FINAL CUT is a powerful and lightweight C++ library for creating terminal-based applications (TUI) with numerous text-based widgets. FINAL CUT is designed for simplicity and does not require the functionality of external libraries (such as ncurses or termbox) but still offers full mouse support, Unicode compatibility, and versatile widget functions.
It provides UTF-8 character encoding, full-width character support, and the ability to display combined Unicode characters. The library allows developers to create user-friendly text console applications that manage multiple text windows on the screen using their own windowing system.
The design of FINAL CUT's C++ class structure was inspired by the Qt framework. It provides a variety of common controls, including dialog boxes, push buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, input lines, list boxes, and status bars.
| Badge | |
|---|---|
| Latest release |  |
| License |  |
| Class Reference |  |
| ARM build |  |
| FreeBSD build |  |
| NetBSD build |  |
| OpenBSD build |  |
| macOS build |  |
| Cygwin build |  |
| Solaris build |  |
| CodeQL analysis |  |
| Coverity Scan |  |
| SonarCloud | |
| CodeFactor | |
| SIGRID |  |
Before installing FINAL CUT, check if your computer meets the requirements. You can find these in the FAQ section under "What do I need to build this library?".
git clone https://github.com/gansm/finalcut.git
cd finalcut
autoreconf --install --force
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
su -c "make install"Note
To simplify the build process, use the shell script build.sh located in the project root directory. Execute ./build.sh release to initiate configuration and building. For a list of available options, enter ./build.sh help.
FINAL CUT currently works on the following platforms:
- Linux
- FreeBSD
- NetBSD
- OpenBSD
- macOS
- Cygwin
- GNU Hurd
- Solaris
If your platform is not listed here, it may still be compatible with FINAL CUT. Contributions to extend the platform support are welcome!
Read the documentation on the first steps in FINAL CUT to find out how to use the library.
Check out the FINAL CUT FAQ for common questions and answers.
Explore FINAL CUT's text-ui with these examples:
FFileDialog widget with incremental search
FProgressbar widget
X PixMap (XPM) viewer example
Scrollable text in an FTextView widget
Mandelbrot set example
This project contains NewFont, a graphical text font for X11 and the Linux console:
UI example in NewFont mode
Drive symbols
Calculator example in NewFont mode
Measure the terminal character output speed with the Rotozoomer example.
FINAL CUT uses a virtual terminal to print character via an update method on the screen. It provides (as an overlying layer) virtual windows for the realization of window movements. The update methods only transfer differences to the virtual terminal or physical screen.
print(...)
printf(...)
│
│ ╔════════════════════════[ vterm ]════════════════════════╗
│ ║createVTerm() ║
│ ║ ┌ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ┐ ║
│ ║ ║
│ ║ │ restoreVTerm(box) │ ║
│ ┌───────╨────[ vwin ]────────────┐ ║
│ │createArea(size) │ └ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ┘ ║
│ │ │ ║
│ │ │ ║
└──┼────────► putArea(pos,area) ────► ║
│ │ ║
│ ◄──── getArea(pos,area) ║
│ │ ║
│ │ ║
│ │ ║
│ resizeArea(size, area)│ ║
└───────╥────────────────────────┘ ║
║ ║
║ │ resizeVTerm(size)║
╚═══════▼═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
│
│ putVTerm()
└──────────────────► updateTerminalLine(y)
updateTerminal() │
▼
┌───────────────┐
│ output_buffer │
└───────────────┘
│
│ flush()
│
▼
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
▌ ▐
▌ screen ▐
▌ ───────────── ▐
▌ real terminal ▐
▌ ▐
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
███
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
┌────────────┐1
│ FTermLinux ├------┐
└────────────┘ :
┌──────────────┐1 :
│ FTermFreeBSD ├------┐
└──────────────┘ :
┌──────────────┐1 :
│ FTermOpenBSD ├------┐
└──────────────┘ :
┌────────────────┐1 :
│ FTermDetection ├------┐
└────────────────┘ :
┌────────────────┐1 :
│ FTermcapQuirks ├------┐
└────────────────┘ : ┌───────────┐
┌────────────────┐1 : ┌────┤ FKeyEvent │
│ FTermXTerminal ├------┐ │ └───────────┘
└────────────────┘ : │ ┌─────────────┐
┌──────────┐1 : ├────┤ FMouseEvent │
│ FTermcap ├------┐ │ └─────────────┘
└──────────┘ : │ ┌─────────────┐
┌──────────┐1 : ├────┤ FWheelEvent │
│ FTermios ├------┐ │ └─────────────┘
└──────────┘ : │ ┌─────────────┐
┌───────────────┐1 : ├────┤ FFocusEvent │
│ FColorPalette ├------┐ │ └─────────────┘
└───────────────┘ : │ ┌─────────────┐
┌───────────┐1 : ├────┤ FAccelEvent │
│ FOptiMove ├------┐ │ └─────────────┘
└───────────┘ : │ ┌──────────────┐
┌───────────┐1 : ├────┤ FResizeEvent │
│ FOptiAttr ├------┐ │ └──────────────┘
└───────────┘ : │ ┌────────────┐
┌───────────┐1 : ├────┤ FShowEvent │
│ FKeyboard ├------┐ │ └────────────┘
└───────────┘ : │ ┌────────────┐
┌───────────────┐1 : ├────┤ FHideEvent │
│ FMouseControl ├------┐ │ └────────────┘
└───────────────┘ : │ ┌─────────────┐
┌─────────┐1 : ├────┤ FCloseEvent │
│ FSystem ├------┐ │ └─────────────┘
└─────────┘ : │ ┌─────────────┐
┌─────────┐* : ├────┤ FTimerEvent │
│ FString ├---┐ : │ └─────────────┘
└─────────┘ : : │ ┌────────────┐1 1┌───────┐
┌───────────────┐* : : ├────┤ FUserEvent ├------┤ FData │
│ FStringStream ├---┐ : │ └────────────┘ └───────┘
└───────────────┘ : : │ ┌──────┐ ┌─────────┐
┌────────┐* : : │ │ FLog │◄──┤ FLogger │
│ FPoint ├---┐ : │ └──┬───┘ └─────────┘
└────────┘ : : │ :1
┌───────┐* : : │ ┌──┴───────────┐
│ FRect ├---┐ : │ ┌────┤ FApplication │
└───────┘ : : │ │ └──────────────┘
┌───────┐* : : │ │ ┌────────┐
│ FSize ├---┐ : │ ├────┤ FLabel │
└───────┘ : : │ │ └────────┘
:1 :1 │ │ ┌───────────┐
┌───┴──┴┐ │ ├────┤ FLineEdit │
│ FTerm │ │ │ └───────────┘
└───┬───┘ │ │ ┌──────────┐
:1 │ ├────┤ FSpinBox │
┌─────────┐ ┌──────┴──────┐ │ │ └──────────┘
│ FOutput │◄──┤ FTermOutput │ │ │ ┌─────────┐
└────┬────┘ └─────────────┘ │ ├────┤ FButton │
: ┌────────┐ │ │ └─────────┘
:1 │ FEvent │◄──┘ │ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
┌───┴────┐ └────┬───┘ ├────┤ FButtonGroup │ ┌──┤ FRadioButton │
│ FVTerm │◄──┐ :1 │ └──────────────┘ │ └──────────────┘
└────────┘ │ ┌────┴────┐ │ ┌───────────────┐ │ ┌───────────┐
├────┤ FWidget │◄─────┼────┤ FToggleButton │◄─┼──┤ FCheckBox │
┌─────────┐ │ └────┬────┘ │ └───────────────┘ │ └───────────┘
│ FObject │◄──┘ :1 │ ┌──────────────┐ │ ┌─────────┐
└────┬────┘ ┌──────┴────────┐ ├────┤ FProgressbar │ └──┤ FSwitch │
▼ │ FWidgetColors │ │ └──────────────┘ └─────────┘
┌───┴────┐ └───────────────┘ │ ┌────────────┐
│ FTimer │ ├────┤ FScrollbar │
└────────┘ │ └────────────┘
│ ┌───────────┐
├────┤ FTextView │
│ └───────────┘
│ ┌───────────┐1 1┌──────────────────┐
├────┤ FComboBox ├------┤ FDropDownListBox │
│ └───────────┘ └──────────────────┘
┌──────────────┐1 │ ┌──────────┐1 *┌──────────────┐1
│ FVTermBuffer ├-------------------├────┤ FListBox ├-------┤ FListBoxItem ├--┐
└──────────────┘ │ └──────────┘ └──────────────┘ :
│ 1┌───────────┐1 *┌───────────────┐ :
├────┤ FListView ├------┤ FListViewItem │ :
│ └───────────┘ └────────┬──────┘ :
│ ┌─────────────┐ :1 :
├────┤ FScrollView │ ┌───┴───┐1 :
│ └─────────────┘ │ FData ├----┘
│ └───────┘
│ ┌────────────┐1 *┌────────────┐
│ ┌──┤ FStatusBar ├-----┤ FStatusKey │
│ │ └────────────┘ └────────────┘
│ │
│ ▼ ┌─────────────┐
┌───┴─┴───┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──┤ FFileDialog │
│ FWindow │◄─┤ FDialog │◄──┤ └─────────────┘
└──┬──┬───┘ └─────────┘ │ ┌─────────────┐
▲ ▲ └──┤ FMessageBox │
│ │ └─────────────┘
│ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌────────────────┐
│ └──────┤ FToolTip │◄─┤ FBusyIndicator │
│ └──────────┘ └────────────────┘
└───────────────┐ ┌──────────┐
│ ┌───┤ FMenuBar │
┌───────────┐ └──────┤ └──────────┘
│ FMenuList │◄──────────┤ ┌───────┐
└────┬──────┘ └───┤ FMenu │◄──┐
:1 └───────┘ │
: ┌─────────────────┐ │
: │ FDialogListMenu ├───┘
: └─────────────────┘
└--------------------------------┐
:* ┌────────────────┐* :
┌────┴─────┐ ┌──┤ FCheckMenuItem ├---┘
│FMenuItem │◄─┤ └────────────────┘ :
└──────────┘ │ ┌────────────────┐* :
└──┤ FRadioMenuItem ├---┘
└────────────────┘
We encourage community involvement in improving FINAL CUT. If you find bugs or issues, report them here. For contributions, please review our Contributing Guidelines.
FINAL CUT is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0. See the LGPL v3.0 license page for more details.
