Install Ncurses Library Windows

26.08.201926.08.2019

Install Ncurses Library Windows
Ncurses Windows Python
Please Install Ncurses

Active9 months ago

Ncurses is only a library that helps you manage interactions with the underlying terminal environment. But it doesn't provide a terminal emulator itself. The thing that actually displays stuff on the screen (which in your requirement is listed as 'native resizable win32 windows') is usually called a Terminal.

Dec 30, 2017 Install ncurses. In order to use either the ncurses or the pancurses backend, you will need the ncurses library installed on your system. Ncurses library is missing? What it is and how do I install it on a Linux operating system? Ncurses is a programming library that provides an API which allows the programmer to write text-based user interfaces in a terminal-independent manner. It is a toolkit for developing 'GUI-like' application software that runs.

I wanted to learn about 'ncurses' library.But I am a beginner and couldn't understand how to get the library setup and usable.Do you just copy the library files and start using it or is there something that i should do specifically?

Thanks in advance.

Allen

AllenAllen

2 Answers

Do you just copy the library files and start using it?

On Windows you should use PDCurses:

Download the zip file, unpack it wherever you typically put external libraries, and check the readme, which tells you the following:

PDCurses has been ported to DOS, OS/2, Win32, X11 and SDL. A directory containing the port-specific source files exists for each of these platforms. Build instructions are in the README file for each platform.

The readme file in the Win32 directory tells you that there are makefiles for several different compilers. In short, you run make:

It tells mentions a couple of options you can set, including WIDE and UTF8.

To then use the library, add the directory that contains curses.h to your include path and link with the pdcurses.lib file that make generates for you. How you modify your include path and your linked libraries depends on your development environment and is largely irrelevant to PDCurses.

Source How do I install PDCurses in Windows for use with C++? by Rob Kennedy

More detailed instructions below.

So are `ncurses` and `PDcurses` the same?

PDCurses (Pubic Domain Curses) is the multi-platform, public domain implementation of the terminal display library NCurses.

NCurses (New Curses) is an implementation of Curses (a play on the term cursor optimization), both of which are terminal control libraries for UNIX and UNIX-like systems.

Although not identical, PDCurses, NCurses, and Curses enable programmers to add mouse support, screen painting, colors, key-mapping, windows, and more to text-based applications without regard to the terminal type. An example of PDCurses in use is shown here.

MingW (Minimalist GNU for Windows) is a minimal Open Source programming environment for developing Windows native applications not requiring 3rd-party Runtime DLLs. However, MingW does utilize some Microsoft DLLs provided by the Microsoft C runtime library. It includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and associated tools, the GNU binutils.

Source Adding PDCurses to MingW

Adding PDCurses to MingW

Steps

Download the PDCurses version 3.4 file (Download pdc34dllw.zip (86.9 KB)) from Sourceforge.com and unzip it. This version is the Win32 DLL for console with Unicode.

Copy the extracted files to the following folders:

pdcurses.lib to MingW's /lib folder
curses.h and panel.h to MingW's /include folder
pdcures.dll to MingW's /bin folder

Test

Example command using PDCurses to compile the file checkthis.c: