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Programming / BearLibTerminal: a pseudo-terminal window library for roguelike

« on: February 27, 2014, 01:31:51 AM »

With mixed feelings of pride and uncertainty I present you a project I've been working on for some time. This is a library aimed to simplify the interface part of a roguelike development. Something along the lines of libtcod but focused primarily on output, maybe ncurses will be a closer example.

(Yup, I am no native English speaker so please bear with me =_=.)

The library is available from http://foo.wyrd.name/en:bearlibterminal. The documentation is also there, though somewhat incomplete. However, the rest will follow in time and the library itself is practically done, so I believe there is no point to delay its "international" release any longer.

This library provides you with a window and allows for easy tile and tileset manipulation while keeping pretense that the scene is mainly text or pseudographics. Quick example:

Code: ("c") [Select]

#include "BearLibTerminal.h"

int main()
{
    terminal_open();
    terminal_set("window: size=32x8");
    terminal_set("font: UbuntuMono-R.ttf, size=12");
    terminal_print("Hello, ωōrlд!"); // UTF-8
    terminal_refresh();
    terminal_read();
    terminal_close();
    return 0;
}



The library is not for C/C++ only. As it is a dynamic-link library, it also has bindings for C#, Pascal, Lua and Ruby, which should make it suitable for rapid prototyping. It also runs on Windows and Linux.

There is a showcase named "SampleOmni" included in the download archive. You may be surprised at how much can be squeezed from the measely 20 functions of the library API.

Well, I hope it helps someone =)