Is ncurses available for windows?

Question

Are there any ncurses libraries in C/C++ for Windows that emulate ncurses in native resizable Win32 windows (not in console mode)?

Solution 1

There's an ongoing effort for a PDCurses port:

http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00129.html

http://www.projectpluto.com/win32a.htm

Solution 2

Such a thing probably does not exist "as-is". It doesn't really exist on Linux or other UNIX-like operating systems either though.

ncurses is only a library that helps you manage interactions with the underlying terminal environment. But it doesn't provide a terminal emulator itself.

The thing that actually displays stuff on the screen (which in your requirement is listed as "native resizable win32 windows") is usually called a Terminal Emulator. If you don't like the one that comes with Windows (you aren't alone; no person on Earth does) there are a few alternatives. There is Console, which in my experience works sometimes and appears to just wrap an underlying Windows terminal emulator (I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing, since there is a menu option to actually get access to that underlying terminal emulator, and sure enough an old crusty Windows/DOS box appears which mirrors everything in the Console window).

A better option

Another option, which may be more appealing is puttycyg. It hooks in to Putty (which, coming from a Linux background, is pretty close to what I'm used to, and free) but actually accesses an underlying cygwin instead of the Windows command interpreter (CMD.EXE). So you get all the benefits of Putty's awesome terminal emulator, as well as nice ncurses (and many other) libraries provided by cygwin. Add a couple command line arguments to the Shortcut that launches Putty (or the Batch file) and your app can be automatically launched without going through Putty's UI.

Comments

[David Karlaš]

This is what I was looking for. The win32a project is in the right direction. I have spoken with the developer and there is a chance to see this implementation as part of the PDCurses at some point.

[DevSolar]

Unfortunately puttycyg was discontinued. Personally, I recommend Cygwin/X combined with Cygwin Ports, using the quite comfortable RoxTerm terminal emulator.

[Andrew]

On Github: github.com/Bill-Gray/PDCursesMod