Dialog is an application used in shell scripts which displays text user interface widgets. It uses the curses or ncurses library. The latter provides users with the ability to use a mouse, e.g., in an xterm.
 Dialog - editbox widget | |
| Original author(s) | Savio Lam |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Thomas Dickey |
| Initial release | 1994 |
| Stable release | 1.3-20240307[1] 
/ 10 March 2024 |
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Unix, Linux, POSIX |
| Type | Shell scripts |
| License | LGPL |
| Website | invisible-island |
Dialog was created by Savio Lam (first reported version 0.3 was in 1994).[2][3][4] It was further modified by several people. Since 1999 it has been maintained (and rewritten) by Thomas Dickey.[5]
At least one fork exists, a FreeBSD-only split into application and library in late 1994.[6][7] One might also consider lxdialog (part of menuconfig), except that it has been reduced to fragments that can no longer run dialog scripts.
There are several programs inspired by dialog; not all read the same scripts. The most well-known are Xdialog and whiptail.
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "Index of /archives/dialog". Retrieved 14 March 2024.
- ^ Phil Hughes (April 1994). "Interview with Patrick Volkerding". Linux Journal.
- ^ Jeff Tranter (September 1994). "Dialog: An Introductory Tutorial". Linux Journal.
- ^ "Dialog 0.3 manual page". 1994-01-10. Archived from the original on 2006-09-22. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
- ^ "Dialog Change Log".
- ^ "FreeBSD CVS src/gnu/usr.bin/dialog/".
- ^ "FreeBSD library manual for dialog".