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First post, by manawyrm

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Hi folks,

I'm trying to write a very simple setup application for some hardware I'm working on.
It's based on mTCP, so it's a cross-compiled C program and I'm building it with OpenWatcom.

I'd love to integrate a very simple TUI like in many of the commercial setup programs (like RSET8019, Sound Blaster drivers, etc.).

That library would need to be:
- compatible with OpenWatcom, ideally compilable on *nix systems
- compatible with 8088 machines
- the only elements I really require are some sort of ListView (for a longer list of entries) and maybe buttons

Any recommendations on what I could use? Other OpenWatcom C programs with some sort of TUI (and MIT/GPL licensed) that I could use as inspiration?

Ideally, I'd just use VB-DOS, but I need some machine code and hacky interrupt routines, so that would probably be more work to integrate than just use C directly.
I'm trying to avoid having to test the software on each machine type (CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules, etc.) and would rather focus on my main goal.

Thanks for any help,
Tobias

Reply 1 of 6, by BloodyCactus

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I have a TUI installer system if thats what your after, but I think you mean just the actual library right?

https://bloodycactus.com/files/si103.zip

it has a compiler part that takes an INI file and builds the installer that runs on a 386+, but the installer itself can run on 8088/8086.

If you want just a library, look for DFLAT, it was an pd? opensource? old version of Borlands TUI system. I dont know if its 8088/8086 compatible, it was plain C so in theory, just compile as -0 for xt support...

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Reply 2 of 6, by manawyrm

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BloodyCactus wrote on 2021-12-22, 23:44:

but I think you mean just the actual library right?

Yep... I'm currently fiddling around with "PDCurses", as that seems to have Watcom support and MS-DOS support, but I'm fighting with the compiler and linker on that one...

Reply 3 of 6, by manawyrm

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Yup, that was a bit painful, but I was now able to build PDCurses and link it to mTCP on Linux!
I'll put the repo up on GitHub when this project is ready 😀

file.php?mode=view&id=126407

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Reply 5 of 6, by doshea

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BloodyCactus wrote on 2021-12-22, 23:44:

If you want just a library, look for DFLAT, it was an pd? opensource? old version of Borlands TUI system. I dont know if its 8088/8086 compatible, it was plain C so in theory, just compile as -0 for xt support...

DFLAT (https://github.com/alexfru/dflat20.git) isn't based on Borland's Turbo Vision as far as I know, the documentation says it came from Dr. Dobb's Journal.

I like Turbo Vision myself, but I'm not sure if there are any ports that support Open Watcom building for DOS.

Apparently OpenZinc supports DOS text mode (http://openzinc.com/Overview.html), and supports Open Watcom and 16-bit DOS but doesn't actually claim to support 16-bit DOS with Open Watcom (perhaps they just didn't try that combination?). It's licensed under LGPL though which might put some people off. Perhaps it is too advanced to have 8088 support though.