[GLLUG] Linux forms

[Edward Glowacki]

On Tue, 2003-09-23 at 09:59, 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?

AFAIK, there isn't any real good, universal console ("green screen")
toolkit equivalent to the X toolkits like GTK or QT, with nice widgets
and good support.  Basically the trend seems to be that the console is
used for simple text output, very basic input, and that's about it.  For
more interactive applications, most people have either gone to the GUI
or the web.

That said, there are a few options I've come across that may help you:

dialog - OK if you want just simple "check this box", "type in text
here", and "click OK" stuff, but you really don't have much control over
the interaction there.  Basically you say "display these choices, get
the user input, and give me the results".

CDK (Curses Development Kit) - provides some stuff on top of curses that
might be useful to you, but it may or may not readily work with your
chosen programming language.  

newt - From someone at RedHat, not particularly well documented or
anything, but it seems to work.

wxWindows - Apparently someone is porting wxWindows to curses.  Dunno
what the status is or if it will ever be viable.


I guess the real question is, what kind of application are you trying to
write?  Is there a reason it HAS to be console-based (for example
something like "fsck" better not require X... =) ), or would a GUI
work?  Personally I'd try something like Python + wxWindows, because I
prefer programming in python and wxWindows works on a variety of
back-ends (GTK, MS Windows, etc...) with the exact same code.  So
depending on your application, instead of having people log in remotely
and use a console-based app, you could have them run the app on their
machines in "native" mode and just connect back to a server somewhere
that does whatever you need done.

-ED

-- 
Edward Glowacki			glowack2 at msu.edu
A PBS mind in an MTV world. 
	-- Author unknown