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Dialog (software)
Encyclopedia
Dialog is an application used in shell script
s which displays text user interface
widgets. It uses the curses
or ncurses
library. The latter provides users with the ability to use a mouse, e.g., in an xterm
.
Dialog was created by Savio Lam (first reported version 0.3 was in 1994).
It was further modified by several people.
Since 1999 it has been maintained (and rewritten) by Thomas Dickey.
At least one fork
exists,
a FreeBSD
-only split into application and library in late 1994. One might also consider lxdialog (part of menuconfig
), except that it has been reduced to fragments that can no longer run dialog scripts.
There are several programs inspired by dialog; not all read the same scripts.
The most well-known are Xdialog and whiptail
.
Shell script
A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system. It is often considered a simple domain-specific programming language...
s which displays text user interface
Text user interface
TUI short for: Text User Interface or Textual User Interface , is a retronym that was coined sometime after the invention of graphical user interfaces, to distinguish them from text-based user interfaces...
widgets. It uses the curses
Curses (programming library)
curses is a terminal control library for Unix-like systems, enabling the construction of text user interface applications.The name is a pun on the term “cursor optimization”. It is a library of functions that manage an application's display on character-cell terminals .- Overview :The curses API...
or ncurses
Ncurses
ncurses is a programming library that provides an API which allows the programmer to write text user interfaces in a terminal-independent manner. It is a toolkit for developing "GUI-like" application software that runs under a terminal emulator...
library. The latter provides users with the ability to use a mouse, e.g., in an xterm
Xterm
In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it .xterm originated prior to the X Window System...
.
Dialog was created by Savio Lam (first reported version 0.3 was in 1994).
It was further modified by several people.
Since 1999 it has been maintained (and rewritten) by Thomas Dickey.
At least one fork
Fork
As a piece of cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a tool consisting of a handle with several narrow tines on one end. The fork, as an eating utensil, has been a feature primarily of the West, whereas in East Asia chopsticks have been more prevalent...
exists,
a FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
-only split into application and library in late 1994. One might also consider lxdialog (part of menuconfig
Menuconfig
make menuconfig is one of three tools that can configure the Linux kernel source, a necessary early step needed to compile the source code...
), except that it has been reduced to fragments that can no longer run dialog scripts.
There are several programs inspired by dialog; not all read the same scripts.
The most well-known are Xdialog and whiptail
Newt (programming library)
Newt is a programming library for color text mode, widget-based user interfaces. Newt can be used to add stacked windows, entry widgets, checkboxes, radio buttons, labels, plain text fields, scrollbars, etc., to text user interfaces...
.