between blocking reads (which is necessary to get UTF8 translation
	100	correct) and file streams.
	101
	102	- See jexer.tterminal.ECMA48 for more specifics of terminal
	103	emulation limitations.
	104
	105	- TTerminalWindow uses cmd.exe on Windows. Output will not be seen
	106	until enter is pressed, due to cmd.exe's use of line-oriented
	107	input (see the ENABLE_LINE_INPUT flag for GetConsoleMode() and
	108	SetConsoleMode()).
	109
	110	- TTerminalWindow launches 'script -fqe /dev/null' on non-Windows
	111	platforms. This is a workaround for the C library behavior of
	112	checking for a tty: script launches $SHELL in a pseudo-tty. This
	113	works on Linux but might not on other Posix-y platforms.
	114
	115	- Java's InputStreamReader as used by the ECMA48 backend requires a
	116	valid UTF-8 stream. The default X10 encoding for mouse
	117	coordinates outside (160,94) can corrupt that stream, at best
	118	putting garbage keyboard events in the input queue but at worst
	119	causing the backend reader thread to throw an Exception and exit
	120	and make the entire UI unusable. Mouse support therefore requires
	121	a terminal that can deliver either UTF-8 coordinates (1005 mode)
	122	or SGR coordinates (1006 mode). Most modern terminals can do
	123	this.
	124
	125	- jexer.session.TTYSession calls 'stty size' once every second to
	126	check the current window size, performing the same function as
	127	ioctl(TIOCGWINSZ) but without requiring a native library.
	128
	129	- jexer.io.ECMA48Terminal calls 'stty' to perform the equivalent of
	130	cfmakeraw(). The terminal is (blindly!) put back in 'stty sane
	131	cooked' mode when exiting.
	132
	133
	134	System Properties
	135	-----------------
	136
	137	The following properties control features of Jexer:
	138
	139	jexer.Swing
	140	-----------
	141
	142	Used only by jexer.demos.Demo1. If true, use the Swing interface
	143	for the demo application. Default: true on Windows platforms
	144	(os.name starts with "Windows"), false on non-Windows platforms.
	145
	146	jexer.Swing.cursorStyle
	147	-----------------------
	148
	149	Used by jexer.io.SwingScreen. Selects the cursor style to draw.
	150	Valid values are: underline, block, outline. Default: underline.
	151
	152
	153
	154	Roadmap
	155	-------
	156
	157	Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0:
	158
	159	0.0.2: STABILIZE EXISTING
	160
	161	- ECMA48Backend running on socket
	162
	163	0.0.3: FINISH PORTING
	164
	165	- TTreeView
	166	- Also add keyboard navigation
	167	- TDirectoryList
	168	- Also add keyboard navigation
	169	- TFileOpen
	170
	171	0.0.4: NEW STUFF
	172
	173	- Making TMenu keyboard accelerators active/inactive
	174	- TStatusBar
	175	- TEditor
	176	- TWindow
	177	- "Smart placement" for new windows
	178
	179	0.0.5: BUG HUNT
	180
	181	- TSubMenu keyboard mnemonic not working
	182	- Swing performance. Even with double buffering it isn't great.
	183
	184	0.1.0: BETA RELEASE
	185
	186	- TSpinner
	187	- TComboBox
	188	- TListBox
	189	- TCalendar
	190	- TColorPicker
	191
	192	Wishlist features (2.0):
	193
	194	- TTerminal
	195	- Handle resize events (pass to child process)
	196	- Screen
	197	- Allow complex characters in putCharXY() and detect them in putStrXY().
	198	- Drag and drop
	199	- TEditor
	200	- TField
	201	- TText
	202	- TTerminal
	203	- TComboBox
	204
	205
	206	Screenshots
	207	-----------
	208
	209	![Several Windows Open Including A Terminal](/screenshots/screenshot1.png?raw=true "Several Windows Open Including A Terminal")
	210
	211	![Yo Dawg...](/screenshots/yodawg.png?raw=true "Yo Dawg, I heard you like text windowing systems, so I ran a text windowing system inside your text windowing system so you can have a terminal in your terminal.")