[Gambas-user] ncurses help texts missing

[Rolf-Werner Eilert]

Am 24.03.2014 16:15, schrieb Tobias Boege:
> On Mon, 24 Mar 2014, Rolf-Werner Eilert wrote:
>> Am 05.02.2014 18:15, schrieb Tobias Boege:
>>> On Tue, 04 Feb 2014, Tobias Boege wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 04 Feb 2014, Tobias Boege wrote:
>>>>> On Tue, 04 Feb 2014, Rolf-Werner Eilert wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Am 04.02.2014 09:46, schrieb Tobias Boege:
>>>>>>> On Tue, 04 Feb 2014, Rolf-Werner Eilert wrote:
>>>>>>>> Hi Tobias,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> your name is mentioned as the author of the ncurses component. Is that
>>>>>>>> right?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yes, that's right.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Anyway, I wanted to play around a bit with ncurses and found this
>>>>>>>> component. A long time ago, I tried to write a program with ncurses but
>>>>>>>> gave up when I had to find the screen dimensions (the original C
>>>>>>>> function uses a pointer thing I couldn't make workable for my Gambas
>>>>>>>> program). So thanks you've done it for me :)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> But the help texts aren't ready yet, and I miss some short examples on
>>>>>>>> how to start by making a window and so on.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Are the undocumented functions not ready yet, or is it that the help
>>>>>>>> texts aren't complete yet?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The help just isn't written. The component itself didn't change since 3.3 or
>>>>>>> so. Not that I am totally confident with it but it's working as it should at
>>>>>>> this point.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Some things missing (actually, the whole menu and forms extensions of
>>>>>>> ncurses and wide character support!), etc. and I also want to add a
>>>>>>> gb.ncurses.cdk component based on the CDK library which implements controls
>>>>>>> in terminal but I have to design this carefully - and maybe even break
>>>>>>> gb.ncurses' API (very slightly if at all!). This is why I'm stuck programming
>>>>>>> and if the programming isn't done, I struggle to do the documentation :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There are gb.ncurses examples: Pong and Invaders (the last one still not
>>>>>>> finished in regard to game logic) in the Games section. But if you told me
>>>>>>> that these don't help gb.ncurses newbies, I would agree...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm actually not that fit anymore with gb.ncurses :-) but today afternoon
>>>>>>> I'll put some lines together about the basics.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>> Tobi
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And now off to the Linear Algebra test ;-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Uuuuh - good luck!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Just give me some hint how to start, and we could write some help texts
>>>>>> and little examples. Although I don't have too much time right now, I
>>>>>> would be able to help out a bit here...
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Wait a minute (or one or two hours, more likely). I'm halfways through a
>>>>> quite comprehensive tutorial about basic usage:
>>>>>
>>>>>    - printing text,
>>>>>    - using attributes and colours,
>>>>>    - creating dialogs.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Almost everything is in place here[0]. With the last little paragraph, I'll
>>>> continue tomorrow as it's time for a break now. I've also prepared a project
>>>> containing all the snippets presented which I will complete and upload
>>>> tomorrow, too. Hope it helps.
>>>>
>>>> Note that I needed to fix some bugs I encountered while putting the code
>>>> together so you better use the latest revision to test ;-)
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Tobi
>>>>
>>>> [0] http://gambasdoc.org/help/tutorial/ncursestut?v3
>>>>
>>>
>>> OK, now it's ready and has a source code archive. Let me know if you have
>>> any suggestions. (Maybe one or the other screenshot would be nice?)
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Tobi
>>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> it's been quite a while, but now I had the time to test your examples.
>>
>> There seem to be some mistakes in the example, so I'm giving a version
>> that runs:
>>
>> Dim hDialog As New Window(True, 0, 0, Window.W / 2, 6)
>> 'Dim sChoice As String
>> Dim iChoice As Integer
>>
>>     hDialog.Border = Border.ACS
>>     hDialog.Caption = ("Make a choice")
>>     hDialog.Center()
>>     hDialog.Show()
>>
>>     hDialog.PrintCenter(Subst$(("What to do?\n\nEvalute 42^2 [&1]\nQuit
>> [&2]"), ("E"), ("q")))
>>     Screen.Echo = False
>>     iChoice = hDialog.Ask("Eq")
>>     hDialog = Null ' Destroy the dialog window
>>     'If sChoice = ("e") Then
>>     If iChoice = 1 Then
>>       Window.PrintCenter(Subst$(("Here it is: 42^2 = &1"), 42 ^ 2)) ',
>> Attr.Bold, Pair[Color.Green, Color.Black])
>>     ' Else
>>     '   Window.Print("Pressed something else")
>>     Endif
>>     Window.Print(("Press any key to continue"), 0, Window.H - 1)
>>     Window.Read()
>>
>>     Quit
>>
>>
>> As you will see, .Ask returns an integer, and this should be mentioned
>> in the help text. Currently this is described to be string. (This cost
>> me quite a while to find out... :-) )
>>
>
> Since revision #6130 (Gambas 3.5.3 in the future), it IS a string and the
> project will work with any recent-enough version. There is an info box in
> the tutorial that tells the revision the project needs. (This time, the
> documentation was right and the code was wrong.)

Ok :-)

So I worked with the last stable version, but the documentation is ahead 
of its time?

>
>> If there is no Quit at the end of the program, it will never end. Only
>> ^C helps then.
>>
>
> This is a known side-effect. gb.ncurses uses an interpreter API to catch the
> terminal's SIGWINCH signal but using this API keeps the program running
> beyond the normal termination conditions (Main() finished and nothing is
> watched). I am not sure how to solve that...

Like another event loop...

It doesn't bother me, as long as I know that I have to explicitly Quit.

>
>> Personally I find the cursor behind each .Print string irritating. Can
>> it be suppressed?
>>
>
> Screen.Cursor = Cursor.Hidden

Ah! Thanks...

>
>> Moreover, umlauts aren't printed correctly (I guess it's UTF-8). Is
>> there a solution?
>>
>
> My turn. NCurses offers an ncursesw library for wide characters - I just
> don't use it.
>
> Not out of ignorance or laziness but because I want to use the CDK (curses
> development kit) to implement controls in the terminal (Button (yes, with
> mouse support!), TextBox, TextArea, ListBox, Menu, etc.). And the CDK does
> not support wide characters (which UTF-8 ones are). If I rewrite gb.ncurses
> to use ncursesw now, I'll certainly run into compatibility problems with the
> CDK later.
>
> MAYBE, I can dig into the CDK in summer and try to patch it to use ncursesw.
> However, Thomas Dickey says that this is not as trivial as one might think
> at first. If this does not work, I'm afraid gb.ncurses will not support wide
> characters.
>
> Regards,
> Tobi
>

I see your point and don't mind this, but wouldn't it be a workaround to 
convert Gambas UTF-8 strings into ASCII ones? Is that possible? (Never 
cared about this...) Or does ncurses use another character set than the 
standard ASCII for PCs?

Rolf