Creating Graphical Command Line Interface (from scratch)

[Gone]

Hello all,

I'm trying to create my own version of "ncurses" from scratch because I am bored, also I am trying to learn C# programming. I know that I can very easily create a GUI using Visual Studio, however I like graphical console apps.

Does anybody know of reading material that may help me understand the relations between windows, screens, and form elements. I so far have created a drawing system using box characters, as well as a basic system that holds an array of "Pixels", which is a class that I made that holds the following information:

...    
class Pixel
{
        private Coordinates location;	//a struct of (ushort x, ushort y)
        private char character;			// Holds any single character of "Text"
		private ConsoleColor characterColor;	// Holds the color of the single character of text
        private char backgroundCharacter;	// Holds a box character
        private ConsoleColor backgroundCharacterColor;			// Holds the backgroundCharacter color
....

Here is a quick preview of my window class:

...   
class Window
{
        private ushort windowWidth;
        private ushort windowHeight;
        private Coordinates origin;
        private String windowTitle;
        private BorderType border;
        private ConsoleColor borderColor;
        private ConsoleColor textColor;
        private ConsoleColor titleColor;
        private ConsoleColor backgroundColor;

        private Pixel[][] pixels;

       public Window(ushort _width, ushort _height, ushort originX, ushort originY, ConsoleColor _backgroundColor, ConsoleColor _textColor, String _title, ConsoleColor _titleColor)
        {
            this.windowWidth = _width;
            this.windowHeight = _height;
            origin.X = originX;
            origin.Y = originY;
            this.textColor = _textColor;
            this.titleColor = _titleColor;
            this.windowTitle = _title;
            this.backgroundColor = _backgroundColor;

            for (ushort x = 0; x < windowWidth; x++)
            {
                for (ushort y = 0; y < windowHeight; y++)
                {
                    this.pixels[x][y] = new Pixel(x, y);
                    this.pixels[x][y].setColor(this.backgroundColor);
                }
            }
        }
...

I am trying to find the most effective way to update the Window and currently have a blank screen class that will handle all the drawing. I have searched for a diagram that shows the different layers of a user interface to get an idea of how the events are handled and drawn, but haven't found anything that has helped my understanding. Is there any books that cover developing a graphical user interface or online articles? I don't want to learn how to use existing API's, but rather see one developed from scratch.

 

It would be totally easier if their was a port of ncurses for Windows 10. PDCurses was last updated in 2008, so I do not wish to use that. If anybody has heard of an alternative that works with today that I can use C# to program, I'd love to hear it.

 

Hopefully I didn't completely confuse everybody. Thanks!

[DevTech]

  On 24/07/2016 at 01:12, SpeedyTheSnail said:

 am trying to find the most effective way to update the Window and currently have a blank screen class that will handle all the drawing. I have searched for a diagram that shows the different layers of a user interface to get an idea of how the events are handled and drawn, but haven't found anything that has helped my understanding. Is there any books that cover developing a graphical user interface or online articles? I don't want to learn how to use existing API's, but rather see one developed from scratch.

 

It would be totally easier if their was a port of ncurses for Windows 10. PDCurses was last updated in 2008, so I do not wish to use that. If anybody has heard of an alternative that works with today that I can use C# to program, I'd love to hear it.

 

Hopefully I didn't completely confuse everybody. Thanks!

Expand  

https://github.com/search?utf8=✓&q=console+output+language%3Ac%23&type=Repositories&ref=searchresults

 

Also, the new Bash console in Windows 10 is well, Bash using code developed by Ubuntu guys

 

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUsermodeUbuntuLinuxBinariesOnWindows10.aspx

 

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/InstallingFishShellOnUbuntuOnWindows10.aspx

 

Also, new Windows 10 console in Anniversary Update has the ANSI stuff

 

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ForgottenButAwesomeWindowsCommandPromptFeatures.aspx

 

Also, ConEmu:

 

http://conemu.github.io/en/Reviews.html

 

And of course we can't forget the REPL thing:

 

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/InteractiveCodingWithCAndFREPLsScriptCSOrTheVisualStudioInteractiveWindow.aspx

 

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheJoyOfLiveCodingCodePenREPLsTOPLAPAliveAndMore.aspx