https://github.com/crramirez/jexer
https://github.com/crramirez/jexer
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/crramirez/jexer
- Owner: crramirez
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-11-20T15:12:47.000Z (8 months ago)
- Default Branch: jexer-2.0
- Last Pushed: 2025-12-02T21:37:44.000Z (8 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-04T00:45:54.465Z (8 months ago)
- Language: Java
- Size: 26.9 MB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 1
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
Jexer - Java Text User Interface library
========================================
This library implements a text-based windowing system loosely
reminiscent of Borland's [Turbo
Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision) system. It looks
like this:
...or this:
...or anything in between.
Jexer works on both Xterm-like terminals and Swing, and supports
images in both Xterm and Swing. On Swing, images are true color; on
Xterm, images are rendered as sixel, iTerm2, or Jexer images, or as
Unicode half-block glyphs if none of those are available. Jexer can
be run inside its own terminal window, with support for all of its
features including images and mouse, and of course more terminals.
Jexer has seen inspiration from several other projects:
* Translucent windows were inspired by
[notcurses](https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses). Translucent
windows and layered images generally look as one would expect in a
modern graphical environment...but it's mostly text.
* Jexer's (multithread-safe) "high quality" sixel encoder
(HQSixelEncoder) -- which supplants its original (single-threaded)
2018-era design (LegacySixelEncoder) -- was inspired by
[chafa's](https://hpjansson.org/chafa/) high-performance principal
component analysis based sixel encoder. HQSixelEncoder combined
with Jexer's cell-based images design approaches 20-bit color depth!
* Pulsing button text, window effects, and soon-to-be desktop effects
were inspired by [vtm's](https://github.com/netxs-group/vtm)
incredibly slick game-like aesthetic.
* Notcurses, chafa, and
[sixel-tmux](https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux) were the
inspiration for adding image rendering to Unicode half-block glyphs.
If you like what you see here, definitely take a look at its
inspirations. Again, those are:
* [notcurses](https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses)
* [chafa](https://hpjansson.org/chafa/)
* [vtm](https://github.com/netxs-group/vtm)
💖
Screenshots
-----------
More screenshots and videos are [at the screenshots web
page.](https://jexer.sourceforge.io/screenshots.html)
How...? What...?
-----------------
Wondering how I did it? [Here you go!](https://jexer.sourceforge.io/evolution.html)
License
-------
Jexer is available to all under the MIT License. See the file LICENSE
for the full license text.
Obtaining Jexer
---------------
Jexer is available on Maven Central:
```xml
io.gitlab.autumnmeowmeow
jexer
1.7.0
```
Binary releases are available on SourceForge:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/jexer/files/jexer/
The Jexer source code is hosted at:
https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/jexer
Why I Do Not Post My Projects Anymore
-------------------------------------
[Why I Do Not Post My Projects
Anymore](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/jexer/wikis/no-release-announcements)
Documentation
-------------
* [Wiki](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/jexer/wikis/home)
* [Jexer web page](https://jexer.sourceforge.io/)
* [Java API Docs](https://jexer.sourceforge.io/apidocs/api/index.html)
* [Development
Standards](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/jexer/wikis/dev-standards)
* [Porting Guide](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/jexer/wikis/porting) -
If you don't like writing Java, here is your map to where the key
features are so that you can implement them in a different
system/language.
Programming Examples
--------------------
See [Xterm Window Manager](https://xtermwm.sourceforge.io) for a more
comprehensive demonstration of what Jexer can accomplish. Here one
can see a floating terminal window over tiled terminals, two of which
are showing images:
Jexer's examples/ folder currently contains:
* A [prototype tiling window
manager](/examples/JexerTilingWindowManager.java) in less than 250
lines of code.
* A much slicker [prototype tiling window
manager](/examples/JexerTilingWindowManager2.java) in less than 200
lines of code.
* A [prototype image thumbnail
viewer](/examples/JexerImageViewer.java) in less than 350 lines of
code.
* A [prototype Xterm video player (using JavaCV to decode video
frames)](/examples/XtermVideoPlayer.java) in less than 200 lines
of code.
jexer.demos contains official demos showing all of the existing UI
controls. The demos can be run as follows:
* 'java -jar jexer.jar' . This will use System.in/out with
Xterm-like sequences on non-Windows non-Mac platforms. On Windows
and Mac it will use a Swing JFrame.
* 'java -Djexer.Swing=true -jar jexer.jar' . This will always use
Swing on any platform.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo2 PORT' (where PORT is a
number to run the TCP daemon on). This will use the Xterm backend
on a telnet server that will update with screen size changes.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo3' . This will use
System.in/out with Xterm-like sequences. One can see in the code
how to pass a different InputReader and OutputReader to
TApplication, permitting a different encoding than UTF-8; in this
case, code page 437.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo4' . This demonstrates hidden
windows and a custom TDesktop.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo5' . This demonstrates two
demo applications using different fonts in the same Swing frame.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo6' . This demonstrates two
applications performing I/O across three screens: an Xterm screen
and Swing screen, monitored from a third Swing screen.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo7' . This demonstrates the
BoxLayoutManager, achieving a similar result as the
javax.swing.BoxLayout apidocs example.
* 'java -cp jexer.jar jexer.demos.Demo8 PORT' (where PORT is a
number to run the TCP daemon on). This will use the Xterm backend
on a telnet server to share one screen to many terminals.
Terminal Support
----------------
Most popular terminals can run Jexer, but only a few support all of
Jexer's features. Jexer is actively developed against
[xterm](https://invisible-island.net/xterm/) and
[wezterm](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/) . The table below lists
the terminals last tested against Jexer:
| Terminal | Environment | Mouse Click | Mouse Cursor | Images |
| -------------- | ------------------ | ----------- | ------------ | ------ |
| xterm | X11 | yes | yes | yes |
| jexer | CLI, X11, Windows | yes | yes | yes |
| wezterm | X11, Windows | yes | yes | yes(7) |
| foot(3) | Wayland | yes | yes | yes |
| contour(3) | X11 | yes | yes | yes |
| mintty | Windows | yes | yes | yes |
| mlterm | X11 | yes | yes | yes |
| RLogin | Windows | yes | yes | yes |
| xterm.js(8) | Web | yes | yes | yes |
| Windows Terminal(6) | Windows | yes | yes | yes |
| alacritty(3b) | X11 | yes | yes | yes |
| gnome-terminal | X11 | yes | yes | no |
| iTerm2 | Mac | yes | yes | no(5) |
| kitty(3) | X11 | yes | yes | no(9) |
| lcxterm | CLI, Linux console | yes | yes | no |
| rxvt-unicode | X11 | yes | yes | no(2) |
| xfce4-terminal | X11 | yes | yes | no |
| zutty | X11 | yes | yes | no(2) |
| DomTerm(3) | Web | yes | no | yes |
| darktile | X11 | yes | no | no(5) |
| konsole | X11 | yes | no | no |
| yakuake | X11 | yes | no | no |
| screen | CLI | yes(1) | yes(1) | no(2) |
| tmux | CLI | yes(1) | yes(1) | no |
| zellij | CLI | yes | yes | no(10) |
| putty | X11, Windows | yes | no | no(2) |
| qodem(3) | CLI, Linux console | yes | yes(4) | no |
| qodem-x11(3) | X11 | yes | no | no |
| yaft | Linux console (FB) | no | no | yes |
| Linux | Linux console | no | no | no(2) |
| MacTerm | Mac | no | no | no(2) |
1 - Requires mouse support from host terminal.
2 - Also fails to filter out sixel data, leaving garbage on screen.
3 - Latest in repository.
3b - Latest in repository, using graphics PR branch.
4 - Requires TERM=xterm-1003 before starting.
5 - Sixel images can crash terminal.
6 - Windows Terminal 1.22 Preview, released on August 27, 2024.
7 - Both sixel and iTerm2 images.
8 - Using jerch's xterm-addon-image.
9 - Kitty image protocol support will never be in Jexer, as a matter
of principle. Should that terminal adopt iTerm2 or sixel, then
images could work. (Image support for kitty was removed on
February 10, 2022.)
10 - zellij supports sixel, but Jexer's output can overwhelm it,
resulting in it becoming unresponsive to user input.
See Also
--------
* [Xterm Window Manager](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/xtermwm) is
a text-based window manager. It has virtual desktops, tiled
terminals with draggable resizing, cascading terminal windows, and a
plugin system for adding functionality. Add LCXterm and one can
have a mouse-supporting X11-like text-based "GUI" on the raw Linux
console.
* [XtermDOOM](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/xtermdoom) is an
effort to make [MochaDoom](https://github.com/jendave/mochadoom) run
smoothly under Xterm. The game is not yet playable, but it can show
off Jexer's multiplexing and multihead image capabilities.
* [LCXterm](https://lcxterm.sourceforge.io) is a curses-based terminal
emulator that allows one to use Jexer with full support on the raw
Linux console.
* [ptypipe](https://gitlab.com/AutumnMeowMeow/ptypipe) is a small C
utility that permits a Jexer TTerminalWindow to resize the running
shell when its window is resized.
* [Tranquil Java IDE](https://tjide.sourceforge.io) is a TUI-based
integrated development environment for the Java language that was
built using a very lightly modified GPL version of Jexer.
Acknowledgements
----------------
Jexer makes use of the Terminus TrueType font [made available
here](http://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/) .
💖