So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
Mailing lists / fpc-pascal / 2026-08
TUI library
11 messages · 6 people · –
- Michael Van Canneyt 3
- Timothy Groves 2
- Tomas Hajny 2
- Unknown author 2
- Benny Christensen 1
- Stefan V. Pantazi 1
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Timothy Groves wroteSo video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes instead of the old TP model.
It works with TComponent as a base class, the intent is to allow you to design a TUI application in the Lazarus IDE.
The integration in Lazarus is not yet 100% completed (I still need to flesh out some bugs in the designer), but if you don't mind that, and are prepared to do everything in code for the time being, I'm willing to put it already publicly available.
It comes with a lot of simple examples, at least one per 'control'. All are verified to work. If you run into problems, I will of course help you out, because I want to make this really usable.
Michael.
Only problem is, FreeVision doesn't work for the program I am trying to write. For a single-document distraction-free writer, it's extreme overkill. Thanks for the offer, though.
Michael Van Canneyt wrote 12 lines
On Mon, 24 Aug 2026, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal wrote:
> So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is
> a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works
> and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes
instead of
the old TP model.
--
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So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is a nightmare...can…
24. srpna 2026 21:20:45 SELČ, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal napsal:
So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
Out of curiousity - why do you say that "video+keyboard is no longer reliable"? FreeVision is based on them as far as I know, and FV is still used for FPC IDE?
Tomas
24. srpna 2026 22:38:34 SELČ, Timothy Groves napsal:
Show quoted text 7 lines
On 2026-08-24 16:36, Tomas Hajny wrote:
> 24. srpna 2026 21:20:45 SELČ, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal napsal:
>> So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
> Out of curiousity - why do you say that "video+keyboard is no longer reliable"? FreeVision is based on them as far as I know, and FV is still used for FPC IDE?
>
Because keyboard.GetKeyEvent is not returning reliable information.
Do you have some details for that (target, what exactly works wrongly, possibly a bug report containing these details)?
Tomas
Only problem is, FreeVision doesn't work for the program I am trying to write. For a…
No worries. Did you try the ncurses library ?
units: form menu ncrt ncurses ocrt
It's much more lightweight. See the examples.
Michael.
Timothy Groves wrote 26 lines
Only problem is, FreeVision doesn't work for the program I am trying to
write. For a single-document distraction-free writer, it's extreme
overkill. Thanks for the offer, though.
On 2026-08-24 15:33, Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2026, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>> So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is
>> a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works
>> and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
>
> I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes
> instead of
> the old TP model.
> --
https://policies.google.com/privacy
https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement
_______________________________________________
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I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes instead of the old TP…
I'd love a copy of that code, where can I grab it?
Michael Van Canneyt wrote 30 lines
On Mon, 24 Aug 2026, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal wrote:
> So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is
> a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works
> and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes
instead of
the old TP model.
It works with TComponent as a base class, the intent is to allow you
to design a TUI application in the Lazarus IDE.
The integration in Lazarus is not yet 100% completed (I still need to
flesh out
some bugs in the designer), but if you don't mind that, and are
prepared to do everything in
code for the time being, I'm willing to put it already publicly
available.
It comes with a lot of simple examples, at least one per 'control'.
All are verified to work. If you run into problems, I will of course help
you out, because I want to make this really usable.
Michael.
_______________________________________________
fpc-pascal maillist -
https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
No worries. Did you try the ncurses library ? units: form menu ncrt ncurses ocrt It's…
I went ahead and compiled the edit_demo.pp in the examples folder. It needed only the {$mode tp} directive to compile successfully. I attached a screenshot.
Thank you Michael for reminding of the ncurses library.
Stefan
Michael Van Canneyt wrote 6 lines
No worries. Did you try the ncurses library ?
units: form menu ncrt ncurses ocrt
It's much more lightweight. See the examples.
Michael.
I'd love a copy of that code, where can I grab it?
Hi
Have a look at "github.com/Warfley/LazTermUtils" & " github.com/Warfley/LazTextForms"
Regards Benny 🙂
tir. 25. aug. 2026 04.50 skrev Travis Siegel via fpc-pascal <
Show quoted text 40 lines
:
I'd love a copy of that code, where can I grab it?
On 8/24/2026 7:33 PM, Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2026, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>> So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is
>> a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works
>> and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
>
> I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes
> instead of
> the old TP model.
>
> It works with TComponent as a base class, the intent is to allow you
> to design a TUI application in the Lazarus IDE.
>
> The integration in Lazarus is not yet 100% completed (I still need to
> flesh out
> some bugs in the designer), but if you don't mind that, and are
> prepared to do everything in
> code for the time being, I'm willing to put it already publicly
> available.
>
> It comes with a lot of simple examples, at least one per 'control'.
> All are verified to work. If you run into problems, I will of course help
> you out, because I want to make this really usable.
>
> Michael.
> _______________________________________________
> fpc-pascal maillist -
> https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
_______________________________________________
fpc-pascal maillist -
https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
I'd love a copy of that code, where can I grab it?
I put it here:
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/cfv
Michael.
Travis Siegel wrote 38 lines
I'd love a copy of that code, where can I grab it?
On 8/24/2026 7:33 PM, Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2026, Timothy Groves via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>> So video+keyboard is no longer reliable, crt is a mess, FreeVision is
>> a nightmare...can anybody point me to a fpc TUI library that works
>> and is at least somewhat cross-platform?
>
> I have a version of FreeVision that was rewritten to use classes
> instead of
> the old TP model.
>
> It works with TComponent as a base class, the intent is to allow you
> to design a TUI application in the Lazarus IDE.
>
> The integration in Lazarus is not yet 100% completed (I still need to
> flesh out
> some bugs in the designer), but if you don't mind that, and are
> prepared to do everything in
> code for the time being, I'm willing to put it already publicly
> available.
>
> It comes with a lot of simple examples, at least one per 'control'.
> All are verified to work. If you run into problems, I will of course help
> you out, because I want to make this really usable.
>
> Michael.
> _______________________________________________
> fpc-pascal maillist -
> https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
_______________________________________________
fpc-pascal maillist -
https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
Michael Van Canneyt wrote 7 lines
I put it here:
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/cfv
Thank you, Can't use lazarius, since the last time I checked
(admittedly, several years ago), it wasn't very usable with screen
readers, so this will help considerably in designing interfaces.