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KornShell VS ncurses

Compare KornShell VS ncurses and see what are their differences

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KornShell logo KornShell

The KornShell language was designed and developed by David G. Korn at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

ncurses logo ncurses

ncurses (new curses) is a programming library that provides an API which allows the programmer to...
  • KornShell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-12-21
  • ncurses Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-21

KornShell features and specs

  • Compatibility
    KornShell (ksh) maintains backward compatibility with Bourne Shell (sh), making it easy for users familiar with sh to transition without altering their existing scripts substantially.
  • Advanced Scripting Features
    ksh offers advanced scripting capabilities such as associative arrays, floating-point arithmetic, and built-in regular expressions, providing more powerful and flexible scripting tools.
  • Job Control
    It provides robust job control, allowing users to manage and switch between multiple background tasks and processes easily.
  • Interactive Use
    ksh supports features like command aliasing, history manipulation, and inline editing, enhancing its utility in interactive command-line environments.
  • Performance
    ksh scripts often execute faster than those written in other shells like csh, due to more efficient resource management and execution mechanisms.

Possible disadvantages of KornShell

  • Complexity
    ksh is more complex compared to simpler shells like sh, making it potentially overwhelming for beginners or those seeking simplicity.
  • Portability
    Not all systems come with ksh pre-installed, and differences between ksh88 and ksh93 can lead to portability issues across different Unix-like systems.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its rich feature set, ksh has a steeper learning curve, which could be a barrier for new users unfamiliar with shell scripting.
  • Limited Adoption
    Despite its capabilities, ksh is not as widely adopted as other shells like bash or zsh, meaning less community support and fewer resources available.
  • Licensing
    ksh is under the Common Public License, which may pose constraints for users or organizations compared to more permissively licensed shells.

ncurses features and specs

  • Portability
    ncurses is highly portable and can run on a wide range of Unix-like systems, making it suitable for developing cross-platform terminal applications.
  • Terminal Control
    Provides comprehensive terminal control capabilities, allowing developers to manipulate text, colors, and screen dimensions easily.
  • Wide Adoption
    Being a widely-used library, ncurses has an extensive user base and a wealth of resources and community support available.
  • Enhanced User Interface
    Allows the creation of text user interfaces with features like windows, menus, and forms, improving the interactivity of terminal applications.
  • Extensive Function Set
    Offers a rich set of functions for handling input, output, and special effects in text-mode applications, facilitating complex interface designs.

Possible disadvantages of ncurses

  • Learning Curve
    Has a steep learning curve, especially for developers who are new to terminal-based UI programming.
  • C Programming Requirement
    Primarily a C library, which might not be appealing to developers more comfortable with modern or higher-level languages.
  • Limited to Text Mode
    Bound by the constraints of text mode, limiting the kinds of interactions and graphical representations possible compared to graphical user interfaces.
  • Complexity of Code
    Complex terminal applications can become unwieldy with a large amount of ncurses code, making maintenance challenging.
  • Terminal Compatibility
    While ncurses is designed to be portable, not all terminal emulators may fully support all its features, leading to potential inconsistencies.

KornShell videos

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ncurses videos

Ncurses gameplay of PointandHit linux terminal game

Category Popularity

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User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, KornShell seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

KornShell mentions (1)

  • Trying to Set-up android9(ver6) in VirtualBox
    Well now I'm at the point that I see it's calling for the Korn shell, which I'm not directly familiar with, and seemed to stop on the mouse input driver. I'll change my VBox mouse device settings and see what happens from there... Source: over 4 years ago

ncurses mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of ncurses yet. Tracking of ncurses recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing KornShell and ncurses, you can also consider the following products

GNU Bourne Again SHell - Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, that will appear in the GNU operating system.

FINAL CUT - Library for creating terminal applications with text-based widgets

fish shell - The friendly interactive shell.

Ratatui - Rust library that's all about cooking up terminal user interfaces (TUIs).

zsh - The Z shell (Zsh) is a Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a powerful command interpreter for shell scripting.

newt - Programming library for color text mode, widget based user interfaces.