Ncurses

Ncurses is a free software library that emulates the curses library from System V Release 4.0, among others. It's a handy tool for developers who want to create text-based user interfaces. Pretty cool, right?

What Makes Ncurses Special?

The Ncurses library uses Terminfo format, which means it supports features like color, pads, and forms characters. Plus, it has a bunch of great enhancements over the older BSD Curses version!

Compatibility and Portability

This code was designed with GNU/Linux in mind but can easily work on any ANSI/POSIX-compliant UNIX systems. Believe it or not, it's even been ported to OS/2 Warp!

Included Utilities

The Ncurses package comes with several support utilities that make life easier for developers:

• A terminfo compiler called tic


• A decompiler named infocmp


• A few other handy tools like clear, tput, and tset.


• You'll also find a termcap conversion tool called captoinfo.

Key Features of Ncurses

Here are some key features of Ncurses:

• It supports all 257 SVr4 calls and documents them well!


• You get full keyboard mapping support along with color features.


• An emulation of the panels library is included for window management.


• You can use menus easily thanks to the menu library emulation.


• The form library helps you gather data through on-screen forms.


• This package works seamlessly with various terminal types.

User-Friendly Extensions

Ncurses also packs in some user-friendly extensions:

• The API is designed to be clean and compatible with X/OPEN specifications!


• You can enjoy better mouse event reporting too!


• The function wresize() allows you to resize windows without losing data.

If you're ready to dive into creating amazing text interfaces, check out this link for more information: Ncurses Download Page!.