TUIview [tv]

TUIview [tv] allows you to create Textual User Interfaces (TUIs) for command-line interfaces (CLIs) that do not provide their own TUI.

By prefixing any supported CLI command with the tv command -- tv <program> -- you can interact with a TUI form to interactively build and execute CLI commands for <program>.

Install

$ pipx install tuiview

or

$ pip install tuiview

Use

Prefix your command with tv to invoke the TUI for the given CLI app:

tv git

You can even specify subcommands and arguments, which will filter and pre-populate the TUI form.

tv git commit -m 'Hello' -m 'World'

Which CLI apps are available?

Call TUIview (tv) without arguments to view all available apps:

$ tv
________________________________________

Helpful Parameters:
  --help, -h  Show this help message.
  ...

Commands:
    git
    grep
    pastel
    rsync
    ...

How does it work?

• TUIview contains a collection of pre-defined, curated TUI interfaces for each CLI application.

• These curated TUI interfaces -- termed "TV Programs" -- are defined in YAML files, or in Python files that implement an Argparse ArgumentParser.

• argparse-tui is the Python package that enables this capability. Using argparse-tui, Python's Argparse can serve as a declarative DSL for generating a TUI form.

TV Programs

TV Program can be defined in YAML or JSON:

echo.yaml

'echo':
  description: 'Print text'
  arguments:
    'message':
      pos: true
      nargs: '+'
    'n':
      flags: ['-n']
      action: 'store_true'
      help: 'no trailing newline'

Execute the program file with tv:

$ tv echo.yaml -n Hello World

TV Programs

TV Programs can also be defined in Python files that implement an Argparse ArgumentParser.

For example, to define a TV Program for the echo command:

echo.py

import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog="echo", description="Print text.")
parser.add_argument("message", nargs="+")
parser.add_argument("-n", action="store_true", help="no trailing newline")

Execute the program file with tv:

$ tv echo.py -n Hello World

Import & Edit a TV Program

TUIview can import a program file so that it can be invoked globally.

$ tv --import echo.yml

The file echo.yml now exists at ~/.tuiview/echo.yml where it can be invoked from anywhere, just like a native TV program:

$ tv echo Hello World

To edit a program file, pass the command name to tv:

$ tv --edit echo

When editing a native program, the program file is imported to the TV program directory and opened for editing.

Contributing

TUIview is a small program for running and managing these TV Program files.

The real work -- the real value -- is in the quantity and quality of the program files. If you want to improve TUIview by contributing and improving TV Programs, PRs are welcome 🤙

Pro tip: Given a the help text output from your CLI app of choice, ChatGPT is decent at providing an Argparse implementation of it.

Related Projects

• Fresh2dev/argparse-tui

This is the library that provides the TUIview magic ✨

• Fresh2dev/yapx

This is the library that provides the TUIview CLI.

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