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From: Alan Gauld <learn2program@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: RE: Tools to help with text mode (i.e. non-GUI) input
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 22:46:19 +0000
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On 11/01/2025 14:28, Chris Green via Python-list wrote:
> I'm looking for Python packages that can help with text mode input,

The standard package for this is curses which comes as part
of the standard library on *nix distros.

> What I'm specifically after is a way to provide a default value that
> can be accepted or changed easily and also a way to provide a number
> of different values to choose from.

The default value is easy. The list of values sounds like a pop-up menu.
Ofr you can just offer a prompt with a list in it that the user
picks(maybe by number?) Its really a programmers choice, curses provides
the tools to display it however you choose. (Yu might also find the
dialog third party package useful for displaying text mode dialog boxes)

> I.e. for the default sort of input one might see:-
> 
>     Colour? red
> 
> Hitting return would return 'red' to the program but you could also
> backspace over the 'red' and enter something else.  Maybe even better
> would be that the 'red' disappears as soon as you hit any key other
> than return.

All of that is possible in curses, you just have to code it.

> For the select a value type of input I want something like the above
> but hitting (say) arrow up and arrow down would change the value
> displayed by the 'Colour?' prompt and hitting return would accept the
> chosen value.

Again that's easy enough to do. Or you could pop up a menu and
allow the user to cursor up/dowmn (or use the mouse) to select
an option.

>  In addition I want the ability to narrow down the list
> by entering one or more initial characters, so if you enter 'b' at the
> Colour? prompt the list of values presented would only include colours
> starting with 'b' (beige, blue, black, etc.)

Again that's more about the programmer's use of the tools. curses
allows you to display the characters wherever/however you want
on screen.

> Are there any packages that offer this sort of thing? I'd prefer ones
> from the Debian repositories but that's not absolutely necessary.

> It might also be possible/useful to use the mouse for this.

curses dores all you want but you need to do all the logic, its not as
simple as using a GUI toolkit. dialog sits on top of curses and provides
a more GUI like experiece.

urwin is another toolkit for text mode but it is more of a pseudo GUI
environment with a menu-bar, dialogs, forms etc etc. Curses is about
mapping areas of the screen(windows) and displaying text within those
areas. You can control colour and strength etc, move things around,
hide/show areas, position the cursor anywhere on screen. You can even
create huge virtual screens and use the visible screen as a viewport
into that(think like a big spreadsheet)

There are a couple of Howto type documents online

Shameless Plug:
---------
I wrote a short kindle book on curses with python:
https://kdp.amazon.com/amazon-dp-action/us/dualbookshelf.marketplacelink/B091B85B77
-------------

HTH
-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos

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