Console programs

There are many programs that run in console environments. They are more often seen on Linux than other systems, but that doesn't mean they are not useful on Windows. My *nix favorite console programs are

• alpine: e-mail client for the console (easy to use and with a ton of features)
• midnight commander: file organizer
• vim: text editor
• gnuplot: open source plotting program

These are quite complicated also when it comes to user interfaces, and are very usable programs.

If you are a little less ambitious, making simple console programs with "menus" is quite simple. A database handling program may have the following menu:

MENU:

1. REGISTER NEW FIELD

2. EDIT FIELD VALUES

3. HELP

SELECT MENU ITEM >> ......

Easy enought to use, eh? You want to read the help file, hit 3 on your keyboard followed by enter. Next post will show how to build a quite useful program using a console interface of this type.... (not uncommon in apps from the 1970's and 1980's)!