Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ncurses VS Lapce

Compare ncurses VS Lapce and see what are their differences

ncurses logo ncurses

ncurses (new curses) is a programming library that provides an API which allows the programmer to...

Lapce logo Lapce

Lightning-fast and Powerful Code Editor written in Rust.
  • ncurses Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-21
  • Lapce Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-23

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.

Lapce features and specs

  • Performance
    Lapce is designed for speed and responsiveness, leveraging Rust's performance capabilities to provide a fast and efficient coding experience.
  • Intuitive UI
    Lapce offers a modern and clean user interface that is easy to navigate, making it accessible for beginners and efficient for experienced users.
  • Plugin Support
    Lapce supports a variety of plugins, allowing users to customize their development environment and extend functionality according to their needs.
  • Open Source
    Being open source allows the community to contribute to its development, ensuring continuous improvements and updates.
  • Cross-platform
    Lapce is available on multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, ensuring that developers can use it regardless of their preferred platform.

Possible disadvantages of Lapce

  • Limited Maturity
    As a relatively new editor, Lapce might not be as refined or polished as more established editors, which could affect stability and feature set.
  • Less Extensible
    Compared to leading editors like VS Code or Atom, Lapce may have fewer extensions and a smaller ecosystem, which could limit its customizability.
  • Community Support
    Being a newer tool, Lapce may not yet have a large community or extensive documentation, potentially making it more challenging to find help and resources.
  • Feature Set Limitations
    Some advanced features available in other popular editors might still be under development or unavailable in Lapce.
  • Compatibility
    Lapce's compatibility with certain tools and languages might be limited compared to more established editors, potentially affecting its usability for some developers.

ncurses videos

Ncurses gameplay of PointandHit linux terminal game

Lapce videos

A quick look at lapce (Oct 24th, 2022)

More videos:

  • Review - Lapce - Powerful New Code Editor
  • Review - Lapce, una alternativa a VSCode nativa y desarrollada en Rust

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ncurses and Lapce)
IDE
29 29%
71% 71
Text Editors
0 0%
100% 100
URL Shortener
100 100%
0% 0
Bookmark Manager
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using ncurses and Lapce. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Lapce seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 18 times 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.

ncurses mentions (0)

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

Lapce mentions (18)

  • I can't stand using VSCode so I wrote my own (it wasn't easy)
    Keep an eye on https://lapce.dev/ and https://zed.dev/ . Both immature, but show a lot of promise! - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • From 1s to 4ms
    Https://lapce.dev/ This is Zed replacement for me. Cross platform. Same performance as Zed. Written in Rust for all the benefits. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Show HN: Open-source alternatives to tools You pay for
    As a Neovim afficionado - I think you lose some credibility recommending it as an alternative to VSCode and Sublime. They're different beasts. I imagine a lot of people would be immediately turned off if they were expecting a VSCode/Sublime-like editing experience. I'd put Lapce in that spot: https://lapce.dev/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Lapce Editor v0.3 Released
    I do not see any indication of its "not-readiness" anywhere in the README https://github.com/lapce/lapce So while it isn't claiming to be ready, their content does not tell otherwise. Yes, the version is 0.3, but Neovim is at 0.9. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Codelite
    I've recently started using [Lace](https://lapce.dev/) as a sort of barebones VSCode alternative and I find it nice for the hobbyist use case. It integrates with all the things I need, and other less mature features I bypass completely (I prefer to do Git from the terminal anyway). - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

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

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

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

VSCodium - Binary releases of Visual Sudio Code without Microsoft branding, telemetry and licensing

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

Notepad++ - A free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.