Icod.DCurses 0.7.0

Icod.DCurses

Icod.DCurses is a managed, cross-platform curses-like terminal UI library for .NET.

The library sits above Icod.TermInfo and Icod.Terminal. Icod.TermInfo remains the immutable terminal-capability authority; Icod.Terminal owns the live terminal session, host mode, dimensions, lifecycle, input decoding, and reversible presentation and input-protocol leases. Icod.DCurses owns curses-shaped events, virtual screens and windows, pads and viewports, terminal cells and styles, rendition policy, semantic line drawing, and refresh/damage synchronization.

Status

Icod.DCurses 0.6.0 is the current published stable release.

The 0.7.0 refresh/output optimization contract has completed T701 through T709 and has been promoted unchanged from the green 0.7.0-rc.1 candidate to stable 0.7.0 source with assembly version 0.7.0.0. The final stable-source PR merge gate is active; publication remains post-merge and post-Release-matrix work.

The 0.7 stable source adds or improves:

• opt-in Terminal-owned synchronized-output framing at the complete refresh transaction boundary;
• deterministic cost-aware absolute/relative cursor-motion selection;
• cost-aware literal blank, clear-to-end-of-line, clear-to-end-of-screen, and whole-screen erase selection;
• exact physical insert/delete-character optimization for safe row-local shifts;
• exact physical insert/delete-line and forward/reverse scrolling optimization, including temporary full-width scrolling regions with failure-safe restoration;
• differential retained-rendition transitions that avoid redundant reset/reapply work while preserving reset-first safety when state must be normalized;
• deterministic byte/write release gates, including optimized-vs-fallback editor and pager workloads;
• one deliberate public API addition, CursesSessionOptions.UseSynchronizedOutput, default false.

The frozen 0.6 contract established:

• a complete semantic rendition vocabulary including italic, blink, conceal, and strikeout;
• a read-only curses-shaped presentation-capabilities view;
• safe indexed and direct-RGB resolution through Icod.TermInfo semantic color APIs;
• deterministic degradation rather than refresh-time failure for unsupported colors and optional attributes;
• ncv-aware physical style degradation without mutating logical cell style;
• semantic CursesLineGlyph cells;
• semantic horizontal, vertical, and border drawing overloads;
• capability-aware ACS, Unicode, and ASCII line presentation;
• session lifecycle/disposal acceptance after rich non-default presentation;
• warning level 4 and warnings-as-errors for library and tests under Staging, so PR validation exercises Release-equivalent compiler/analyzer severity.

Earlier stable releases established:

• 0.5.0: large off-screen pads, independent pannable viewports, derived views, and per-viewport visible-change observation;
• 0.4.0: Unicode-safe window geometry, editing, composition, drawing, and damage-range operations;
• 0.3.0: Unicode 17 terminal-cell semantics and column-safe text helpers;
• 0.2.0: complete stable Icod.Terminal 1.0.0 semantic input parity.

The dependency baseline remains:

• Icod.Terminal 1.4.0
• Icod.TermInfo 1.10.0

The retired DCurses backend, native mode, lifecycle-source, input-decoder, and pre-Terminal session implementations remain removed. DCurses does not add a mouse parser, paste reader, protocol escape emitter, keyboard decoder, or second input loop.

The first release line was driven by the requirements of top, slabtop, and watch. The 1.0 development train broadens that foundation into a general managed TUI contract.

See Icod.DCurses-1.0.0-Development-Roadmap.md for the authoritative release train through 1.0.0, and Icod.DCurses-0.7.0-Development-Roadmap.md for the refresh/output optimization tranche. The 0.7 decisions and gates are recorded in:

• docs/T701-Refresh-Cost-Foundation-and-Baseline.md
• docs/T702-Synchronized-Refresh-Framing.md
• docs/T703-Cursor-Motion-Selection.md
• docs/T704-Cost-Aware-Erase-Selection.md
• docs/T705-Character-Shift-Optimization.md
• docs/T706-Physical-Line-Shift-and-Scroll-Region-Optimization.md
• docs/T707-Rendition-and-Refresh-State-Minimization.md
• docs/T708-Benchmark-API-Package-and-Regret-Gate.md
• docs/T709-0.7.0-Stable-Release-Closure.md
• docs/Public-API-Baseline-0.7.md.

The completed 0.6 presentation release is recorded in Icod.DCurses-0.6.0-Development-Roadmap.md, its T603-T609 documents, and docs/Public-API-Baseline-0.6.md.

The completed 0.5 pad release is recorded in Icod.DCurses-0.5.0-Development-Roadmap.md, its T504-T509 documents, and docs/Public-API-Baseline-0.5.md.

The completed 0.4 window-editing release is recorded in Icod.DCurses-0.4.0-Development-Roadmap.md, its T402-T409 documents, and docs/Public-API-Baseline-0.4.md.

The completed 0.3 Unicode release is recorded in Icod.DCurses-0.3.0-Development-Roadmap.md, its T302-T308 documents, and docs/Public-API-Baseline-0.3.md.

Icod.DCurses-0.2.0-Development-Roadmap.md and docs/Public-API-Baseline-0.2.md record the stable semantic-input release. docs/Dependency-Baseline-0.1.1.md retains the Terminal/TermInfo ownership baseline inherited by later releases.

Icod.DCurses-Development-Roadmap.md retains the original project roadmap and 0.1 development history. Historical integration checkpoints remain under docs/.

Architecture

top / slabtop / watch / editors / pagers / other TUIs
                         |
                    Icod.DCurses
       windows / pads / cells / refresh
     rendition / drawing / curses events
                         |
                    Icod.Terminal
      session / input / lifecycle / dimensions
       presentation / input-protocol leases
                         |
                    Icod.TermInfo
             terminal capability model
                         |
                  terminal / tty

Icod.DCurses does not hard-code one terminal family. Terminal-specific output continues to be selected through Icod.TermInfo, while live session ownership and reversible terminal state are centralized in Icod.Terminal.

Target

The implementation targets:

• .NET 8
• .NET 9
• .NET 10
• C# 13
• Windows
• Linux
• macOS

Installation

The current published stable package is:

dotnet add package Icod.DCurses --version 0.6.0

0.7.0 is the validated stable source on the development PR; it is not presented here as a published package until the later merge, Release-matrix, tag, and publication gates complete.

Quick start

using Icod.DCurses;

await using CursesSession session = await CursesSession.OpenAsync();
CursesWindow screen = session.StandardScreen;

screen.Clear();
screen.Move(
    0,
    0
);
screen.Write(
    "Hello from Icod.DCurses",
    new CursesStyle(
        CursesColor.Default,
        CursesColor.Default,
        CursesTextAttributes.Bold
    )
);
await session.RefreshAsync();

CursesEvent terminalEvent = await session.ReadEventAsync();

The session owns the presentation state it enters and restores that state when disposed. Applications should consume terminal input and lifecycle activity through CursesSession rather than adding a parallel terminal reader.

Refresh and output optimization (0.7)

The retained logical/physical screen model remains authoritative. DCurses may select a cheaper physical terminal operation only when the current TermInfo description advertises the required capabilities, the retained state proves the operation produces the same final screen, and the concrete emitted-byte cost is a strict win. Otherwise the ordinary renderer is used.

Applications that prefer synchronized presentation can opt in at the curses session boundary:

await using CursesSession session = await CursesSession.OpenAsync(
    new CursesSessionOptions {
        UseSynchronizedOutput = true
    }
);

This asks Icod.Terminal to frame each complete RefreshAsync() transaction using its synchronized-output lease. The option defaults to false: one unnested begin/end pair adds 16 protocol bytes, so framing can be a net cost for small or high-frequency updates. DCurses does not infer support from a terminal name and does not construct private mode 2026 sequences itself.

The other 0.7 optimizations are internal. Depending on the advertised TermInfo capabilities and the exact diff, the refresh engine can choose:

• shorter safe absolute/relative cursor movement;
• literal blanks versus el, ed, or whole-screen clear;
• ich/dch for exact row-local character shifts;
• il/dl or forward/reverse scroll for exact full-row shifts;
• temporary csr regions for exact full-width interior vertical shifts, always restored before the refresh transaction finishes;
• incremental style transitions when a known physical style only gains attributes or changes non-default colors.

Safety preconditions are deliberately conservative. Ambiguous wide-cell character shifts, partial-width scroll ownership, non-default erase regions, unknown retained state, and equal-cost candidates stay on the ordinary path. Output failure invalidates retained knowledge so the next refresh returns through the safe fallback path.

The deterministic release-gate fixtures record:

T701 established-default -> bold: 19 bytes / 4 writes
T707 established-default -> bold: 13 bytes / 3 writes
editor two-column insertion:       2 optimized vs 34 fallback bytes
pager one-line deletion:            4 optimized vs 166 fallback bytes
160 x 60 full repaint:           9661 bytes / 121 writes / 1 flush
1000 one-cell updates:           2000 bytes / 2000 writes / 1000 flushes

These are synthetic maintainer fixtures used to make optimization decisions repeatable; they are not universal performance claims for all terminals.

Rendition and semantic drawing (0.6)

Logical styles remain terminal-independent. The physical refresh layer resolves them against the selected terminal and degrades unsupported presentation features in a controlled way:

CursesPresentationCapabilities presentation =
    session.PresentationCapabilities;

CursesStyle heading = new(
    CursesColor.Indexed( 14 ),
    CursesColor.Default,
    CursesTextAttributes.Bold
        | CursesTextAttributes.Italic
        | CursesTextAttributes.Underline
);

screen.Write( "Presentation-aware heading", heading );

CursesWindow panel = screen.CreateSubwindow(
    2,
    4,
    8,
    40
);
panel.DrawBorder( heading.WithForeground( CursesColor.Default ) );

The complete semantic attribute vocabulary is:

Bold
Dim
Underline
Reverse
Standout
Italic
Blink
Conceal
Strikeout

CursesPresentationCapabilities reports the safe indexed-color range, direct RGB support, native attributes, ncv color restrictions, alternate-character- set support, default-color restoration, and cursor-presentation availability. Applications can make ordinary TUI presentation decisions without inspecting raw terminfo strings.

Color resolution uses Icod.TermInfo.TerminalColors. An indexed request is emitted only when it falls inside the safely addressable range. Direct RGB is used only when TermInfo advertises a safe direct-color model. Unsafe or unsupported color requests degrade to terminal default rather than being wrapped or passed to an unsupported selector. Logical CursesStyle values stored in cells are not changed by this physical degradation.

Semantic line drawing carries intent in CursesCell rather than storing terminal escape sequences:

CursesCell crossing = CursesCell.Line(
    CursesLineGlyph.Crossing,
    heading
);

screen.DrawHorizontalLine( 12, 4, 30 );
screen.DrawVerticalLine( 4, 34, 8 );

At refresh time, semantic line cells use the terminal's advertised alternate character set when the requested glyph is mapped. Otherwise DCurses uses the canonical one-column Unicode box-drawing glyph, with ASCII as the final safe fallback. Ordinary text containing characters such as ─ remains ordinary text and is never reinterpreted as ACS content.

Pads and large surfaces (0.5)

Pads are in-memory off-screen logical surfaces. They reuse ordinary CursesWindow editing semantics and can be larger than the destination terminal screen:

CursesPad pad = new( 200, 5_000 );
CursesWindow content = pad.ContentWindow;

content.Move( 100, 20 );
content.Write( "A界B — large logical document" );

CursesWindow editor = session.StandardScreen;
CursesPadViewport viewport = pad.CreateViewport(
    editor,
    padRow: 95,
    padColumn: 10,
    rows: 20,
    columns: 70,
    destinationRow: 1,
    destinationColumn: 2
);

viewport.Present();
await session.RefreshAsync();

viewport.PanBy( 10, 0 );
if ( viewport.HasVisiblePadChanges ) {
    viewport.Present();
    await session.RefreshAsync();
}

HasVisiblePadChanges reports whether the currently visible pad source moved or changed since that viewport last presented. It does not claim ownership of the destination. Present() remains authoritative and will restore the viewport if another logical window overwrote its destination region.

Multiple viewports can observe one pad independently. Presenting one does not acknowledge changes for another. Shared pad-local views use pad.ContentWindow.CreateSubwindow(...); no separate subpad hierarchy is required.

Pads do not own terminal sessions or physical refresh state, and they do not resize merely because the terminal resizes. Viewport geometry is revalidated against the current destination on every presentation.

Window editing and composition (0.4)

The 0.4 line adds window-local editing and composition while retaining the shared-view model:

CursesScreen logical = new( 80, 24 );
CursesWindow editor = logical.CreateWindow( 2, 4, 18, 60 );

editor.Reposition( 3, 5 );
editor.FillRectangle( 0, 0, 18, 60, CursesCell.Blank() );
editor.Move( 1, 2 );
editor.Write( "A界B" );
editor.InsertCells( 2 );

CursesWindow status = logical.CreateWindow( 21, 5, 1, 60 );
editor.CopyRectangleTo( status, 1, 0, 1, 20, 0, 0 );

editor.DrawHorizontalLine( 16, 1, 58, new CursesCell( "-" ) );
editor.TouchRegion( 0, 0, 18, 60 );
bool needsRefresh = editor.IsRegionTouched( 0, 0, 18, 60 );

CopyRectangleTo includes source blanks; OverlayRectangleTo treats ordinary source blanks as transparent. Overlapping copies snapshot the source before any destination write. Editing and drawing preserve the cursor and retain the 0.3 wide-cell invariants.

The original drawing methods continue to accept exact caller-supplied one-column cells. The 0.6 semantic overloads are additive and do not change the 0.4 exact- cell contract.

Unicode column helpers (0.3)

Applications can measure or trim printable text using the same terminal-column contract as window writes:

int columns = CursesText.MeasureColumns( "A界B" );
string prefix = CursesText.TruncateToColumns( "A界B", 3 );
string slice = CursesText.SliceByColumns( "A界B", 1, 2 );

The default provider uses Unicode 17.0.0 data and treats East Asian Ambiguous characters as narrow. Applications that deliberately require wide-Ambiguous semantics can pass UnicodeCursesTextWidthProvider.WideAmbiguousInstance to a CursesScreen or to the CursesText helpers.

Column helpers normalize malformed UTF-16 before text-element segmentation, reject terminal controls, and never return half of a two-column text element.

Modern keyboard input (0.2)

Applications which want key-event phases can request them through the curses protocol lease without using Terminal protocol types directly:

var keyboard = await session.AcquireInputProtocolsAsync(
    new CursesInputProtocolOptions {
        KeyboardReportingMode = CursesKeyboardReportingMode.EventTypes
    }
);

if ( keyboard.IsAvailable ) {
    await using CursesInputProtocolLease lease = keyboard.GetRequiredValue();
    CursesEvent current = await session.ReadEventAsync();

    if ( current.Input is {
        Kind: CursesInputEventKind.Key
    } input ) {
        CursesKey key = input.Key;
        CursesKeyEventPhase? phase = input.KeyPhase;
        CursesKeyModifiers modifiers = input.Modifiers;
    }
}

Keyboard reporting is optional. A terminal which cannot provide the requested mode returns a controlled unavailable result; applications can continue using the ordinary curses input stream.

Build

From the repository root:

build.cmd

or:

./build.sh

Both wrappers delegate to packaging/Invoke-Build.ps1 and use the Debug configuration for local development. With no section argument they perform restore, build, test, pack, and package validation. They also accept clean, restore, build, test, pack, or validate; prerequisite phases are run automatically where needed.

Pull-request validation promotes the build to Staging. Pushes to main and release tags use Release. Both the library and test projects use warning level 4 with warnings-as-errors under Staging, so ordinary PR validation exercises the same compiler/analyzer severity policy that matters to Release without compiling the solution twice. Package validation exercises the packed artifact and a fresh package-only consumer rather than relying only on repository project references.

The Unicode width-data generator is a maintainer tool outside the solution. See tools/unicode-width-generator/README.md; normal builds do not fetch Unicode data from the network.

Authors

Inspired by original work from Bill Joy, author of the original termcap; Mary Ann (born Mark) Horton, author of terminfo; Pavel Curtis, author of pcurses; and Zeyd Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, and Thomas Dickey, whose work developed and maintained libtinfo and ncurses.

Managed .NET implementation by Timothy J. Bruce uniblab@hotmail.com.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2026 Timothy J. Bruce

License

Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 or later. See LICENSE.

The NuGet package declares license acceptance as required. Package clients which honor NuGet's requireLicenseAcceptance metadata must obtain acceptance of the license terms before installation.