From: Sean O'Halpin <sean.ohalpin@...>
Date: 2009-02-16T09:46:40+09:00
Subject: [ANN] ffi-ncurses version 0.3.0

ffi-ncurses version 0.3.0
    by Sean O'Halpin
    http://github.com/seanohalpin/ffi-ncurses

== DESCRIPTION

ffi-ncurses is an FFI wrapper for ncurses 5.x.

This is the first release of a gem on rubyforge.

Tested on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and Ubuntu 8.04 with ruby 1.8.6
using ruby-ffi (>= 0.2.0) and JRuby 1.1.6.

The API is a transliteration of the C API rather than an attempt to
provide an idiomatic Ruby object-oriented API. The intent is to
provide a 'close to the metal' wrapper around the ncurses library upon
which you can build your own abstractions.

This is still very much a work-in-progress, so expect some rough
edges. Having said that, you can do quite a lot with it as it is. The
main things left to be done are documentation, tests and access to
global variables in JRuby.

I don't have an issue tracker set up yet but I'm happy to receive feedback
via email.

See the examples directory for real working examples.

== INSTALL

$ sudo gem install ffi-ncurses

== CHANGES

* Features
  * Use FFI::NCurses rather than NCurses
  * Removed dependency on rubygems
  * Reorganised library layout

From the README:

== Usage

Load the library with:

  require 'ffi-ncurses'

FFI::NCurses methods can be called as module methods:

  begin
    stdscr = FFI::NCurses.initscr
    FFI::NCurses.clear
    FFI::NCurses.addstr("Hello world!")
    FFI::NCurses.refresh
    FFI::NCurses.getch
  ensure
    FFI::NCurses.endwin
  end

or as included methods:

  require 'ffi-ncurses'
  include FFI::NCurses
  begin
    stdscr = initscr
    start_color
    curs_set 0
    raw
    cbreak
    noecho
    clear
    move 10, 10
    standout
    addstr("Hi!")
    standend
    refresh
    getch
  ensure
    endwin
  end

There's more in the README and examples, including how to create windows, use
the mouse and how to interpret keypresses.

Regards,
Sean