Can I use Python's curses and cmd libraries together?

Question

In Python, I'd like to write a terminal program using both cmd and curses together, ie. use cmd to accept and decode full input lines, but position the output with curses.

Mashing together examples of both curses and cmd like this :

import curses 
import cmd

class HelloWorld(cmd.Cmd):
    """Simple command processor example."""

    def do_greet(self, line):
        screen.clear()
        screen.addstr(1,1,"hello "+line)
        screen.addstr(0,1,">")
        screen.refresh()

    def do_q(self, line):
        curses.endwin()
        return True

if __name__ == '__main__':
    screen = curses.initscr()   
    HelloWorld().cmdloop()

I find that I'm not seeing anything when I type. curses is presumably waiting for a refresh before displaying anything on the screen. I could switch to using getch() but then I'd lose the value of cmd.

Is there a way to make these work together?

Answer 1

The question seems to be very old... But it attracted enough of attention so i thought to leave my answer behind.. You can check out the site here and clear your doubts..

Update : this answer links to the gist from the original questioner. Just to save someone having to follow the link ... here's the code in full :

#!/usr/bin/env python 
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- 

import curses 
import curses.textpad
import cmd

def maketextbox(h,w,y,x,value="",deco=None,textColorpair=0,decoColorpair=0):
    # thanks to http://stackoverflow.com/a/5326195/8482 for this
    nw = curses.newwin(h,w,y,x)
    txtbox = curses.textpad.Textbox(nw,insert_mode=True)
    if deco=="frame":
        screen.attron(decoColorpair)
        curses.textpad.rectangle(screen,y-1,x-1,y+h,x+w)
        screen.attroff(decoColorpair)
    elif deco=="underline":
        screen.hline(y+1,x,underlineChr,w,decoColorpair)

    nw.addstr(0,0,value,textColorpair)
    nw.attron(textColorpair)
    screen.refresh()
    return nw,txtbox

class Commands(cmd.Cmd):
    """Simple command processor example."""
        
    def __init__(self):
        cmd.Cmd.__init__(self)
        self.prompt = "> "
        self.intro  = "Welcome to console!"  ## defaults to None
    
    def do_greet(self, line):
        self.write("hello "+line)

    def default(self,line) :
        self.write("Don't understand '" + line + "'")

    def do_quit(self, line):
        curses.endwin()
        return True

    def write(self,text) :
        screen.clear()
        textwin.clear()
        screen.addstr(3,0,text)
        screen.refresh()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    screen = curses.initscr()   
    curses.noecho()
    textwin,textbox = maketextbox(1,40, 1,1,"")
    flag = False
    while not flag :
        text = textbox.edit()
    curses.beep()
    flag = Commands().onecmd(text)