[GLLUG] Linux forms

[Scott Harrison]

On Tue, 2003-09-23 at 10:19, Matt Graham wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 September 2003 09:59, after a long battle with technology, 
> Gary Holbrook wrote:
> > I would really like to build a "Green Screen" type application for
> > linux, but have not found many options for the software.  For
> > example, one could use Ncurses, but it's a little lower level than I
> > would like to use.  I could use PHP and restrict Lynx options, but
> > that's basically a web application...any other ideas?
> 
> "dialog" allows you to create various dialog boxes from a shell script.  
> The kernel's "make menuconfig" uses dialog to do its thing.  I could 
> swear there's a higher-level ncurses-type thing for Perl... (CPAN) 
> http://search.cpan.org/author/CORLISS/CursesForms-1.997/Forms.pm ?  
> Don't know about C libraries/sets, but a quick search on freshmeat.net 
> for "curses form" may find you something.
> 
> Oh yeah, everything can do 16-color now, so jazz up that greenscreen 
> with some gray/blue/red.  HTH,

It might depend on how interactive you need it (like do you
want to be ^G-ing the user every time they enter a field in
incorrectly, not allow them to proceed, etc.).

Back in the day of reverse-engineering the Anaconda python code
several years ago that comes with redhat, it was fairly well laid
out and adjustable even with very scant documentation.  Lets you
choose for text-based dialog mode (while leaving room for
glitzy graphics should you ever want it).

I think Anaconda has matured quite a bit and is reasonably
well-documented now...and it is python.  Lots of dialog features.
For that matter, it might be a quick path to having your green
screen app be portable on boot-up media.

Regards,
Scott

-- 
Scott Harrison <harris41 at msu.edu>
Michigan State University