Modern, thread-safe terminal UI support for Qore 2.3 using the system ncurses library.

This module is a complete redesign with a clean, high-level API. It is not backward-compatible with the legacy module.

• Qore 2.3 (development branch)
• ncurses (with panel support)
• CMake 3.21+ (Alpine CI uses CMake 4)

mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake ..
make

%modern
%requires ncurses

Ncurses::Session s();
Ncurses::Window w = s.screen();

w.clear();
w.drawText(1, 2, "Hello, Ncurses!", {fg: Ncurses::Color::Cyan, attrs: Ncurses::Attr::Bold});
w.refresh();

w.readEvent();
s.close();

If you need ncurses I/O on a dedicated TTY (for example to capture stdout while still using ncurses), create the session with use_tty: True. When use_tty is enabled, stdout/stderr are set to unbuffered by default to keep output capture responsive; this can be disabled with unbuffered_stdio: False.

To avoid overwriting borders, use the clipped drawing helpers:

w.drawTextClipped(1, -2, "Hello");  # clipped to window bounds
w.drawTextInside(0, 0, "Title");    # clipped to inner area of a boxed window
w.drawTextInsideLine(1, "Value");   # clears the line, then draws

For low-flicker updates, use queued refreshes and a single flush:

w.noutrefresh();
s.updatePanels();
s.doupdate();

To keep the cursor in a specific window while updating others:

info.setLeaveOk(True);

You can also save and restore cursor positions around updates:

hash pos = input.saveCursor();
info.drawTextInsideLine(0, "Time: 12:00");
input.restoreCursor(pos);

The module installs a full-screen REPL frontend backed by the QoreRepl module:

qrepl

The output pane supports mouse wheel scrolling and keyboard paging (click the output pane, then use the wheel, arrow keys, PgUp/PgDn, Home/End).

The NcursesUi helper module provides reusable widgets for pop-up menus and browsers:

%requires NcursesUi

NcursesUi::PanelWidget popup();
NcursesUi::MenuBarWidget menu();

These widgets are used by qrepl to provide mouse-driven menus, a reflection browser, and a filesystem browser.

Mouse input is supported via Window::readEvent() when Session is created with mouse: True (default). Mouse events are reported as input events with type == Ncurses::InputType::Mouse and include a mouse hash with coordinates and button state.

All ncurses calls are serialized with a module-level recursive lock. Input calls release the lock between polling cycles to allow concurrent rendering from other threads.

Doxygen documentation is generated from the QPP sources and docs/mainpage.dox.tmpl.

MIT.