Auto-follow-up : text-mode (but not CLI) apps in Windows console

[Fred Pacquier]

A quick note to conclude my search : although the Win32 curses port from 
Poland submitted by Radovan Garabik definitely works, it is after all, as 
Grant Edwards pointed out, "still curses" (and probably a simplified one, 
it doesn't seem to do colors for instance).

It turns out that there is (at least) one alternative that was right under 
my nose (on Parnassus) right from the start. What tripped me is that it was 
not under the 'Text UI' section, but with the Windows-specific stuff (as it 
indeed is).

It is the 'Windows Console Driver' by the (very) famous Fredrik Lundh 
(note: URL has changed, is now 
http://w1.132.telia.com/~u13208596/console.htm )

It is a small windows DLL with a tiny, optional Python wrapper module. It's 
about as low-level as the curses wrapper, but of course has a very 
pythonesque feel to it, so is much more natural to use. It also handles 
colors very simply. Lastly, instead of the traditional getch() method, it 
uses a simple event system that gives more keyboard control and allows 
mouse input (it shows that FL is a Tkinter guru :).

It does not seem to be maintained (early 1999) but it does work perfectly 
(at least under Win 9x, FL says there are issued with the NT console, I 
haven't tried). I don't know if anyone has already built any higher-level 
widgets on this (there is a reference to a 'uiToolkit/Text' in the readme, 
but this is another hidden secret :). Anyway, all I really need is a basic 
listbox manager, that shouldn't be to hard to do.

So, to recap : if like me you need a Windows-only, non-GUI console app with 
some full-screen text interface and a bare minimum of additional baggage to 
the standard distribution, Dr Lundh's contribution is probably the easiest 
way in... Thanks to all who have helped me !

FP

-- 
YAFAP : http://www.multimania.com/fredp/