Curses UI

An easy-to-use procedurally-generated widget system for curses in Python.

item format:

item format is the main format used by the majority of widgets in this system.

definitions

An "arg," from here on out, is a key-value pair, from within a dictionary, that is itself a value of a dictionary in item format

A sub arg is an arg that is only passed with a certain functionality sub args are required unless otherwise specified

global args

These arguments will be on every item listed here, optionally unless otherwise specified.

• functionality: str - the functionality of the item, valid values will be covered later. Invalid values will do the same as not specifying at all.
• description: str - a description of the option
• always_show_description: bool - whether or not to always show the description of the item, if set to False, the description will only be shown while the item is selected.
• exit_after_action - exits the current menu after the option is selected and its functionality is performed. Can be used with the none functionality to implement an exit button.

functionalities

• run_function Runs a function with arbitrary arguments

  Sub Args:

  • function: Callable[[Unknown], None] - a reference to the function to run
  • args: list optional - a list of positional arguments to pass to the function
  • kwargs: dict[str, Unknown] optional - a dictionary of keyword arguments to pass to the function

• edit Opens the editor widget. The name argument of the selection widget is the key of this item.

  Sub Args:

  • value: str - as if you were passing it directly to the selection widget, format covered below. This gets overwritten after a successful edit.
  • validator: Callable[[str], bool] optional - as if you were passing it directly to the selection widget, format covered below.
  • allowed_human_readable: str optional - as if you were passing it directly to the selection widget, format covered below.

• select Opens the selection widget

  sub args:

  • value: str - as if you were passing it directly to the selection widget, format covered below. This gets overwritten when the user selects a new value.
  • options: dict[str, dict] - as if you were passing it directly to the selection widget, format covered below.

• option Only intended to be used with the selection widget. Provides the value sub arg:

  sub args:

  • value: Any - changes the returned value of the option. Useful if you want to have a different name displayed to the user than what is returned. Careful, though. In the dict ui the returned value will be displayed to the user after they select it if you don't have display_value set to False in the select item, or have displayed_value set.
  • displayed_value: str optional - what is displayed to the user in a dict ui, rather than value.

• sub menu A new instance of dict_ui with the input menu dictionary

  Sub Args:

  • menu: dict - a menu dictionary

dict_ui

Arguments:

• base_window: curses.window - a curses window
• dictionary: dict[str, dict] - a dictionary with values of dicts in item format. This is what the UI is generated from.
• item_display: Callable[[tuple[str, dict], bool], tuple[str, int]] optional - an argument that allows users to overwrite the way items are listed
• start_line: int optional - the line to start at in the selection. Will error if out-of-bounds
• start_pos: int optional - the amount of lines to pan down. Will error if out-of-bounds

selection_ui

Arguments:

• base_window: curses.window - a curses window
• options: dict[str, dict] - a dictionary containing dictionaries in item format. All global args are valid, and each item can optionally have the option functionality for some extra functionality
• item_display: Callable[[tuple[str, dict], bool], tuple[str, int]] optional - an argument that allows users to overwrite the way items are listed
• start_line: int optional - the line to start at in the selection. Will error if out-of-bounds
• start_pos: int optional - the amount of lines to pan down. Will error if out-of-bounds

editor_ui

• base_window: curses.window - a curses window
• name: str - the "name" of the value being assigned, ususally analagous to the name of the variable being assigned to. This gets displayed to the user
• value: str optional - the default value before modification
• validator: Callable[[str], bool] optional - a reference to a function. The input is the entire submitted string, and the output will determine whether or not it will get accepted. If it does not get accepted, the input box will be reset to the previous value, and the user will be prompted to input again. This will repeat until the uset inputs a valid value.
• allowed_human_readable: str optional - a string that gets printed after the name of the value the user is editing. This is intended to instruct users in an understandable fashion what values are valid or invalid.