CursesSharp

#CursesSharp

##INTRODUCTION

CursesSharp is a C# wrapper for curses library. The latest version of this 'fork'' can be found at Github. The original version can be found at the SourceForge.net project page.

##DOCUMENTATION

CursesSharp consists of a .NET assembly (CursesSharp.dll) and a native wrapper shared library (DLL) which is linked with PDCurses (in Windows) or ncurses (in Unix-like systems). This wrapper library is called CursesWrapper.dll in Windows or libCursesWrapper.so in Unix or libCursesWrapper.dylib in OS-X. CursesSharp provides a bit cleaner API to curses than the original one, although function names remain unchanged for the most part.

###CursesSharp namespace contains several important classes:

• Defs - contains constants from curses: attribute, color and key definitions as well as some macros (COLOR_PAIR, PAIR_NUMBER)
• Curses - the main interface to curses; contains methods global to the library, a StdScr property that returns the stdscr window, and as a convenience, some window-specific functions that operate on stdscr
• Window - represents a curses window that can be written to, or read from; contains wrappers for most of curses functions with names starting with w* or mvw*
• CursesException - an exception class, thrown when a curses function reports an error

Documentation is (always) under construction. Help would be much appreciated.

##Installing CursesSharp on OS-X

These are the instructions for building CursesSharp on OS-X.

The build process has been tested on:

• OS-X 10.10.5
• Apple LLVM version 7.0.0 (clang-700.1.76)
• Mono JIT compiler version 4.2.1 64-bit build.

##0. Prerequisites

The native library is now built as a 'fat' library so either a Mono 32-bit or 64-bit build can be used.

$> file libCursesWrapper.so

libCursesWrapper.so: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
libCursesWrapper.so (for architecture i386):	Mach-O dynamically linked shared library i386
libCursesWrapper.so (for architecture x86_64):	Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64

<!--A **64-bit build of Mono** as the the native shared library (so/dylib) is of ARCH type x64_86. **If you are running the default 32-bit Mono install, you will have to build the native library as ARCH i386. Currently there is not an included build process for this. ** -->

##1. Getting CursesSharp

You can clone it from the following repository:

https://github.com/sushihangover/CursesSharp.git

##2. Make the Native Library

mdtool build CursesSharp.Native.sln --target:Build --configuration:Release
mdtool build CursesSharp.Native.sln --target:Build --configuration:Debug

##3. Make the C# Libraries and Demos

xbuild CursesSharp.sln /target:Clean
xbuild CursesSharp.sln /target:Build

Note: To run the demos from the CLI, make sure that set the DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH. While still in the repo's root directory:

export DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH=$(PWD)/CursesSharp.Native/bin/Debug:/usr/lib:$DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH

There is also a CI script that can be called via source to setup DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH

source CI/libpath-source-me.sh

To learn more about dyld check out the man page:

man dyld

##Demos:

There are various demos available to review:

• Demo.CursesSharp.Firework
• Demo.CursesSharp.Gui.HelloWorld
• Demo.CursesSharp.HelloWorld
• Demo.CursesSharp.Rain
• Demo.CursesSharp.Unicode
• Demo.Gui.MessageBox
• Demo.Gui.MidnightCommander
• Demo.Gui.Timeout
• Demo.Native.ResizeTerm

##Rain Demo:

pushd CursesSharp.Demo/Demo.CursesSharp.Rain/bin/x64/Debug/
mono RainDemo.exe
popd

##FireWorks Demo:

pushd CursesSharp.Demo/Demo.CursesSharp.Rain/bin/x64/Debug/
mono FireworkDemo.exe
popd

##MidnightCommander Demo:

pushd CursesSharp.Demo/Demo.Gui.MidnightCommander/bin/x64/Debug/
mono Demo.Gui.MidnightCommander.exe
popd

##Installing CursesSharp on Linux

###0. Prerequisites

Note: It is assumed you are running 64-bit Linux (ARCH x86_64)

Install some dependencies:

sudo apt-get install lib32ncursesw5-dev
sudo apt-get install lib32ncurses5-dev
sudo apt-get install ncurses-doc

##1. Getting CursesSharp

You will have to obtain CursesSharp sources. You clone it from the following repository:

https://github.com/sushihangover/CursesSharp.git

###2. Make the Native Library

mdtool build CursesSharp.Native.Linux.sln --target:Build --configuration:Release
mdtool build CursesSharp.Native.Linux.sln --target:Build --configuration:Debug

###3. Make the C# Libraries and Demos

xbuild CursesSharp.sln /target:Clean /property:configuration=Debug
xbuild CursesSharp.sln /target:Build /property:configuration=Debug

#Demos:

Note: To run the demos from the CLI, make sure that set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH. While still in the repo's root directory:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(PWD)/CursesSharp.Native/bin/Debug:/usr/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

There is also a CI script that can be called via source to setup DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH

source CI/libpath-source-me.sh

To learn more about ld check out the man page:

man ld

##MessageBox Demo:

cd CursesSharp.Demo/Demo.Gui.MidnightCommander/bin/x64/Debug/
mono Demo.Gui.Messagebox.exe
cd -

#####(Ubuntu / Konsole)

##MidnightCommander Demo:

cd CursesSharp.Demo/Demo.Gui.MidnightCommander/bin/x64/Debug/
mono Demo.Gui.MidnightCommander.exe
cd -

####(Ubuntu / Konsole)

##Installing CursesSharp on Windows

Refer the original Windows project, source code and instructions are here

CI

OS-X:

source CI/libpath-source-me.sh
CI/build.osx.sh

Linux:

{TODO}

##TODO & Contributors:

• Nuget support
• MS Window support (via PDCurses)
• Documentation
• Bug reporting/fixes

Looking for contributors in these areas and/or any other areas that you would help out on.

Fork and Contribute ;-)