Jexer - Java Text User Interface library

WARNING: THIS IS ALPHA CODE!

This library is intended to implement a text-based windowing system loosely reminiscient of Borland's Turbo Vision library. For those wishing to use the actual C++ Turbo Vision library, see Sergio Sigala's updated version 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 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 experimental, please consider filing bugs when you encounter them. The default window size for AWT is 132x40, which is set in jexer.session.AWTSession.

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.

Acknowledgements

Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font made available here .

Usage

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

import jexer.*;

public class MyApplication extends TApplication {

    public MyApplication() {
        super();

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

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

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

• 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.

Roadmap

Many tasks remain before calling this version 1.0:

0.0.2:

• Making TMenu keyboard accelerators active/inactive
• AWT:
  • Blinking cursor
  • Handle kbTab (disable focus traversal BS)
  • Block cursor
• ECMA48Backend running on socket
• TTreeView
• TDirectoryList
• TFileOpen
• Decide on naming convention: getText, getValue, getLabel: one or all of them?
• Refactor:
  • TKeypress:
    • getCh() --> getChar()
    • getAlt/getCtrl/getShift --> isAltDown / isCtrlDown / isShiftDown
  • Other boolean getters --> isSomething

0.0.3:

• TEditor

0.0.4:

• Bugs
  • TSubMenu keyboard mnemonic not working
  • TDirectoryList cannot be navigated only with keyboard
  • TTreeView cannot be navigated only with keyboard
  • RangeViolation after dragging scrollbar up/down

0.1.0:

• TWindow
  • "Smart placement" for new windows

Wishlist features (2.0):

• TTerminal
  • Handle resize events (pass to child process)
• 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

Screenshots