Build GUI console applications through Terminal.Gui

While browsing through GitHub, I stumbled over the following project;

Terminal.Gui - Cross Platform Terminal GUI toolkit for .NET

This is a toolkit library that helps you build cross-platform GUI console apps. It contains a large list of controls for building text user interfaces and even let you use a reactive programming style through support for reactive extensions.

I created a small example that allows you to scroll through all files in the current directory.

• Create a new console application:

dotnet new console

• Add the Terminal.Gui NuGet package:

dotnet add package terminal.gui

• Add your code:

	using Terminal.Gui;
	using NStack;
	Application.Init();
	var top = Application.Top;
	// Creates the top-level window to show
	var win = new Window("File Browser")
	{
	X = 0,
	Y = 1, // Leave one row for the toplevel menu
	// By using Dim.Fill(), it will automatically resize without manual intervention
	Width = Dim.Fill(),
	Height = Dim.Fill()
	};
	top.Add(win);
	// Creates a menubar, the item "New" has a help menu.
	var menu = new MenuBar(new MenuBarItem[] {
	new MenuBarItem ("_File", new MenuItem [] {
	new MenuItem ("_New", "Creates new file", null),
	new MenuItem ("_Close", "",null),
	new MenuItem ("_Quit", "", () => { if (Quit ()) top.Running = false; })
	}),
	new MenuBarItem ("_Edit", new MenuItem [] {
	new MenuItem ("_Copy", "", null),
	new MenuItem ("C_ut", "", null),
	new MenuItem ("_Paste", "", null)
	})
	});
	top.Add(menu);
	static bool Quit()
	{
	var n = MessageBox.Query(50, 7, "Quit application", "Are you sure you want to quit this app?", "Yes", "No");
	return n == 0;
	}
	var listView = new ListView()
	{
	X = 1,
	Y = 2,
	Height = Dim.Fill(),
	Width = Dim.Fill(1),
	//ColorScheme = Colors.TopLevel,
	AllowsMarking = false,
	AllowsMultipleSelection = false
	};
	var currentDirectory = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
	var files = Directory.GetFiles(currentDirectory);
	listView.SetSource(files);
	// Add some controls,
	win.Add(
	listView,
	new Label(3, 18, "Press F9 or ESC plus 9 to activate the menubar")
	);
	var scrollBar = new ScrollBarView(listView, true);
	scrollBar.ChangedPosition += () => {
	listView.TopItem = scrollBar.Position;
	if (listView.TopItem != scrollBar.Position)
	{
	scrollBar.Position = listView.TopItem;
	}
	listView.SetNeedsDisplay();
	};
	scrollBar.OtherScrollBarView.ChangedPosition += () => {
	listView.LeftItem = scrollBar.OtherScrollBarView.Position;
	if (listView.LeftItem != scrollBar.OtherScrollBarView.Position)
	{
	scrollBar.OtherScrollBarView.Position = listView.LeftItem;
	}
	listView.SetNeedsDisplay();
	};
	listView.DrawContent += (e) => {
	scrollBar.Size = listView.Source.Count - 1;
	scrollBar.Position = listView.TopItem;
	scrollBar.OtherScrollBarView.Size = listView.Maxlength - 1;
	scrollBar.OtherScrollBarView.Position = listView.LeftItem;
	scrollBar.Refresh();
	};
	Application.Run();

view raw FileBrowser.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

• Run the console app:

dotnet run