TUI (text user interface) library

Back in 2000 when I was working for one local book store we had a legacy backoffice written in C++ for DOS. The foundation was written by my boss several years before. The code style was messy but the most painful part was the user interface. I could not stand the dumb way the UI was programmed (mostly by copy-pasting blocks of existing code) so I decided to make it my way. I tried using Turbo Vision but it was too heavy for our needs and used too much RAM and remember we were using only 640 Kb of convenient memory for running the program itself plus extended memory for the data. Also I was keen to try to develop something similar myself. So I came out with this TUI library which I used for about a year until I left the company.

The demo program (TUIDEMO.EXE) only uses 69 Kb of memory and demonstrates some of the most useful components -- open file dialog, message box, input box, calendar, different lists and a progress bar which we were using MUCH those days :) Also, please note the "graphic" mouse pointer in text mode, rarely seen in UI back then.

The TUIDEMO.EXE is already built and can be run in DOSBox. Please keep the TUINOTE.TXT file besides, it is loaded at startup.

To build TUI you need to install Borland C++ 3.1 compiler. You may install it anywhere convenient (for example in C:\TOOLS\BC) and then you should create a mapped drive H: using subst command

subst H: C:\TOOLS

so that you have a bcc binary under H:\BC\BIN and standard library in H:\BC\LIB.

Now just run BUILD.BAT with a memory model of your choice. Use large model if in doubt.

BUILD.BAT l

This will build a TUIDEMO.EXE from sources.

MIT