Jexer - Java Text User Interface library
========================================
-WARNING: THIS IS ALPHA CODE!
+This library implements a text-based windowing system loosely
+reminiscent of Borland's [Turbo
+Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision) system. It looks
+like this:
-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:
+Jexer works on both Xterm-like terminals and Swing, and supports
+images in both Xterm and Swing. On Swing, images are true color:
-* 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 coordinates is
- supported. This is the default backend on non-Windows platforms.
+
-* Java AWT UI. This backend can be selected by setting
- jexer.AWT=true. This is the default backend on Windows platforms.
- AWT is VERY experimental, please consider filing bugs when you
- encounter them.
+On Xterm, images are dithered to a common palette:
-A demo application showing the existing UI controls is available via
-'java -jar jexer.jar' or 'java -Djexer.AWT=true -jar jexer.jar' .
+
License
-------
-This project is licensed LGPL ("GNU Lesser General Public License")
-version 3 or greater. See the file LICENSE for the full license text,
-which includes both the GPL v3 and the LGPL supplemental terms.
+Jexer is available to all under the MIT License. See the file LICENSE
+for the full license text.
-Acknowledgements
-----------------
+Obtaining Jexer
+---------------
-Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font [made available
-here](http://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/) .
+Jexer is available on Maven Central:
+```xml
+<dependency>
+ <groupId>com.gitlab.klamonte</groupId>
+ <artifactId>jexer</artifactId>
+ <version>0.3.2</version>
+</dependency>
+```
+Binary releases are available on SourceForge:
+https://sourceforge.net/projects/jexer/files/jexer/
-Usage
------
+The Jexer source code is hosted at: https://gitlab.com/klamonte/jexer
-Usage patterns are still being worked on, but in general the goal will
-be to build applications somewhat as follows:
-```Java
-import jexer.*;
-public class MyApplication extends TApplication {
+Documentation
+-------------
- public MyApplication() {
- super();
+* [Java API Docs](https://jexer.sourceforge.io/apidocs/api/index.html)
- // Create standard menus for File and Window
- addFileMenu();
- addWindowMenu();
- }
+* [Wiki](https://gitlab.com/klamonte/jexer/wikis/home)
- public static void main(String [] args) {
- MyApplication app = new MyApplication();
- app.run();
- }
-}
-```
+* [Jexer web page](https://jexer.sourceforge.io/)
-See the file demos/Demo1.java for detailed examples.
+Programming Examples
+--------------------
-Known Issues / Arbitrary Decisions
-----------------------------------
+The examples/ folder currently contains:
-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.
+ * A [prototype tiling window
+ manager](/examples/JexerTilingWindowManager.java) in less than 250
+ lines of code.
- TTerminalWindow
- ---------------
+ * A much slicker [prototype tiling window
+ manager](/examples/JexerTilingWindowManager2.java) in less than 200
+ lines of code.
- - TTerminalWindow will hang on input from the remote if the
- TApplication is exited before closing the TTerminalWindow. This
- is due to a Java limitation/interaction between blocking reads
- (necessary to get UTF8 translation correct) and file streams.
+ * 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:
-Roadmap
--------
+ * 'java -jar jexer.jar' . This will use System.in/out with
+ Xterm-like sequences on non-Windows non-Mac platforms. On Windows
+ and Mac it will use a Swing JFrame.
+
+ * 'java -Djexer.Swing=true -jar jexer.jar' . This will always use
+ Swing on any platform.
+
+ * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo2 PORT' (where PORT is a
+ number to run the TCP daemon on). This will use the Xterm backend
+ on a telnet server that will update with screen size changes.
-Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0:
+ * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo3' . This will use
+ System.in/out with Xterm-like sequences. One can see in the code
+ how to pass a different InputReader and OutputReader to
+ TApplication, permitting a different encoding than UTF-8.
-0.0.2:
+ * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo4' . This demonstrates hidden
+ windows and a custom TDesktop.
-- AWT:
- - Blinking cursor
-- ECMA48Backend running on socket
-- TTreeView
-- TDirectoryList
-- TFileOpen
-- Decide on naming convention: getText, getValue, getLabel: one or all
- of them?
+ * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo5' . This demonstrates two
+ demo applications using different fonts in the same Swing frame.
-0.0.3:
+ * '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.
-- TEditor
+ * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo7' . This demonstrates the
+ BoxLayoutManager, achieving a similar result as the
+ javax.swing.BoxLayout apidocs example.
-0.0.4:
-- Bugs
- - TSubMenu keyboard mnemonic not working
- - Making TMenu keyboard accelerators active/inactive
- - TDirectoryList cannot be navigated only with keyboard
- - TTreeView cannot be navigated only with keyboard
- - RangeViolation after dragging scrollbar up/down
-0.1.0:
+More Screenshots
+----------------
+
+Jexer can be run inside its own terminal window, with support for all
+of its features including images and mouse, and more terminals:
+
+
+
+Sixel output uses a single palette which works OK for a variety of
+real-world images:
+
+
-- TWindow
- - "Smart placement" for new windows
-- ECMATerminal
- - Mouse 1006 mode parsing
+The color wheel with that palette is shown below:
-Wishlist features (2.0):
+
+
+
+
+Terminal Support
+----------------
-- TTerminal
- - Handle resize events (pass to child process)
- - xterm mouse handling
-- Screen
- - Allow complex characters in putCharXY() and detect them in putStrXY().
-- TComboBox
-- TListBox
-- TSpinner
-- TCalendar widget
-- TColorPicker widget
-- Drag and drop
- - TEditor
- - TField
- - TText
- - TTerminal
- - TComboBox
+The table below lists terminals tested against Jexer's Xterm backend:
+| Terminal | Environment | Mouse Click | Mouse Cursor | Images |
+| -------------- | ------------------ | ----------- | ------------ | ------ |
+| xterm | X11 | yes | yes | yes |
+| jexer | CLI, X11, Windows | yes | yes | yes |
+| mlterm | X11 | yes | yes | yes |
+| RLogin | Windows | yes | yes | yes |
+| alacritty(3) | X11 | yes | yes | no |
+| gnome-terminal | X11 | yes | yes | no |
+| iTerm2 | Mac | yes | yes | no(5) |
+| kitty(3) | X11 | yes | yes | no |
+| lcxterm(3) | CLI, Linux console | yes | yes | no |
+| mintty | Windows | yes | yes | no(5) |
+| rxvt-unicode | X11 | yes | yes | no(2) |
+| xfce4-terminal | X11 | yes | yes | no |
+| aminal(3) | X11 | yes | no | no |
+| konsole | X11 | yes | no | no |
+| yakuake | X11 | yes | no | no |
+| Windows Terminal(6) | Windows | no | no | no(2) |
+| screen | CLI | yes(1) | yes(1) | no(2) |
+| tmux | CLI | yes(1) | yes(1) | 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) | X11 | yes | no | no |
+| yaft | Linux console (FB) | no | no | yes |
-Screenshots
------------
+1 - Requires mouse support from host terminal.
-
+2 - Also fails to filter out sixel data, leaving garbage on screen.
+3 - Latest in repository.
+
+4 - Requires TERM=xterm-1003 before starting.
+
+5 - Sixel images can crash terminal.
+
+6 - Version 0.4.2382.0, on Windows 10.0.18362.30. Tested against
+ WSL-1 Debian instance.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+* [LCXterm](https://lcxterm.sourceforge.io) is a curses-based terminal
+ emulator that allows one to use Jexer with full support on the raw
+ Linux console.
+
+* [ptypipe](https://gitlab.com/klamonte/ptypipe) is a small C utility
+ that permits a Jexer TTerminalWindow to resize the running shell
+ when its window is resized.
+
+
+
+Acknowledgements
+----------------
+
+Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font [made available
+here](http://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/) .
git://git.nikiroo.be / nikiroo-utils.git / blobdiff