The primary focus of this site is to help those who are building console-based (terminal window)
applications. For good or ill, the command line is the heart of Linux. However, everyday users will
never make the leap from their current, familiar and comfortable-but-toxic OS until we have tamed
the command-line beast.
Command-line applications are smaller AND faster in every way from load time, to execution
speed to development and maintenance time. Embrace your inner Prompt-meister!
ncdialogapi-0.0.36.tar.bz2
(updated 2023-07-16)
Source code and full documentation for an application programmer's toolkit which
encapsulates the GNU/Linux 'ncurses' library to create dialog-based console applications.
Includes a comprehensive test suite and many example applications.
The NcDialog API (Application Programming Interface) is implemented as a link library which
provides console applications written in C++ with easy access to the text-formatting tools and
window objects needed to design dialog-based applications which leverage the ncurses (actually ncursesw)
C-language library without the need to know
anything about the ncurses primitives. The NcDialog API
is a class-based design which provides robust, modularized code for quick-and-painless development of
console applications which incorporate sophisticated user-interface controls such as Textboxes, Pushbuttons,
Radiobuttons, Spinners and a variety of controls for display and selection of scrolled data items. All languages
and the full Unicode/UTF-8 character set are supported for both LTR and RTL languages. The NcDialog API is also
completely thread safe.
Comprehensive documentation is included, and is designed to be useful both for student programmers and
for grizzled code warriors.
gString class source code (C++), Makefile, test application,
and detailed documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
'gString' is a small, fast and flexible way to seamlessly convert, format and analyze both
UTF-8 and wide (wchar_t) text. Conceptually, gString is a C++ class definition similar to
std::string or the GTK glib::ustring. gString is much simpler than these all-purpose classes,
but it includes the all the common features with none of the fat. gString consists of one
source module and one header file. It can be built as a link library or the object file can be
linked directly with your application. gString is an indispensible tool for multi-language
support in console applications or in any application that is designed to be lean-and-clean.
Console Trashcan (ctrash) source code (C++), Makefile,
and detailed documentation in ‘info’ (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
‘ctrash’ provides comprehnsive Trashcan management from within a terminal window.
Manage the system Trashcan directly from the command-line, or invoke ‘ctrash’ from any application.
‘ctrash’ provides a safe and reliable replacement for the ‘rm’, ‘rmdir’,
‘unlink’ and other console utilities by
provisionally deleting files, rather than deleting them
completely. ‘ctrash’ includes many options which allow you to automatically empty the Trashcan when you log out,
or to manage the number of items in the Trashcan by removing files older than a specified date — and much more.
FileMangler (fmg) source code (C++), installation script (perl) and documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML
formats.
FileMangler is a compact, fast and flexible tool for handling all your file management needs
including scheduled and ad-hoc file backup and synchronization activities. FileMangler is based on the NcDialog API
(see above), and runs as a menu-driven dialog in the GNU/Linux terminal environment. FileMangler provides interactive
access to many system tools such as Less, Grep, Find, Diff, Stat, Chmod, Hexdump, Mount, Tar and much more.
FileMangler also provides full support for managing the local Trashcan. This makes FileMangler ideal for those
who are new to Linux and have not yet mastered the incredibly-powerful, yet endlessly-frustrating world of the
Linux command line. At the same time, experienced command-line gurus will appreciate how the integration of these
utilities into a single, fluid command structure streamlines even complex system maintenance tasks.
Also, and in all modesty, FileMangler's documentation is vastly superior to that of any other
file management application, hobbiest or commercial, for any system, anywhere. (and that's as modest as we ever get :-)
Taggit (taggit) source code (C++), Makefile, and documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
Edit, add or remove text and image metadata (tag data) for audio files.
1) Supports MP3
(id2v2.3/4), OGA
(OGG/Vorbis I, 2015) and WMA
(ASF 1.20.03) audio
formats.
2) Simultaneous editing of an entire album (up to 99 audio source files).
3) User interface is multilingual from the ground up, currently implemented in four (4)
languages: English, Español, Zhōngwén (中文) and Tiếng Việt; with hooks for
additional languages, both LTR and RTL.
While ‘Taggit’ is primarily a model for students who are creating applications with fully-integrated
multilingual user interfaces, Taggit includes one or two interesting features which may be missing from more
“mainstream” tag editors.
WaylandCB class source code (C++), Makefile, test application,
and documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
The WaylandCB clipboard interface class provides a seamless interface between console applications
and the Wayland system clipboards. Wayland is the communications protocol which is replacing X-Windows on most GNU/Linux
desktops, including GNOME 3.20+, KDE Plasma 5+ and others. WaylandCB communicates with the system clipboard through Sergey
Bugaev's “wl-clipboard” console apps “wl-copy” and “wl-paste”. This provides full
independence from GTK, Qt or other toolkits normally needed to create applications which directly communicate with Wayland.
The WaylandCB package also includes our gString tool for encoding/decoding and formatting of text data. WaylandCB may be
built against the included ‘Wayclip’ reference and demonstration app. Wayclip verifies accurate compilation
of the clipboard interface code and demonstrates access to each of WaylandCB's public methods. Full documentation is also included.
AnsiCmd library source code (C++), EarthPoints test application, Makefile,
and detailed documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
The AnsiCmd class defines a set of methods which use
ANSI escape sequences to configure the attributes of text output
for any console application. The full set of escape sequences defined in the
ECMA-48 / ANSI X3.64 standard is supported. These include color
attributes and text modifiers such as bold, italic, underline, etc. Also supported are cursor positioning, area erasure,
I/O stream configuration, capture of the break signal (Ctrl+C) and conversion of keystrokes which arrive as escape sequences.
The AnsiCmd class library is bundled with a test application, “EarthPoints,” (epts), which exercises the full
functionality of the library. EarthPoints is a simple utility which calculates the arc distance between any two GPS
coordinate pairs. The results of this calculation are displayed either in basic TTY-style output or in a windowed format
constructed using the AnsiCmd library.
Note: Although the design of the AnsiCmd library appears to be
fully functional, this is the first public release, and there may be a few typos or (gasp!) – bugs.
crcPlus (crcplus) source code (C++), Makefile, test data
and documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) algorithms are used to verify data integrity in streaming data
which may be subject to data loss via single-bit or burst-error corruption. CRC is used to protect data in everything
from mobile phone text messages, to streaming video.
‘crcPlus’ provides
two fully-configurable CRC Generator reference models:
1) a direct-calculation model for CRC algorithm verification, and
2) a table-driven model which uses a dynamically-created hash table for
performance-oriented CRC generation.
Both of these models are built around the CRC_Gen class definition (C++) which may be “#included” in any
application which needs CRC error detection.
‘crcPlus’ is a natural evolution from our C hack, ‘crcmodel’
(see Applets below), which was in turn based on a reference model by Ross Williams (1993).
Source Profiler (srcprof) source code (C++), Makefile,
and detailed documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
‘srcprof’ analyzes your source code modules and calculates the “maintainability” of
the code. A count of source code lines, comments and whitespace is generated for each source file, and a
“maintainability-index” report is created, giving a baseline evaluation of the effectiveness of the source
code layout. ‘srcprof’ analyzes high-level languages like C, C++, Java and VB, as well as assembly
languages, HTML/CSS markup and scripting languages such as Perl, Python, shell scripts and more.
Become the rock-star developer of your organization. Management types will love these
reports because their disorganized little brains will almost be able
to comprehend the significance of progress in source code development when presented in this simple way.
CSS3 style definition file for use with HTML documents generated from Texinfo source.
Includes CSS definitions, HTML post-processor utility (C++ source), HTML test suite,
Texinfo documentation.
The following group of downloads consists of various code examples and student exercises.
The items available in this section may change from time to time, based on students' needs.
exercalc-0.0.01.tar.bz2
(initial release 2021-07-01)
Exercalc (ecalc) source code (C++), Makefile,
and detailed documentation in 'info' (Texinfo) and HTML formats.
‘ecalc’ is a console (terminal) dialog-based application built using the
author's NcDialog API (ncurses). The application provides a framework for tracking and analysis of daily exercise
data. Using a series of configuration options such as height, weight, type of exercise, velocity, intensity of effort
and your personal exercise goals Exercalc can analyze the data and display your progress both mathematically and in
the form of a standard bar chart.
Exercalc is designed specifically as a teaching tool for the software-design student who wants to create a software
application with a user-friendly, multilingual user interface. As such, a general user may find Exercalc to be
lacking polish; however, software engineering students may benefit from the simple, C++ coding style, the algorithms
for multi-language support and the source code's extensive internal documentation.
Author's Note: This application was written out of boredom caused by the multiple
corona-virus quarantines we have endured, both here in China and in the U.S. While the author appreciates a quiet work
environment, this level of isolation is just ridiculous!
'crcmodel' source code (C), Makefile.
'crcmodel' is reference implementation for generating CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) error detection.
'crcmodel' is based on an original algorithm designed by Ross Williams (1993), updated with significant code
cleanup, the addition of invocation options and other enhancements to assist students and others in integrating CRC
into their own projects.
'crcmodel' provides a simple, accurate model for CRC generation based on a set of flexible setup parameters.
Both 32-bit and 16-bit CRC are supported, as well as reflected and non-reflected bit manipulation. If, for a given
source data stream and setup parameters, your CRC implementation generates the same CRC value as 'crcmodel' then you
can be relatively certain that your implementation is correct!
‘Salmon’ and ‘childApp’ source code (C++), Makefiles, release notes.
The ‘Salmon’ application is a GNU/Linux console (command-line) utility written
in C++ which demonstrates some common examples of spawing an external process from within an application and
redirecting the standard I/O streams to avoid resource conflicts. The application demonstrates the use of the
‘execv’, ‘execl’, ‘execlp’, ‘execvp’, ‘fork’,
‘vfork’, ‘waitpid’ and ‘dup2’ functions, among others. Also demonstrated is a
procedure for defining and opening a secondary terminal window.
‘TermSize’ source code (C++), Makefiles, release notes.
The ‘TermSize’ application is a GNU/Linux console (command-line) utility written
in C++ which reports on terminal-window resize events. ‘TermSize’ is built on the NcDialog API, but unlike
other applications on this site, ‘TermSize’ uses only the basic NCurses-class methods for startup, shutdown and
display output. This greatly simplifies the source code (about 500 lines of code).
This application was written to compensate for the fact that the GNOME terminal application no longer interactively reports
the size of the window as the user resizes it. In addition, gnome-terminal incorrectly uses a hard-coded 12-point font when
calculating the initial size of the window.
(‘Konsole’, on the other hand,
continues to report window-resize event correctly.) So a big Raspberry 😜 to the gnome-terminal maintainers,
but also a big thanks for providing us the incentive to spend a pleasant afternoon writing this little utility program.