User Interface Control on AIX Host for character/text based Application

[bgibbins]

I have hunted high and low and don't seem to be able to get a clear
idea of how to achieve what I need to do (which is pretty basic). I
want to write a Java Application (initialy on AIX v4 and then port it
AIX v5) which will provide a simply menu and data entry system for a
telnet client running on a Portable Data Terminal (eg. Symbol PDT 6800
series). I can do StdIn and StdOut but this does not allow me to trap
Function Keys. I am performing cursor positioning and highlighting but
would like better control of the keyboard.


Suggestions have been to write the Application in C rather than Java.
However, Java is my language and I have only limited skills in C. Also,
I don't have a AIX or even a Unix background.

So I am after some pretty clear instructions on how I might be able to
do this. I understand that I may need to use curses or the hybrid
ncurses libraries or even charva. But I am not sure how to do this in
Java on the AIX box.


Any sample code would be really appreciated to help me get started.


Kind Regards.

 

[.]

I have hunted high and low and don't seem to be able to get a clear
idea of how to achieve what I need to do (which is pretty basic). I
want to write a Java Application (initialy on AIX v4 and then port it
AIX v5) which will provide a simply menu and data entry system for a
telnet client running on a Portable Data Terminal (eg. Symbol PDT 6800
series). I can do StdIn and StdOut but this does not allow me to trap
Function Keys. I am performing cursor positioning and highlighting but
would like better control of the keyboard.

Suggestions have been to write the Application in C rather than Java.
However, Java is my language and I have only limited skills in C. Also,
I don't have a AIX or even a Unix background.

So I am after some pretty clear instructions on how I might be able to
do this. I understand that I may need to use curses or the hybrid
ncurses libraries or even charva. But I am not sure how to do this in
Java on the AIX box.

I'm the opposite of you. I have been programming C language since 1985. I
would be more inclined to do this in C language.

I just wanted to say that the curses and ncurses library are projects for
C language. Normally, if you wanted to do things relative to the screen,
e.g. move cursor to position x,y or clear the display, you need to write
non-portable code. If you use the curses library and that library has been
ported to all the platforms you use then you don't need to create a
solution for each platform.

With UNIX and C if I wanted to be able to access function keys I could use
UNIX libraries and terminfo. The idea here is that no matter want terminal
or terminal emulation (vt100, xterm, dec220, etc) the user is using, I
would be able to determine when then pressed F1.

Something like ncurses would simplify this for a C programmer. That is, if
I was fluent in ISO C but not UNIX then using ncurses would be easy. I
believe that he charva library is the Java version of ncurses. I would
recommend you google on charva. The first couple of sites should have
information on it. I found http://www.pitman.co.za/projects/charva on
google and it looks like everything you need.