NCurses-Like System for Windows

Question

Are there any C++ libraries similar to Ncurses, but for Windows? It seems there are no ports of Ncurses and I need a really good display system like it.

Any suggestions? Cross-platform is a plus.

Solution 1

Not cross platform, but you could use the Windows API's Console Functions directly.

Solution 2

It looks like the GNUWin32 project provides a direct port of NCurses.

See here:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/ncurses.htm

Comments

[Billy ONeal]

Does the cygwin solution force the user to install cygwin though?

[Admin]

@Billy As far as I'm aware, yes, you need the cygwin DLL. The PDCurses solution is a much better bet - I've played with it, and it works well - no cygwin required,

[Dan Andreatta]

@Bill: you need only the cygwin DLL.

[Billy ONeal]

@Dan Andreatta: Does that mean I can just redistribute the DLL with my application in a self extracting ZIP? Or does that chain me to GPL fun?

[Dan Andreatta]

@Billy: GPL fun. You can freely link against the dll if you distribute your application with an open source licence, in which case you simply have to distribute the source code of the dll. Otherwise you have to purchase a license from RedHat.

[Billy ONeal]

@Dan Andreatta: Grr. Getting difficult to stick to the BSD license. :P Thanks!

[Dan Andreatta]

@Billy: If I read it correctly, you can distribute your code with a BSD license together with the DLL, which remain under the "extended GPLv2".

[Thomas Dickey]

The ncurses page appears to be an error. The packages page shows PDcurses.