rad-tui-ide 0.1.4

A TUI designer for python

RAD-TUI-IDE 🖥️

Rapid Application Development - Terminal User Interface IDE

A Visual Basic 1.0 for MS-DOS inspired visual IDE that runs on Linux. Design forms, place controls, write code, and run your applications - all in the terminal!

Example projects:

🎯 Concept

RAD-TUI-IDE recreates the magic of early 90s visual programming environments like VB1 for MS-DOS, but for modern Linux terminals. It provides:

• Visual Form Designer - Drag and drop controls onto forms
• Property Editor - Edit control properties in real-time
• Code Editor - Write Python code with syntax highlighting in Tsukino editor
• Runtime Mode - Test your applications instantly
• Project Management - Save and load projects as JSON files

🚀 Features

Visual Design Environment

• 🖱️ Mouse-driven interface - Point, click, drag, and resize
• 🪟 Draggable windows - Move forms and toolboxes freely
• 🎨 11 control types including buttons, labels, text boxes, and more
• 📐 Visual resizing - Grab handles to resize controls
• ✏️ Property editing - Edit names, captions, positions, and dimensions

Code Development

• 🐍 Python code-behind - Write event handlers in Python
• 🌈 Syntax highlighting - Keywords, strings, numbers, and comments
• ▶️ Runtime execution - Run your forms with live code execution
• 🐛 Runtime error display - See errors in a message box

Project Management

• 💾 Save/Load projects - JSON-based project files
• 📁 File menu - Standard save/load/exit operations
• 🔄 Design/Runtime toggle - Switch between design-time and run-time modes

🎮 How to Run

Python Version (Recommended)

chmod +x rad-tui-py.py
./rad-tui-py.py

🕹️ User Guide

Getting Started

1. Run the application - you'll see:
   • A Toolbox on the left with available controls
   • A Form window in the center (your design surface)
   • A Properties window on the right

Designing a Form

Action	How To
Add a control	Click a tool in the toolbox, then click on the form
Move a control	Select "Move/Size" tool, then drag the control
Resize a control	Select control, then drag the ■ handle
Edit properties	Click a property value in the Properties window
Write code	Double-click a button to open the code editor

Available Controls

Tool	Description
Check Box	Boolean checkbox control
Combo Box	Dropdown selection control
Command Btn	Clickable button (most common)
Frame	Grouping container
HScrollBar	Horizontal scrollbar
Label	Static text display
List Box	Scrollable list
Option Btn	Radio button
Text Box	Text input field
Timer	Background timer
VScrollBar	Vertical scrollbar

Writing Code

Double-click a Command Button to open the code editor. The code editor supports:

def on_click_btnOK():
    msgbox("Hello, World!")
    txtName.caption = "Updated text"

Special functions:

• msgbox(text) - Display a message box
• Access other controls by their name_id: txtName.caption, btnOK.caption

🛠️ Technical Details

Python Implementation

• Uses curses library for terminal UI
• Supports mouse events (requires terminal with mouse support)
• Python syntax highlighting

📝 Requirements

Python Version

• Python 3.6+
• Linux terminal with:
  • Mouse support (xterm, gnome-terminal, konsole, etc.)
  • UTF-8 character support
  • 80x25 minimum terminal size

📜 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL v3).

See LICENSE for full details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Inspired by:

• Microsoft Visual Basic 1.0 for MS-DOS (1992)
• The simplicity of early visual programming environments
• The enduring appeal of terminal-based applications

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Happy retro-coding! 🎉