• Stars
    star
    808
  • Rank 56,429 (Top 2 %)
  • Language
    Python
  • License
    MIT License
  • Created over 9 years ago
  • Updated about 2 years ago

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Be the first to send feedback to the community and the maintainers!

Repository Details

Lightweight, pure-Python Text User Interface (TUI) widget toolkit with minimal dependencies. Dedicated to the Pycopy project.

picotui

Picotui is a Text User Interface (TUI) widget library for Python3. It is known to work with CPython3 and Pycopy (Unix version is officially supported for the latter), but should work with any Python3 implementation which allows to access stdin/stdout file descriptors.

You can learn more about it with the help of a virtual Q&A session:

Q: There're a few TUI libraries for Python, why yet another one?

A: Urwid is one well-known such TUI library. Here's an entry from its FAQ: "How do I create drop-downs, floating windows, and scroll bars? - You need to start writing some fairly complex widgets. This functionality hasn't been added to Urwid yet." So, Urwid is a widget library which doesn't have dropdowns. Version 0.8.0 of Urwid was imported into SVN (and later Git) in 2004. Urwid doesn't have dropdowns and stuff for 10+ years.

Q: Hey, but you cut off the answer from Urwid FAQ. It says: "but if you are willing to write it, we do accept patches". Why didn't you implement those widgets for Urwid and contribute them?

A: Why didn't you? No, wait, that's not productive. I didn't implement them for Urwid because I don't like its architecture and the fact that its widget set is rather weak (so it's hard to write new widgets - there are not enough examples to start from). And don't get me wrong, but the fact that nobody wrote those widgets for Urwid during 10+ years, got to mean something. However, I tried to hack on another, less, but still known Python TUI library - Npyscreen. Its widget set is much more advanced and usable. But - it still has some architectural choices which makes extending it and overriding some behaviors problematic. I also found its project management a bit unresponsive. So, after making a dozen of commits to my fork, I thought it's time to get some breath and started picotui.

Q: So, sun must shine bright in the picotui land, and it must be the best library out there?

A: Alas, no. Let me start with the fact that most TUI libraries are based on curses library for terminal screen management. It makes sure that if you update a screen, only the minimal set of updates is made. This was very important at the era of 300 baud serial connections. Let's count: 300 baud is about 30 bytes/s, and the standard VT100 screen is 80*24 = ~2K. Double that for attributes. So, transferring a complete screen to show to user would take 2 mins. If you draw the same screen twice (no changes in content), it would take 4 mins. curses library cuts that back to mere 2 mins. So, alas, picotui doesn't use curses. That's based on the fact that picotui wants to be compatible with Pycopy, and its philosophy is minimalism - if it's possible to do screen output without curses, let's do just that. It's also grounded in the fact that nobody uses 300 baud modems any longer, most apps are run in a local terminal emulator with instant updates, most of the remaining are run over LANs which also offer fast updates. The modern basic serial connection speed is 115200 which is still too slow for real-time fullscreen updates though. That's why I say "alas". Beyond the optimized screen updates, picotui lacks many other things too: e.g., double-buffering (so redrawing the previous screen content behind pop-ups is up to you), it lacks geometry managers, so calculating coordinates is up to you, etc. Yes, just like that - I lacked widgets the most, and that's what I implemented. The rest is just KISS.

Q: But that's really sad!

A: Indeed, it is. The only good news is that now you have a choice: if you want your app work well with 300 baud modems, you can use other libraries, and if you want widgets, you can use picotui.

Q: So many words, where's a mandatory screenshot?

A: Sure:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pfalcon/picotui/master/picotui.png

Documentation

Picotui is an experimental WIP project, and the best documentation currently is the source code (https://github.com/pfalcon/picotui/tree/master/picotui) and examples (see below).

Examples

  • example_widgets.py - Shows repertoire of widgets, inside a dialog.
  • example_menu.py - Shows a "fullscreen" application with a main menu.
  • example_dialogs.py - Shows some standard dialogs.
  • examples/ - More assorted examples.

Known Issues

Pay attention to what Unicode font you use in your console. Some Linux distributions, e.g. Ubuntu, are known to have a broken Unicode font installed by default, which causes various visual artifacts (specifically, Ubuntu Mono font isn't really monospace - many Unicode pseudographic characters have double (or so) width, box-drawing symbols have gaps, etc.)

More Repositories

1

esp-open-sdk

Free and open (as much as possible) integrated SDK for ESP8266/ESP8285 chips
Makefile
1,971
star
2

pycopy

Pycopy - a minimalist and memory-efficient Python dialect. Good for desktop, cloud, constrained systems, microcontrollers, and just everything.
C
764
star
3

awesome-smarthome

Curated list of awesome SmartHome/Home Automation things (open and leaving users in control)
487
star
4

picoweb

Really minimal web application framework for the Pycopy project (minimalist Python dialect) and its "uasyncio" async framework
Python
474
star
5

ScratchABit

Easily retargetable and hackable interactive disassembler with IDAPython-compatible plugin API
Python
392
star
6

uzlib

Radically unbloated DEFLATE/zlib/gzip compression/decompression library. Can decompress any gzip/zlib data, and offers simplified compressor which produces gzip-compatible output, while requiring much less resources (and providing less compression ratio of course).
C
303
star
7

pycopy-lib

Standard library of the Pycopy project, minimalist and light-weight Python language implementation
Python
247
star
8

awesome-micropython

Curated list of awesome MicroPython resources
175
star
9

awesome-program-analysis

Program Analisys and Transformation survey and links (particular focus on SSA)
153
star
10

blutunode

Autonomous wireless sensor/actuator node using bluetooth modules based on CSR BlueCore chipset. See wiki for more info.
C
149
star
11

foreign-dlopen

Small library allowing to use dlopen() from statically-linked applications (where statically-linked executable vs loaded shared library may use completely different libc's)
C
143
star
12

awesome-linux-android-hacking

List of hints and Q&As to get most of your Linux/Android device
127
star
13

ssabook

Mirror of InriaForge SSABook repository: https://gforge.inria.fr/projects/ssabook/ (was scheduled for retirement at the end of 2020, was still online as of 2021-03, but then gone by 2021-09).
TeX
125
star
14

yaota8266

Yet another OTA solution for ESP8266, this time supporting large (>512KB) firmwares even on 1MB devices (repo is rebased)
C
119
star
15

ScratchABlock

Yet another crippled decompiler project
Python
103
star
16

awesome-python-compilers

Retrospective of Python compilation efforts
62
star
17

utemplate

Micro template engine in Python with low memory usage, designed for Pycopy, a minimalist Python dialect, but also compatible with other Pythons.
Python
60
star
18

graph-llvm-ir

Visualization of LLVM IR
Python
55
star
19

PeripheralTemplateLibrary

Cross-platform, cross-MCU C++ template library for microcontrollers and peripheral devices
C++
54
star
20

android-platform-headers

Collection of platform headers and link libs for all versions of Android. (repo is rebased, see wiki)
C
54
star
21

visited_places

Simple, static, local visited places map (aka travel map) using D3 and D3 Datamaps
HTML
49
star
22

re1.5

re1, the unbloated regexp engine by Russ Cox, elaborated to be useful for real-world applications
C
41
star
23

python-compiler.old

Python2 compiler package ported to Python3. Compiles Python AST (as produced by the "ast" module) to bytecode assembly and code objects.
Python
41
star
24

python-imphook

Simple and clear import hooks for Python - import anything as if it were a Python module
Python
36
star
25

optware-android

Optware setup script for Android devices. Not actively maintained any more. You may want to look at https://github.com/Entware-ng/Entware-ng/wiki/Install-on-Android
Shell
35
star
26

notes-pico

Flask Notes sample application ported to the Pycopy's picoweb web micro-framework
Python
35
star
27

ida-xtensa2

IDAPython plugin for Tensilica Xtensa (as seen in ESP8266), version 2
Python
34
star
28

cortex-uni-startup

Unified startup code and link scripts for Cortex-M microcontrollers
C
32
star
29

pyflate

Pure Python zlib/gzip/bzip2 decompessor/bitstream dumper, plus additional utilities
Python
28
star
30

berkeley-db-1.xx

Berkeley DB 1.85 with patches and fixes applied
C
24
star
31

awesome-implicit-data-structures

Awesome implicit data structures
23
star
32

xtensa-subjects

Xtensa CPU architecture (ESP8266) binaries for ScratchABit interactive disassembler
HTML
22
star
33

esp-open-lwip

Superseded by https://github.com/pfalcon/lwip-esp8266. Was: Untangled build of vendor ESP8266 lwIP library
C
22
star
34

pymsasid3

Pure-Python x86 disassembler, ported to modern Python, with bugfixes
Python
21
star
35

lwip-esp8266

Upstream lwIP with complete history and cleaned up ESP8266 patchset on top
C
18
star
36

idapython

Automatically exported from code.google.com/p/idapython
Python
18
star
37

libperipha

Grand unified collection of headers to access various hardware chips and components
C
18
star
38

pyedit

Simple text editor widget for Python and Pycopy. Further developed in https://github.com/pfalcon/picotui
Python
18
star
39

squirrel-modules

General-purpose Squirrel language project. Includes collection of basic modules (including module loading infrastructure)
C++
17
star
40

pycopy-serial

pySerial-like interface for Pycopy (unix port)
Python
15
star
41

pyastinterp

Python AST interpreter (aka tree-walking interpreter) in Python. Aka meta-circular interpreter.
Python
15
star
42

opkg-static

Static self-contained opkg (the package manager) build for real-world embedded platforms like Android, Kindle, etc.
Shell
14
star
43

awesome-virtual-machines

Awesome Virtual Machines (VMs) and Language Runtimes (awesome from Computer Science perspective)
14
star
44

uorm

Sqlite3-based anti-ORM for Pycopy
Python
14
star
45

ctopy

Hacking on ESR's ctopy the C to Python conversion tool: http://www.catb.org/~esr/ctopy/
Python
14
star
46

papersman

Minimalist electronic documents/papers/publications manager/indexer/categorizer
Python
14
star
47

android-native

Android native (command-line) examples, utils and tools. See Wiki for more info.
C++
13
star
48

uart-bitbang

UART protocol for MCU using GPIO bitbang. Rate-adaptive and requires only clock counter to operate.
C
13
star
49

beap

Beap (bi-parental heap) algorithm reference implementation in Python
Python
13
star
50

esp-docs

Helping Espressif Systems, Inc. achieve 12-year product longevity (mirror of ESP8266, etc. documentation)
12
star
51

pycopy-projs

Various Pycopy-related proofs of concepts and hacks which don't deserve dedicated repos
Python
11
star
52

canterbury-corpus

The Canterbury compression corpus as a git repository
HTML
10
star
53

ullvm_c

Lightweight LLVM C API bindings for Pycopy and other Python implementations
Python
10
star
54

apps2org

Label/tag based application organizer and launcher for Android, fork of https://code.google.com/p/appsorganizer
Java
10
star
55

aes256_128

Code size efficient AES256/AES128 implementation
C
10
star
56

pycopy-jitgen

Generating machine code at runtime (aka JIT) using Pycopy (small Python dialect)
Python
10
star
57

uremi

Proof of concept of developing alike of https://github.com/dddomodossola/remi for Pycopy
Python
9
star
58

ppxml2db

Scripts to import PortfolioPerformance (https://github.com/portfolio-performance/portfolio) XML into a SQLite DB and export back
Python
9
star
59

sphinx_selective_exclude

Sphinx extension (plugin) to make ".only::" directive work like you expect. (Plus some other goodies for selective indexes.) [Unmaintained, may no longer work with latest Sphinx versions.]
Python
9
star
60

esp8266-re-wiki-mirror

Mirror of http://esp8266-re.foogod.com/wiki/
8
star
61

pycopy-filedb

Simple file-based ORM for Pycopy
Python
8
star
62

Chsmartbulb-led-bulb-speaker

Hacking "Chsmartbulb" BT/BLE LED bulb speaker
Python
8
star
63

llvm-codegen-py

(Machine) code generation experiments in Python, roughly centered around LLVM IR
Python
7
star
64

pymapfile

Python module to parse GNU ld/gcc map files
Python
7
star
65

arduino-hosted

Arduino Hosted Python module, allows to rapid-prototype simple Arduino microcontroller applications on desktop computer. Unlike many other Python wrappers, this provides syntax as close as possible to Arduino.
Python
7
star
66

pycopy-btreedb

Very simple ORM for Pycopy's btree module
Python
6
star
67

axtls

Pycopy fork of axTLS
C
6
star
68

pycopy-ffigen

FFI bindings generator for Pycopy
Python
6
star
69

simplejtag

Protocol and firmware to turn any low-cost board into JTAG/SWD adapater to use wiyh OpenOCD, PySWD, etc.
C++
6
star
70

picompile

Pico Compile, factored out "numpile" project, a small JIT compiler for Python with type inference
Python
6
star
71

android-depends

Tool to analyze Android module dependencies. Forked from http://code.google.com/p/rxwen-blog-stuff/source/browse/trunk/tools/
Python
6
star
72

awesome-python-projects

List of Python projects which either do something non-trivial, or are unbloated and lightweight. (See wiki)
6
star
73

parcopy

Implementation (in Python) of algorithm(s) for sequentializing of parallel copy
Python
6
star
74

udownmark

A dead simple parser/renderer for Markdown-like text markup (subset of Markdown). Dedicated to Pycopy, a minimalist Python implementation (https://github.com/pfalcon/micropython).
Python
5
star
75

change-control-manifesto

Change Control Manifesto for principled Open Source projects
5
star
76

esp-sdk-tools

Tools for hacking on Espressif ESP8266/ESP32 SDKs
Shell
4
star
77

py-runinpkg

Run Python scripts inside package directory as normal files, even if they use relative imports
Python
3
star
78

pseudoc-ir

Like LLVM, but simpler
Python
3
star
79

awesome-consumer-iot-hacks

A Collection of Hacks in Consumer IoT Space so that we can use those products (hopefully).
3
star
80

aygshell-win32

Implementation of WinCE AYGSHELL functions for pure Win32 API
C
3
star
81

ARM-CMSIS-BSD

BSD-licensed CMSIS core implementation from ARM, imported from CMSIS-SP-00300-r3p2-00rel1.zip
C
3
star
82

b43-tools

Mirror of git://git.bues.ch/b43-tools.git "Tools for the Broadcom 43xx series WLAN chip"
C
3
star
83

pycopy-uffmpeg

Pycopy bindings for FFmpeg
Python
3
star
84

cppmicroweb

Proof of concept C++ web micro framework for constrained devices inspired by Python microframeworks
C++
3
star
85

pycopy-dlman

Very simple download manager based on wget and Pycopy
Python
2
star
86

uaio_xiaomi_gw

Pycopy uasyncio module for Xiaomi Mi Home Gateway
Python
2
star
87

optware

Mirror of NSLU2 Optware + updates
C
2
star
88

openwrt-tools

Tools to automatically install/configure/manage OpenWRT
Shell
2
star
89

esp-open-headers

Headers for ESP8266 SDK internal functions and structures
C
2
star
90

awesome-stuff

Projects I'd like to record somewhere
2
star
91

dotfiles

Personal dotfiles
Shell
2
star
92

py-simple-serial

Very simple Python serial port module for Linux, roughly compatible with PySerial
Python
2
star
93

pycopy-libusb

libusb bindings for Pycopy
Python
2
star
94

b43-ucode

Mirror of git://git.bues.ch/b43-ucode.git "OpenSource firmware for Broadcom 43xx devices"
Assembly
2
star
95

meta-prefixdistro

OpenEmbedded layer for simlified distro rooted at atbitrary filesystem prefix
1
star
96

python-simple-mixin

Simple mixins for Python without multiple inheritance
Python
1
star
97

git-pynex

Proof of concept reimplementation of subset of git-annex in Python
Python
1
star
98

osmand-gpx-vis

Visualizing GPX tracks recorded by Osmand Android navigation software and other tools
Python
1
star
99

snapdragon410-mmio-gpio

Memory-mapped GPIO access on Snapdragon 410 SoC using MicroPython (and CPython)
Python
1
star
100

fdroidclient

Mirror (+local dev) of client app for F-Droid, FOSS Android package repository.
Java
1
star