View source for Ncurses

Ncurses stands for New Curses which is provided by the [http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ GNU] team. It is the [[GUI]] between [[console]] and graphical to the point where you can use a mouse on such environments as [[X]] or [[Windows]]. For the pedantic, I'm aware you can use a mouse in ncurses, such as software like gpm.

Curses where ncurses is derived from provides a terminal independent API to the [[termcap]] (truly terminal independent) functions.  Any terminal that runs UNIX will be able to interpret the screen commands such as clearing a screen or moving the cursor to given x/y coordinates, except where colours come into play and the terminal is monochrome.

Let's try to make a [[Hello World]] program with ncurses. You will require [[gcc]] installed to try this, as well as an editor such as [[vi]]. Create a file called ncurses.c and enter the following into it:

 #include <ncurses.h>
 int main()
 {	
 initscr();			/* Start curses mode 		  */
 printw("Hello World");	/* Print Hello World		  */
 refresh();			/* Print it on to the real screen */
 getch();			/* Wait for user input */
 endwin();			/* End curses mode		  */
 return 0;
 }

once you save the file, let's [[compiler|compile]] it:

 $ gcc -Wall -lncurses -o ncurses ncurses.c

-Wall will print all warnings, but you should have none. Now we will run our executable:

 $ ./ncurses

You should see your screen completely get cleared (this was initscr()) and then it will print ''Hello World''. For your next steps, check out the [[Manual]] at

 $ man 3 ncurses