I'm planning to develop a GUI application that uses curses. The idea is to provide an extra interface for a web interface, so that everything on the web site could also be done via the UI.
Basically, it should be platform independent: the user would have to SSH to the server after which the UI would automatically take over.
First of all, is this doable? As far as I understand, it would be platform independent as long as the end-user had the proper terminal software installed. Correct me, if I'm wrong.
I was planning to use Python for this, as it is the language I'm the most proficient in. Python comes with the ncurses library and Urwid, which I've been told, is quite good.
After having a quick test with Urwid, I had some problems. The thing is, I'm quite worried that I won't find answers to the problems that I will encounter down the road because apparently curses UI-s aren't all the rage nowadays. Documentation and examples are thus quite scarce.
In conclusion, should really I embark on this and quit my whining or drop the idea altogether? Any other suggestions?
It's certainly possible, and curses-based applications are still written regularly (e.g. PuDB is only 14 months old) although maybe not very often.
Did you try asking questions on the Urwid mailing list and/or IRC channel?
oh my, wouldn't this be a dream!
i've seen a couple of things out there to varying degrees of success.
Morticious Thrind: http://thrind.xamai.ca/
future death toll: http://f-dt.com/?wptheme=wp-cli
wordpress yadda yadda, this could be as simple as a 960/blueprint CSS, prototype.js, and a oneliner:
//TODO: Implement useful functionality && unit tests && documentation
//TODO: read
try { eval($F(x)); } catch (e) { panic(); }
BUT! this type of thing is pretty radical. i mean- ANYTHING can happen on the canvas of a web-browser these days, but any terminal emulator or lynx serves this purpose with flare.
also be sure to check out: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/472644/javascript-collection-of-one-line-useful-functions
the real question is what sort of software you plan on ncursing (sic,pun,etc.)-- it probably already has some rather useful command-line interfaces (sh).
It can be done but it's a struggle. I would recommend improving the web interface. You can use JavaScript to add keyboard shortcuts, for example, which can be very helpful for a faster workflow (see Gmail's interface, for example).
Related
I have a very old DOS application which I would like to automate. Like there are keypresses and such which if automated will help a lot as I might have to run the program over a hundred times manually.
My question seems to be very similar to this one but the solutions offered there are not very useful for me, plus it is over nine years old
Automating old DOS application using Python
Only big difference between this question and mine is that I have no option other than DOSbox for doing this. This application is set up on a lot of computers, and all the people using the application know how to use DOSBox. Migrating to Virtualbox would be a pain and very time-consuming.
I was thinking maybe if I could mechanize this somehow in python using xautomaton or uinput, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly how. The application will be running on Ubuntu primarily.
To give an idea of the application, I am attaching a screenshot:
The solution does not necessarily need to be in python. Any other language would work. Any help is appreciated.
I figured this out. Although this does not use python, to do this, I just captured the windowid of DOSbox and sent all the key presses there using xdotool. Here is an example:
wid=$(xdotool search --class DOSbox)
xdotool key --window $wid m t 5 Return Return i
Which will type "mt5", then press enter twice and then type "i"
The series of keypresses can be stored in a string or a file and called iteratively each time this has to be run. If there is a better method to do this, please feel free to answer.
Hello Python developers!
I'm a Java one and I know that there is a way of running Java code on the fly, but my question is, is there any way to do that with Python?
The main goal here is to enable middle-school students to start coding with chromebooks from day one on Python.
I've been looking for some resources, but I got nothing so far.
Thanks a lot!
http://shell.appspot.com might be of your interest. (there's a link to the source code too)
Hey, I just recovered a link to a nice page I used in the past. It shows the execution flow of a Python script. Students I taught found it very useful in terms of comparing with other languages they new already, e.g. Java, how stack and arguments are being passed to the functions, memory allocations, etc:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/pgbovine/python/tutor.html
(click on "Visualize execution" button beneath the window with the code)
IPython allows you to run python interactively from a web environment. You can try a demo here: IPython. You can set this up on a local computer and have you students view it from their machines.
Coderbuddy let's you create and run AppEngine applications online, without having to download the AppEngine SDK, Python, or anything for that matter.
I use that when I do workshops, so I don't have to bother with making sure that everyone has the SDK and proper configurations in their machines. We just go straight to coding. :)
im willing to create a project same as JUNOS cli or cisco cli,
I came through gnu readline, but im confused as there are too many functions and methods to implement. any how i want a cli with auto complete using tab and space bar with question mark to display commands with help text.
I have two questions :
I have found code in python and perl but the im not use to python that code is complete and i just want to know if i should continue with python. im more experienced in perl but the code i found so far isn't complete for perl.
readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete')
should i use the same complete function for both help and autocomplete feature. where as i have gone through another function
readline.set_completion_display_matches_hook(print_suggestions)
what you suggest :P im completely new to it!
I must say that I struggle to understand which specific point you are addressing in your question. But here is a suggestion anyway:
Start out with the cmd module. It gives you a nice little framework to build a command-line interpreter. It supports tab completion out of the box (provided readline is available). Start implementing your command-line interface. Once this stabilizes you can think about adding more comfort, e.g. tab completion for command arguments, help keys, and the like. This way, you have a working app to deal with, and can address readline details more specifically when you really need them. I wouldn't wade through the whole readline API upfront, if I were in your shoes.
We had to create a cli like JunOS/Cisco/VyOS and we built it on top of ishell, which uses readline for this job.
From the project page:
ishell helps you to easily create an interactive shell for your application. It supports command completion, dynamic arguments, a command history, and chaining of commands.
You can check the project at github: https://github.com/italorossi/ishell
Cisco example:
PS: I'm the author :).
I'm using twisted to create a server.
Problem is, I must protect my code. Since I don't want to publish it, I'm not really interess into obfuscation or compilation of the python code.
My problem is, my twisted application must run with root uid and a lot of people have root access to this server.
I don't care if they can read it, but I want sure they can't modify it!
What is the best solution, knowing I'm using twisted? I've seen in twistd, tapconvert and mktap that twisted can "encrypt" my code, but I didn't find any good documentation about that.
Anybody to help me?
Thanks in advance for any answer =)
Have a nice day!
/!\ EDIT:
I got another question, I've wrote my code following this part of twisted documentation: http://twistedmatrix.com/documents/current/core/howto/application.html so I launch my server using a command like twistd -y server.py --logfile ...
Since I'm doing that, I assume I can't use software like cx_Freeze to hide my code right ?
You have a number of problems here.
my twisted application must run with root uid
This is bad. If there are vulnerabilities in your application, then they will be made more serious by running as root. You should consider finding a way to not run as root. For example, if you only run as root so you can bind to a low numbered port, consider using authbind instead.
a lot of people have root access to this server
Perhaps you should limit privileged access to those people who actually need it. If that isn't an option, then perhaps you should at least limit access to people you can trust. Someone who has root on a machine can do anything they want on that machine, and defeat any scheme you dream up.
I don't care if they can read it, but I want sure they can't modify it!
You should ask them not to modify it, then.
I've seen in twistd, tapconvert and mktap that twisted can "encrypt" my code, but I didn't find any good documentation about that. Anybody to help me?
You shouldn't bother trying to use the encryption features of twistd and mktap. These don't prevent anyone from changing your code. At best they might prevent someone from reading some of it. As you said, this isn't even your goal. Even if it were your goal, someone with root access will be able to decrypt these files easily, so it doesn't even help there.
If you give code to someone, expect them to be able to do anything and everything they want with it. If you put code on a server, you are effectively giving it to everyone with root access to that server.
So, stop thinking about encryption and other technical issues and think of some other way to achieve your goals - fire the untrustworthy administrators, use an appropriate license on the code, get an actual contract, etc.
AFAIK, there is no way to prevent a root user from modifying a plain text file. Root is just that, they can do anything they want with it including modifying. Why do so many people have root access to the machine anyway?
If you're concerned, you really have two options:
Encrypt the files in whatever way you want (I don't know if Twisted does it or how)
'Compile' the code for your platform. There are a few Python compilers out there but I don't know if they work with Linux. I'm a free software guy so I want people to read and modify my code. Protecting it doesn't concern me.
I guess you do have a third option of protecting it legally with a license. But if they violate your license then there's the cost of taking them to court over it.
Not many options. Sorry.
Anthony
Is it possible to make python run on your homepage? I know, this is a really stupid question but please don't pick on me for my stupidity :)
If it is possible, how? Do you have to upload/install the executing part of Python to you website using FTP? or...?
Edit: Just found out my provider does not support python and that shell access is completely restricted. Problem solved :)
Everything depends on the hosting provider you use for your homepage -- do they offer Python among their services, and, if so, what version, and how do you write server-side scripts to use it (is it CGI-only, or...?) -- if not, or the version / deployment options disappoint, what do they allow in terms of giving you shell access and running long-time processes?
It's impossible for us to judge any of these aspects, because every single one of them depends on your hosting provider, and absolutely none of them depends on Python itself!-)
Yes, you can. I don't know exactly how but I know it is possible. Mabye look into this website:
https://trinket.io/
This website lets you do this. I sent them a message to see how they do it so I will update this to let you know after they respond.
Python is a scripting language, though it is used gracefully for building back end web applications.