Jexer - Java Text User Interface library
========================================
-This library is currently in design, but when finished it is intended
-to implement a text-based windowing system loosely reminiscient of
+This library implements a text-based windowing system 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.
+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.
+
+* 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.
+
+* Java Swing UI. The default window size for Swing is 80x25 and 20
+ point font; this can be changed in the TApplication(BackendType)
+ constructor. For the demo applications, this is the default backend
+ on Windows and Mac platforms. This backend can be explicitly
+ selected for the demo applications by setting jexer.Swing=true.
+
+Additional backends can be created by subclassing
+jexer.backend.Backend and passing it into the TApplication
+constructor.
+
+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 .
+
License
-------
-This library 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.
+This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the file LICENSE
+for the full license text.
+
+
+
+Acknowledgements
+----------------
+
+Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font [made available
+here](http://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/) .
+
Usage
-----
-The library is currently under initial development, usage patterns are
-still being worked on. Generally the goal will be to build
-applications somewhat as follows:
+Simply subclass TApplication and then run it in a new thread:
```Java
import jexer.*;
-public class MyApplication extends TApplication {
+class MyApplication extends TApplication {
- public MyApplication() {
- super();
-
- // Create an editor window that has support for
- // copy/paste, search text, arrow keys, horizontal
- // and vertical scrollbar, etc.
- addEditor();
+ public MyApplication() throws Exception {
+ super(BackendType.SWING); // Could also use BackendType.XTERM
// Create standard menus for File and Window
addFileMenu();
addWindowMenu();
+
+ // Add a custom window, see below for its code.
+ addWindow(new MyWindow(this));
}
public static void main(String [] args) {
- MyApplication app = new MyApplication();
- app.run();
+ try {
+ MyApplication app = new MyApplication();
+ (new Thread(app)).start();
+ } catch (Throwable t) {
+ t.printStackTrace();
+ }
}
}
```
+Similarly, subclass TWindow and add some widgets:
+
+```Java
+class MyWindow extends TWindow {
+
+ public MyWindow(TApplication application) {
+ // See TWindow's API for several constructors. This one uses the
+ // application, title, width, and height. Note that the window width
+ // and height include the borders. The widgets inside the window
+ // will see (0, 0) as the top-left corner inside the borders,
+ // i.e. what the window would see as (1, 1).
+ super(application, "My Window", 30, 20);
+
+ // See TWidget's API for convenience methods to add various kinds of
+ // widgets. Note that ANY widget can be a container for other
+ // widgets: TRadioGroup for example has TRadioButtons as child
+ // widgets.
+
+ // We will add a basic label, text entry field, and button.
+ addLabel("This is a label", 5, 3);
+ addField(5, 5, 20, false, "enter text here");
+ // For the button, we will pop up a message box if the user presses
+ // it.
+ addButton("Press &Me!", 5, 8, new TAction() {
+ public void DO() {
+ MyWindow.this.messageBox("Box Title", "You pressed me, yay!");
+ }
+ } );
+ }
+}
+```
+
+Put these into a file, compile it with jexer.jar in the classpath, run
+it and you'll see an application like this:
+
+
+
+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:
+
+ * '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 telnet
+ protocol to establish an 8-bit clean channel and be aware of
+ screen size changes.
+
+ * '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.
+
+ * 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo4' . This demonstrates hidden
+ windows and a custom TDesktop.
+
+ * '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.
+
+
+
+More Screenshots
+----------------
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+System Properties
+-----------------
+
+The following properties control features of Jexer:
+
+ jexer.Swing
+ -----------
+
+ Used only by jexer.demos.Demo1 and jexer.demos.Demo4. If true, use
+ the Swing interface for the demo application. Default: true on
+ Windows (os.name starts with "Windows") and Mac (os.name starts with
+ "Mac"), false on non-Windows and non-Mac platforms.
+
+ jexer.Swing.cursorStyle
+ -----------------------
+
+ Used by jexer.backend.SwingTerminal. Selects the cursor style to
+ draw. Valid values are: underline, block, outline. Default:
+ underline.
+
+ jexer.Swing.tripleBuffer
+ ------------------------
+
+ Used by jexer.backend.SwingTerminal. If true, use triple-buffering
+ which reduces screen tearing but may also be slower to draw on
+ slower systems. If false, use naive Swing thread drawing, which may
+ be faster on slower systems but also more likely to have screen
+ tearing. Default: true.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+ - 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.
+
+ - 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' 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.
+
+ - 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.backend.ECMA48Terminal calls 'stty' to perform the
+ equivalent of cfmakeraw() when using System.in/out. System.out is
+ also (blindly!) put in 'stty sane cooked' mode when exiting.
+
+
Roadmap
-------
-Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0:
-
-0.0.1:
-
-- TCheckbox
-- TDirectoryList
-- TField
-- TMessageBox
-- TProgressBar
-- TTimer
-- TRadioGroup / TRadioButton
-- THScroller / TVScroller
-- TText
-- TTreeView
-
-0.0.2:
-
-- TEditor
-- TFileOpen
-- TTerminal
-
-0.0.3:
-
-- Bugs
- - TSubMenu keyboard mnemonic not working
- - kbDel assertion failure in TMenu (MID_CLEAR)
-- TEditor
- - Word wrap
- - Forward/backward word
- - Search
- - Replace
- - Cut/Copy/Paste
-
-0.0.4:
-
-- ECMATerminal
- - Mouse 1006 mode parsing
-- Bugs
- - TDirectoryList cannot be navigated only with keyboard
- - TTreeView cannot be navigated only with keyboard
- - RangeViolation after dragging scrollbar up/down
-
-Wishlist features (2.0):
-
-- TTerminal
- - Handle resize events (pass to child process)
- - xterm mouse handling
-- TWindow
- - "Smart placement" for new windows
-- 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
-- AWTBackend
+Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0. See docs/TODO.md
+for the complete list of tasks.
git://git.nikiroo.be / nikiroo-utils.git / blobdiff