curses
Terminal-based user interface
although the inspiration is acknowledged, FatScript has it's own way of approaching terminal UI which differs in many ways from the original curses library
Import
_ <- fat.curses
Methods
| Name | Signature | Brief |
|---|---|---|
| box | (p1: Scope, p2: Scope): Void | Draw square from pos1 to pos2 |
| fill | (p1: Scope, p2: Scope, p: Text = ' '): Void | Fill from pos1 to pos2 with p |
| clear | (): Void | Clear screen buffer |
| refresh | (): Void | Render screen buffer |
| getMax | (): Scope | Return screen size as x, y |
| printAt | (pos: Scope, msg: Any, width: Number = ø): Void | Print msg at { x, y } pos |
| makePair | (fg: Number = ø, bg: Number = ø): Number | Create a color pair |
| usePair | (pair: Number): Void | Apply color pair |
| frameTo | (cols: Number, rows: Number) | Align view to screen center |
| setMouse | (enabled: Boolean): Void | Mouse tracking with readKey |
| readKey | (): Text | Return key pressed |
| readText | (pos: Scope, width: Number, prev: Text = ø): Text | Start a text box input |
| flushKeys | (): Void | Flush input buffer |
| endCurses | (): Void | Exit curses mode |
positions (pos) are of form { x: Number, y: Number }
the methods in this library do not ensure thread safety in asynchronous scenarios, use either the main thread or a single worker to render console updates
Usage Notes
Any method of this library, except getMax and endCurses, will start curses mode if not yet started. Note that methods such as log, stderr and input from console library will implicitly call endCurses. However, moveTo, print and flush will not change the output mode, and can be paired with curses methods, which can be useful in some circumstances.
The letters x and y stand for column and row respectively when calling printAt, where (0, 0) is the upper-left corner and the result of getMax is the just the first coordinate outside the lower-right corner.
special characters on curses only work if a UTF-8 locale can be set
makePair
You can import the color library to use color names and create a combination of foreground and background (pair). Pass null to apply the default color to the desired parameter.
usePair
The input of this method should be a color pair created with makePair method. It leaves this pair enabled until you call it again with a different pair.
readKey
This method is non-blocking and returns null if stdin is empty, otherwise it will return one character at a time.
Special keys may be detected and return keywords such as:
- arrow keys:
- up
- down
- left
- right
- edit keys:
- delete
- backspace
- enter
- space
- tab
- backTab (shift+tab)
- control keys:
- pageUp
- pageDown
- home
- end
- insert
- esc
- other:
- resize (terminal window was resized)
- mouse:button:column:row:isRelease (when tracking mouse events)
the correct detection of keys can depend on the context or platform
readText
Enters text capture mode using an area demarcated by position and width of the text box. If the text is larger than the space, an automatic text scroll is performed. The full text is returned when enter or tab is pressed, however, if esc is pressed, null is returned.