ncurses

Ncurses

ncurses (new curses) is a programming library that provides an API to display text-based user interfaces in a terminal. It offers functions to manipulate the text, colors, and cursor to create interfaces like menus, forms, and more.
Development Terminal User Interfaces
ncurses image
textbased terminal user-interface tui curses menus forms
Ncurses alternatives ➤

ncurses (New Curses)

ncurses (new curses) is a programming library that provides an API to display text-based user interfaces in a terminal. It offers functions to manipulate the text, colors, and cursor to create interfaces like menus, forms, and more.

What is Ncurses?

Ncurses (new curses) is a programming library that provides an application programming interface (API) for text-based user interfaces (TUI) in a terminal emulator. It is designed to facilitate the creation of TUIs and enable developers to write terminal-based applications.

The ncurses library is based on the curses library originally written for BSD Unix. It offers an additional set of features, improved performance, and greater portability across different terminals and operating systems. Some of the key capabilities provided by ncurses include:

  • Text and background color control
  • Cursor control for navigation and screen addressing
  • Creating windows and panels for complex interfaces
  • Menus, forms and other widget support
  • Mouse event support
  • Screen clearing and optimization functions

Ncurses is written in C, but wrappers allow it to be used by various other languages like C++, Ada, Haskell, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and more. It is very portable and has been adopted across various Unix platforms and operating systems including Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and more.

Due to its text-based nature and efficiency, ncurses remains popular for developing terminal applications like system monitors, network tools, interactive games, TUI-based configuration utilities and more. The ncurses library provides developers the capabilities to easily create responsive CLI-based interfaces for their tools and applications.

Ncurses Features

Features

  1. Text-based user interface library
  2. Supports color, key handling, mouse support, menus, forms, panels, etc
  3. Portable - runs on many operating systems
  4. Wide language support - C, C++, Ada, Python, Perl, Ruby, etc
  5. Built-in support for internationalization

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Lightweight, low resource usage

Very customizable and flexible

Mature and stable codebase

Good documentation

Active open source community

Cons

Text-only, no native graphical capabilities

Steep learning curve

Not ideal for complex UIs

Limited built-in widgets

Official Links

Official Website
https://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/

The Best Ncurses Alternatives

Top Development and Terminal User Interfaces and other similar apps like Ncurses

Here are some alternatives to Ncurses:

Termbox icon
termbox
Turbo Vision icon
Turbo Vision
FTXUI icon
FTXUI
Gui.cs icon
Gui.cs
BearLibTerminal icon
BearLibTerminal
ConsoleGUI icon
ConsoleGUI
Suggest an alternative ❐

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Termbox

Termbox is an open-source library that enables developers to build text-based user interfaces that work in console/terminal environments. It provides a simple API and abstracts away many of the complexities involved in creating terminal applications that respond to user input and redraw sections of the screen.Some key capabilities Termbox provides...
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Turbo Vision icon

Turbo Vision

Turbo Vision is an object-oriented framework for building text-based user interfaces (TUIs). It was originally developed in the early 1990s by Borland for use in DOS applications.Some key features of Turbo Vision include:A library of widgets like windows, buttons, menus, text boxes, checkboxes, etc. to aid in TUI constructionVirtual screening...
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FTXUI

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Gui.cs

Gui.cs is an open-source GUI library written in C# for building desktop applications on Windows. It provides a collection of UI controls like windows, buttons, menus, textboxes, etc. that can be used to build feature-rich graphical interfaces.Some key highlights of Gui.cs:Open-source library released under MIT licenseDesigned specifically for C# and...
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BearLibTerminal

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ConsoleGUI

ConsoleGUI is a graphical user interface application designed to make working with console programs, commands, and scripts easier. It provides a GUI window where you can view console output, enter commands and run scripts. Some key features include:Tabbed interface to open multiple consolesCustomizable themes and fontsSave console output to filesSearchable...
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Libmabuff

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Libtcod

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Rot.js

rot.js is an open-source JavaScript library designed to help developers create roguelike games in the browser. It handles many common tasks and algorithms used in roguelikes such as:Procedural map generation using various algorithms like cellular automata or drunken walk.Field-of-view calculations for determining visibility.Pathfinding functions like A* or Dijkstra's algorithm.Support for...
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S-Lang

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