My TUIs

date: 2024-12-21 10:24:02

categories: linux

firstPublishDate: 2024-02-11 20:51:50

2024-07-05 Update

These TUI apps are available in my open kiosk ssh service, connect like this:

ssh kiosk@apps.noulin.net
yes

My TUIs run in linux terminals and are built with:

• Sheepy (and libsheepy) - my build system
• Modified version of termbox
• My widget library (twid)
• Written in C

There are no dependencies besides sheepy and gcc.

The terminal font has to support unicode 15 for the TUIs using the 2x3 pixel characters and the terminal is configured for RGB 24 bit colors, when using terminal multiplexers (screen, tmux) you might not get 24bit colors.

The TUIs built on twid have these common key shortcuts:

F1     - Help (blue box on screen top)
q      - Quit
esc    - Quit/Close help
`      - Disable/Enable mouse
ctrl+/ - Change colors (c+7, c+-, c+_)
ctrl+p - Take a screenshot (as text)

I use i3 and I have shortcuts to start my TUIs on terminal windows, I start my calendar in the st terminal with Win/Cmd Key + d:

bindsym $mod+d exec st -e calendar

After sheepy is installed, the TUIs below are installed like this:

sudo spm -g install PACKAGE_NAME

On my laptop, it takes less than 16ms to start these TUIs.

Sheepy

Sheepy is a build system for using C as a scripting language like python. It takes less than 5 minutes to install sheepy on a machine:

apt-get install gcc git
git clone https://spartatek.se/git/sheepy.git
cd sheepy
sudo -H ./install.sh

I noticed some people have issues with `git clone`.

An alternative is too download this tar file:

And then run:

tar xf sheepyAndLibsheepy.tar.gz
cd sheepyAndLibsheepy/sheepy/
sudo -H ./install.sh

The readme has more details.

tetris

`tetris` is a multiplayer tetris clone. When a player clears a line, a line is added to the other player's boards. Players can join and leave the game at any time. On the right side of the screen there is the online player count. The networking system uses unix sockets, multiple instance of tetris on a single are automatically connected to each other.

To play in network, first player start `tetris` on his machine, other players connect with SSH to first player machine and start `tetris`.

Install with spm:

sudo spm -g install tetris

mosaic

`mosaic` is a 1-bit per pixel image editor. It generates images using 2 by 3 square unicode characters. They are regular unicode text (encoded in utf8), like this (it looks broken in firefox):

🬋🬵🬝🬝🬓
🬁🬉🬺🬌🬄
🬞🬫█🬛🬏
 ▐🬂▌

It also saves images as one character per pixel:

    xxxx
xx xxxxxx
  xxx x x
 x xx x x
   xxxxxx
    xx
   xxxx
  xxxxxx
 x xxxx x
   xxxx
   x  x
   x  x

`mosaic` can only load one character per pixel files.

The text field on top of the interface is the filename for the file to load, save or export.

• save stores the image as one character per file, it can be loaded with load
• export stores the image as unicode characters encoded in utf8.

Install with spm:

sudo spm -g install mosaic

ink

`ink` is a tui markdown text editor with an emoji virtual keyboard. `ink` takes the file to edit as an argument:

$ ink filename

When `ink` is started without argument, it will open the last edited file. To start with an empty file, create it with `touch` and then open it with `ink`:

touch newfile.md
ink newfile.md

The edits are saved immediately on disk. On the top line, there are buttons to show or hide the panels below.

• The left column is the header list: lines starting with #
• The middle column is the rendered markdown
• The right column is the editor
• At the bottom, there is the virtual emoji keyboard

`ink` depends on `libsheepy 2.2.15` (2024-10-24). When libsheepy is already installed, run `git pull;./make.sh` to update.

sudo spm -g install ink

alimer

`alimer` is a tui that has a list of alarms, timers and stopwatches. The alarms have weekly repeat, the timers and stopwatches can paused. The state of the app is saved on disk and restored when starting again.

sudo spm -g install alimer

paku paku

`paku paku` is a 1D Pacman game created Aba games, to play it tap any button (except q) to turn. Press `q` to quit the game. It is a one button game.

I reimplemented `paku paku` in C for the terminal (a font with unicode 15 is required to display correctly).

sudo spm -g install pakupaku

Missile Command

Missile Command is a clone of the Missile Command arcade game. I modified the code from `https://github.com/johnflakejr/MissileCommand` to run in the terminal.

sudo spm -g install missileCommand

tcalc - terminal calculator

Basic tui calculator like the gui calculators. It has decimal, hexadecimal and binary numbers.

sudo spm -g install tcalc

manviewer

manviewer shows the man pages in a searchable tree (like a file explorer) for easy navigation.

sudo spm -g install manviewer

calendar

Calendar shows a month and highlights today's day. Use arrows to change month and year. Calendar supports small screens (5-6 inches).

sudo spm -g install calendar

radio

radio is an encrypted chat system using UDP to transport the messages. There is only one broadcast channel.

patate

patate is an ascii art editor. It supports unicode, RGB colors, animations...

sudo spm -g install patate

bato

bato is spartan and gemini tui browser for terminals. It can parse gemtext and markdown and browse files on local disk.

bato depends on openssl for gemini.

sudo spm -g install bato

heure

heure is a clock similar to tty-clock.

sudo spm -g install heure

mandelbrot

mandelbrot is a mandelbrot fractal set explorer.

sudo spm -g install mandelbrot

clop

clop is an asciinema player in the terminal.

sudo spm -g install clop

timer

Timer shows a progress bar.

sudo spm -g install timer

plasma

plasma is a TUI showing the plasma demo effect.

sudo spm -g install plasma

sip

sip is a Systematic Investment Planner. Enter the monthly investment, the period in years and the average yearly rate of return.

sudo spm -g install sip

Hashtag #tui