Glyph

Glyph is a modern C++ TUI (Terminal UI) engine prototype. It provides a clear semantic 2D canvas abstraction and pluggable rendering backends. Current status is 0.3.0 prototype, and APIs may change.

Goals & Positioning

• Goal: provide a stable data model and rendering pipeline as a foundation for future UI components and layout systems
• Positioning: engine-level infrastructure (not a full UI framework)

Architecture

View → Frame (semantic draw) → Renderer (backend output)

• core/: geometry / Cell / Buffer / width rules / dirty / diff
• view/: semantic drawing interfaces (View, Frame, Canvas)
• view/layout/: pure layout helpers (box/stack/inset/align/split/scroll)
• view/components/: Label/Panel/Bar/Table/Focus
• render/: backend output (ANSI / Debug)
• input/: unified event model + Windows input backend

Layering rule: upper layers do not depend on lower-level details; backends are replaceable.

Current Features (0.3.0)

• Semantic 2D canvas and minimal draw pipeline
• Cell width policy + write-time dirty marking
• ANSI renderer (diff/dirty optimized, true-color styles)
• Windows input (VT key sequences + mouse wheel)
• Layout helpers: box/stack/inset/align/split + scroll model
• Components: LabelView, PanelView, BarView, TableView
• Focus/selection models for list/table style components
• Demos: aurora_dashboard, components_demo, bar_demo, poll_stress_demo, snake_demo

Example

Build & run:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build
./build/ansi_render

Layout demo:

./build/layout_demo

Exit with Esc or Q.

Component demo:

./build/components_demo

UI demo:

./build/aurora_dashboard

Install (CMake)

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/install
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

Then use:

find_package(glyph CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(my_app PRIVATE glyph::glyph)

Directory Layout

include/glyph/
  core/    core types, geometry, Cell, Buffer, diff
  view/    View/Frame/Canvas
  view/layout/  box/stack/inset/align/split/scroll
  view/components/  Label/Panel/Bar/Table/Focus
  render/  Renderer/ANSI/Debug
  input/   Event/Input/WinInput
src/
samples/

Design Constraints

• Canvas semantics: draw by writing Cell grid, no direct control codes
• Pluggable backends: Renderer decoupled from View
• Lightweight core: keep core types small and stable

Known Limitations (current)

• Windows input only (no Unix/macOS backend yet)
• TableView is basic (no virtualization or column resizing)
• No chart/graph components yet
• No text input component yet

Roadmap

• Charts (line chart, progress bar)
• System stats (CPU/memory/process list)
• Glyph-Top demo (table + charts + status)
• Cross-platform input (Unix/macOS)

Dev Guide (quick)

Add a renderer backend

1. Implement glyph::render::Renderer in src/.
2. Add the header under include/glyph/render/.
3. Register the source in CMakeLists.txt.
4. Create a small sample in samples/ to validate output.

Add an input backend

1. Implement glyph::input::Input (poll/read/set_mode/get_mode).
2. Translate platform input into glyph::core::Event.
3. Add the header under include/glyph/input/ and source in src/.

Add a view / component

1. Implement glyph::view::View::render(Frame&, Rect).
2. Use Frame::set() / Canvas::set() for drawing.
3. Keep rendering IO in render layer only.

Contributing

Prototype APIs may change. Contributions to core/render/input and samples are welcome.