X-Git-Url: http://git.nikiroo.be/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.md;h=60b666a211fb97c48fb799b8406b43921b3d7580;hb=9c238a4be4c64ef7e651c722fd66edcd92f6cb57;hp=ff50ca75cb53c315fd3d727e4b24b02e2d855759;hpb=fe0770f988e64fc0ccafd3d3b086b4a0eb559d3b;p=nikiroo-utils.git diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index ff50ca7..60b666a 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,28 +1,29 @@ Jexer - Java Text User Interface library ======================================== -This library implements a text-based windowing system reminiscient of -Borland's [Turbo Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision) -system. (For those wishing to use the actual C++ Turbo Vision -library, see [Sergio Sigala's C++ version based on the sources -released by Borland,](http://tvision.sourceforge.net/) or consider -Free Pascal's [Free Vision -library.](http://wiki.freepascal.org/Free_Vision)) +This library implements a text-based windowing system loosely +reminiscient of Borland's [Turbo +Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision) system. (For those +wishing to use the actual C++ Turbo Vision library, see [Sergio +Sigala's C++ version based on the sources released by +Borland,](http://tvision.sourceforge.net/) or consider Free Pascal's +[Free Vision library.](http://wiki.freepascal.org/Free_Vision)) Jexer currently supports three backends: * 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/non-Mac platforms. + or linked to. xterm mouse tracking is supported using both UTF8 and + SGR coordinates. Images are optionally rendered via sixel graphics + (see jexer.ECMA48.sixel). For the demo application, this is the + default backend on non-Windows/non-Mac platforms. * The same command-line ECMA-48 / ANSI X3.64 type terminal as above, but to any general InputStream/OutputStream or Reader/Writer. See the file jexer.demos.Demo2 for an example of running the demo over a - TCP socket. jexer.demos.Demo3 demonstrates how one might use a - character encoding than the default UTF-8. + TCP (telnet) socket. jexer.demos.Demo3 demonstrates how one might + use a character encoding than the default UTF-8. * Java Swing UI. The default window size for Swing is 80x25 and 20 point font; this can be changed in the TApplication(BackendType) @@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ constructor. See Demo5 and Demo6 for examples of other backends. The Jexer homepage, which includes additional information and binary release downloads, is at: https://jexer.sourceforge.io . The Jexer -source code is hosted at: https://github.com/klamonte/jexer . +source code is hosted at: https://gitlab.com/klamonte/jexer . @@ -47,6 +48,20 @@ This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the file LICENSE for the full license text. +Maven +----- + +Jexer is available on Maven Central: + +```xml + + com.gitlab.klamonte + jexer + 0.3.0 + +``` + + Acknowledgements ---------------- @@ -73,17 +88,14 @@ class MyApplication extends TApplication { addFileMenu(); addWindowMenu(); - // Add a custom window, see below for its code. - addWindow(new MyWindow(this)); + // Add a custom window, see below for its code. The TWindow + // constructor will add it to this application. + new MyWindow(this); } - public static void main(String [] args) { - try { - MyApplication app = new MyApplication(); - (new Thread(app)).start(); - } catch (Throwable t) { - t.printStackTrace(); - } + public static void main(String [] args) throws Exception { + MyApplication app = new MyApplication(); + (new Thread(app)).start(); } } ``` @@ -125,9 +137,23 @@ it and you'll see an application like this: ![The Example Code Above](/screenshots/readme_application.png?raw=true "The application in the text of README.md") -See the files in jexer.demos for many more detailed examples showing -all of the existing UI controls. The available demos can be run as -follows: + + +More Examples +------------- + +The examples/ folder currently contains: + + * A [prototype tiling window + manager](/examples/JexerTilingWindowManager.java) in less than 250 + lines of code. + + * A [prototype image thumbnail + viewer](/examples/JexerImageViewer.java) in less than 350 lines of + code. + +jexer.demos contains official demos showing all of the existing UI +controls. The demos can be run as follows: * 'java -jar jexer.jar' . This will use System.in/out with xterm-like sequences on non-Windows non-Mac platforms. On Windows @@ -152,9 +178,9 @@ follows: * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo5' . This demonstrates two demo applications using different fonts in the same Swing frame. - * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo6' . This demonstrates one - application performing I/O to two screens: an xterm screen and a - Swing screen. + * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo6' . This demonstrates two + applications performing I/O across three screens: an xterm screen + and Swing screen, monitored from a third Swing screen. @@ -165,6 +191,44 @@ More Screenshots ![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.") +![Sixel Pictures Of Cliffs Of Moher And Buoy](/screenshots/sixel_images.png?raw=true "Sixel Pictures Of Cliffs Of Moher And Buoy") + +![Sixel Color Wheel](/screenshots/sixel_color_wheel.png?raw=true "Sixel Color Wheel") + + +Terminal Support +---------------- + +The table below lists terminals tested against Jexer's ECMA48/Xterm +backend. + +| Terminal | Environment | Mouse Click | Mouse Cursor | Images | +| -------------- | ------------------ | ----------- | ------------ | ------ | +| xterm | X11 | yes | yes | yes | +| lcxterm | CLI, Linux console | yes | yes | no | +| rxvt-unicode | X11 | yes | yes | no | +| alacritty(3) | X11 | yes | yes | no | +| gnome-terminal | X11 | yes | yes | no | +| xfce4-terminal | X11 | yes | yes | no | +| aminal(3) | X11 | yes | no | no | +| konsole | X11 | yes | no | no | +| yakuake | X11 | yes | no | no | +| screen | CLI | no(1) | no | no(2) | +| tmux | CLI | no(1) | no | no | +| putty | X11, Windows | yes | no | no(2) | +| Linux | Linux console | no | no | no(2) | +| qodem(3) | CLI, Linux console | yes | yes(4) | no | +| qodem-x11(3) | CLI | yes | no | no | + +1 - Passes mouse to its host console, so will support mouse if the +host console does. + +2 - Also fails to filter out sixel data, leaving garbage on screen. + +3 - Latest in repository. + +4 - Requires TERM=xterm-1003 before starting. + System Properties @@ -196,6 +260,36 @@ The following properties control features of Jexer: be faster on slower systems but also more likely to have screen tearing. Default: true. + jexer.TTerminal.ptypipe + ----------------------- + + Used by jexer.TTerminalWindow. If true, spawn shell using the + 'ptypipe' utility rather than 'script'. This permits terminals to + resize with the window. ptypipe is a separate C language utility, + available at https://gitlab.com/klamonte/ptypipe. Default: false. + + jexer.TTerminal.closeOnExit + --------------------------- + + Used by jexer.TTerminalWindow. If true, close the window when the + spawned shell exits. Default: false. + + jexer.ECMA48.rgbColor + --------------------- + + Used by jexer.backend.ECMA48Terminal. If true, emit T.416-style RGB + colors for normal system colors. This is expensive in bandwidth, + and potentially terrible looking for non-xterms. Default: false. + + jexer.ECMA48.sixel + ------------------ + + Used by jexer.backend.ECMA48Terminal. If true, emit image data + using sixel, otherwise show blank cells where images could be. This + is expensive in bandwidth, very expensive in CPU (especially for + large images), and will leave artifacts on the screen if the + terminal does not support sixel. Default: true. + Known Issues / Arbitrary Decisions @@ -205,11 +299,6 @@ 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. - - The JVM needs some warmup time to exhibit the true performance - behavior. Drag a window around for a bit to see this: the initial - performance is slow, then the JIT compiler kicks in and Jexer can - be visually competitive with C/C++ curses applications. - - See jexer.tterminal.ECMA48 for more specifics of terminal emulation limitations. @@ -218,19 +307,25 @@ ambiguous. This section describes such issues. input (see the ENABLE_LINE_INPUT flag for GetConsoleMode() and SetConsoleMode()). - - TTerminalWindow launches 'script -fqe /dev/null' or 'script -q -F - /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 and Mac but might not on - other Posix-y platforms. + - TTerminalWindow by default launches 'script -fqe /dev/null' or + 'script -q -F /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 and + Mac but might not on other Posix-y platforms. - Closing a TTerminalWindow without exiting the process inside it may result in a zombie 'script' process. - - TTerminalWindow cannot notify the child process of changes in - window size, due to Java's lack of support for forkpty() and - similar. Solving this requires C, and will be pursued only if - sufficient user requests come in. + - When using the Swing backend, and not using 'ptypipe', closing a + TTerminalWindow without exiting the process inside it may result + in a SIGTERM to the JVM causing it to crash. The root cause is + currently unknown, but is potentially a bug in more recent + releases of the 'script' utility from the util-linux package. + + - TTerminalWindow can only notify the child process of changes in + window size if using the 'ptypipe' utility, due to Java's lack of + support for forkpty() and similar. ptypipe is available at + https://gitlab.com/klamonte/ptypipe. - Java's InputStreamReader as used by the ECMA48 backend requires a valid UTF-8 stream. The default X10 encoding for mouse @@ -250,10 +345,75 @@ ambiguous. This section describes such issues. equivalent of cfmakeraw() when using System.in/out. System.out is also (blindly!) put in 'stty sane cooked' mode when exiting. + - jexer.backend.ECMA48Terminal uses a single palette containing + MAX_COLOR_REGISTERS colors for all sixel images. These colors are + generated in the SixelPalette.makePalette() method with bits for + hue, saturation, and luminance, and the two extremes set to pure + black and pure white. This provides a reasonable general-purpose + palette light on CPU, but at a cost that individual images do not + look as good as the terminal is actually capable of. -Roadmap -------- -Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0. See docs/TODO.md -for the complete list of tasks. +See Also +-------- + +[Tranquil Java IDE](https://tjide.sourceforge.io) is a TUI-based +integrated development environment for the Java language that was +built using a very lightly modified GPL version of Jexer. TJ provided +a real-world use case to shake out numerous bugs and limitations of +Jexer. + + + +Maintainers Wanted +------------------ + +Both Jexer and TJIDE are seeking additional maintainers. I am not in +a position in life to take on significant off-hours programming work, +and am willing to hand these projects over to one or more persons with +time and interest. + +My personal code design philosophy for TJIDE/Jexer is outlined at +https://gitlab.com/klamonte/tjide/blob/master/java/docs/code_design.txt +. I realize that some of the features listed below may require +deviations from this philosophy, but this is what I have built so far. + +Some of the areas that will likely require significant efforts are: + + * Editor improvements. The editor is currently very minimalistic, + much closer to MS-DOS edit.com than a real programmer's editor. + Users will probably desire many more features: drag-and-drop, real + syntax or at least regexp highlighting (not just keywords), paren + matching, paragraph/comment reflow, and dozens more. The + underlying Document/Line/Word model is not going to be sufficient + to meet these features. + + * Better Windows and OSX support. It would be nice to ship a + jlink'ed JVM on these platforms with the JRE, JDK, and JPDA + modules all together. For Windows, it might be preferable to + consider doing any of the following: ship a third-party terminal, + use PowerShell, or use the newer ConPTY for TTerminalWindow. + + * Bug fixes. The Jexer codebase is quite large despite my best + efforts. Bugs are typically very small to fix, but can take some + time to find: a simple NPE or AssertionError can sometimes take + 4-8 hours to squash. Fortunately, fixing issues in one place has + not often led to breakages elsewhere. + + * New Jexer applications. So far as I know, Jexer is the only + mouse-supporting full TUI windowing framework with sixel image + support in existence. I cannot predict what kinds of applications + could be built out of it, and how those needs will push back to + the framework. + +These are what I can clearly see right now. Obviously users are +capable of finding many more. + +I intend to continue poking on Jexer and TJIDE, and will maintain a +branch to be "the fastest and simplest Java language IDE available", +which will deliberately remain small. + +I hope that other languages choose to transliterate Jexer to provide +TUIs to their own platforms. I will be happy to help them understand +the code to support those efforts.