Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!alchemy!henkp
From: henkp@cs.ruu.nl (Henk P. Penning)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Curses and Perl
Message-ID: <1991May03.093507.25041@cs.ruu.nl>
Date: 3 May 91 09:35:07 GMT
References: <1352@unet.UUCP>
Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science
Lines: 90

In <1352@unet.UUCP> jukoff@imram.net.com (Steve Jukoff) writes:

>I need to create an ASCII window-oriented set of programs.
>The design is to be as simple and intuitive as possible,
>allowing new and novice users to use it with little intruction.
>
>Is there a method for accessing curses(3) and/or termcap/terminfo
>databases from Perl.

  There are two ways.
  1. Create a perl with curses built in to it.  I have never used this.
  2. Use my "cterm" package. It allows you to use (almost) full curses
     with a 'standard' perl. It consists of a curses-emulator running
     in a separate process, and an interface library.
     See below on how to get it.

>Is there an (ASCII) screen-oriented menu program in PD-land?

  I wrote a flat-file handler called "jinx" which uses "cterm".
  Jinx is menu driven, so it could serve as an example.

  Below is a message I posted earlier.

				===  HenkP  ===

Henk P. Penning, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University.
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31-30-534106
e-mail   : henkp@cs.ruu.nl (uucp to hp4nl!ruuinf!henkp)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I have put together a system for manipulating simple databases.
It is called 'jinx'. I wrote it for the secretaries at our department.
Jinx is easy to use but has powerful relational facilities as well.

Jinx is an interactive, menu-driven program which handles databases
consisting of lists of records, each a list of fields.
In a given database, every record contains the same number of fields.
In short, a database is structured like the /etc/passwd file.
For each field a regexp may be specified which is used as a constraint on the
data which may be entered in the field. Users may override this constraint.

There is no limit on the number of records in a database,
or the number of fields in a record, or the length of a field.
A field may contain arbitrary ascii-printable data.
Jinx uses curses so it runs on any terminal or window of any size.
Jinx doesn't require a 'special' perl, plain PL.18+ will do.

With Jinx you can perform operations on a database like:
-- update, add, copy and delete records
-- test if all fields in all records match their associated regexp
-- select/delete a subset of the records by various means
-- put back some of the deleted records
-- sort the database on one or more key-fields
-- project on one or more columns
-- join with another database
-- add a column to the database (that is: add a field to every record)
-- insert some records from another database
-- test if some given combination of fields is uniq for all records
-- compute fields as a function of other fields in the record

A database is represented by two files, both of them ordinary, editable files.
A simple report generator is provided. Some of the main functions are available
as shell-callable perl scripts.

Jinx requires the 'cterm' package I posted earlier. Jinx and cterm are
available from our archive server archive.cs.ruu.nl (131.211.80.5).
If you have ftp, get 'cterm.shar.Z' and 'jinx.shar.Z' from directory 'pub/UNIX'.
If not, send a message to 'mail-server@cs.ruu.nl' containing the next 4 lines:
begin
send UNIX/cterm.shar
send UNIX/jinx.shar
end
The mail-server will send you the compressed, uuencoded stuff.
Jinx+tools+man+doc is about 4500 lines, (compressed 60 KB).
A jinx tutorial (in LaTeX) is included in the package.
A PostScript version is available in 'UNIX/jinx.ps' in our archive.

Please, try out Jinx and let me know what you think.

				===  HenkP  ===

PS. Jinx is distributed under the terms of the Gnu General Public Licence.

-- 
Henk P. Penning, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University.
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31-30-534106
e-mail   : henkp@cs.ruu.nl (uucp to hp4nl!ruuinf!henkp)