rustui

The simplest terminal UI library designed for Rust. Developed with Rust's ownership model and safety guarantees in mind.

Features

• Cross-platform: Works on Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS, etc.)
• Double Buffering: Efficient rendering with differential updates
• Rich Text Styling: Support for colors, attributes (bold, italic, underline, etc.)
• Non-blocking Input: Asynchronous keyboard input handling
• Thread-safe: Multi-threaded rendering and input processing

Quick Start

use rustui::*;
use std::{thread, time};

const RENDERING_RATE: time::Duration = time::Duration::from_millis(16); // ms
const INPUT_CAPTURING_RATE: time::Duration = time::Duration::from_millis(10); // ms

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut win = Window::new(false)?;
    win.initialize(RENDERING_RATE)?; // Initialize the window and start the rendering thread
    let input_rx = InputListener::new(INPUT_CAPTURING_RATE); // Create an input listener

    loop {
        // Check for key presses
        if let Ok(InputEvent::Key(Key::Char('q'))) = input_rx.try_recv() {
            break; // Exit the loop if 'q' is pressed
        }

        // Draw the frame
        win.draw(|canvas| {
            canvas.set_named_border(
                "HELLO WORLD",
                Align::Right,
                Attr::NORMAL,
                Color::White,
                Color::default(),
            ); // Set a named border for the canvas
            canvas.set_str(
                canvas.width / 2, // Center the text horizontally
                canvas.height / 2,
                "Hello, world! (Press 'q' to quit)",
                Attr::NORMAL,              // Set text decoration
                Color::Green,              // Set text color
                Color::RGB(128, 192, 128), // Set background color
                Align::Center,             // Set text alignment to center
            );
        })?;

        thread::sleep(time::Duration::from_millis(100)); // Sleep to prevent high CPU usage
    }
    Ok(())
}

Example Applications

This repository includes a demo application that showcases the library's capabilities:

Hello World

cargo run --example hello_world

Colors

cargo run --example colors

Inputs

cargo run --example inputs

Tetris

cargo run --example tetris

File Reader

cargo run --example file_reader <file_path>

Platform Support

Currently supports Unix-like systems:

• Linux
• macOS
• BSD variants

Windows support may be added in future versions.

Contributing

We sincerely appreciate your contribution to this crate. Please be sure to read the guidelines before contributing.

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd rustui

# Build the library
cargo build

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run the demo
cargo run --example hello_world

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Note: This library is designed for educational purposes and as a foundation for terminal-based applications. For production use, consider established libraries like crossterm or ratatui depending on your needs.