# Menu-driven Console Application in Ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [22 February 2010 15:38 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/menu-driven-console-application-in-ruby/57504 "2010-02-22T15:38:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joe\_Martin1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@Joe\_Martin1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Joe_Martin1)\ **Post date:** [22 February 2010 15:38 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/menu-driven-console-application-in-ruby/57504/1 "2010-02-22T15:38:28Z")
Hello I'm trying to create a console application with ruby on Windows. I wish to have it menu driven, so each screen the user sees is essentially a menu, where the user can enter a number (representing their menu choice), such as: > **···** > > ----------------------------- > Welcome to my application! > > Menu > 1. Perform some action > 2. View option list > 3. Exit application > > Enter selection\> \_ > ----------------------------- > > Really I'm looking for skeleton or sample code for a console > application. A few google searches did return skeleton code for a > command-line and console applications, but everything I found was more > geared towards command line applications (that is, skeleton code for > parsing out parameters, proper help syntax, etc), and not creating a > menu-driven environment. > > I already have the program basically written out and working, but it's > very hacky with many if-else and when-case checks, so I'm hoping that it > could be structured and written out in a cleaner fashion--just not quite > sure where to start, and I'm out of ideas on what other ways (or other > libraries) are viable options for me. The menus of this application wil > be multiple levels deep, so that needs to be kept in mind as well. > > Any ideas on where to start? I'm willing to start the application from > scratch if the end result is cleaner, more standard code. > -- > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Conroy1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Richard\_Conroy1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Richard_Conroy1)\ **Post date:** [22 February 2010 16:59 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/menu-driven-console-application-in-ruby/57504/2 "2010-02-22T16:59:34Z")
You should look at the ncurses gem/project. [http://rbcurse.rubyforge.org/](http://rbcurse.rubyforge.org/) \<[http://rbcurse.rubyforge.org/>You](http://rbcurse.rubyforge.org/>You) will probably need to do a bit of googling for tutorials and such > **···** > > On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Joe Martin \wrote: > > > Hello > > I'm trying to create a console application with ruby on Windows. I wish > > to have it menu driven, so each screen the user sees is essentially a > > menu, where the user can enter a number (representing their menu > > choice), such as: > > -- > > > **[Richard Conroy's Personal Blog](http://richardconroy.blogspot.com)** > > > > Random thoughts on Life, Pictures, Sailing, Software Development, Games, Skiing and random things from the internet. May contain Rants. ---
**Author:** ![Gabriel\_Horner1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gabriel\_Horner1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Gabriel_Horner1)\ **Post date:** [22 February 2010 20:00 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/menu-driven-console-application-in-ruby/57504/3 "2010-02-22T20:00:08Z")
Highline, [http://highline.rubyforge.org/](http://highline.rubyforge.org/), has a pretty good menu widget: [http://highline.rubyforge.org/doc/classes/HighLine/Menu.html](http://highline.rubyforge.org/doc/classes/HighLine/Menu.html) Hirb , [GitHub - cldwalker/hirb: A mini view framework for console/irb that's easy to use, even while under its influence. Console goodies include a no-wrap table, auto-pager, tree and menu.](http://github.com/cldwalker/hirb), also has a decent one: [Tagaholic - Two Dimensional Console Menus with Hirb](http://tagaholic.me/2010/02/16/two-dimensional-console-menus-with-hirb.html) Neither one of these requires using curses which may be a good thing being in windows. I don't think either one of these supports multiple levels. > **···** > > On Feb 22, 10:38 am, Joe Martin \ wrote: > > > Hello > > I'm trying to create a console application with ruby on Windows. I wish > > to have it menu driven, so each screen the user sees is essentially a > > menu, where the user can enter a number (representing their menu > > choice), such as: > > > > ----------------------------- > > Welcome to my application! > > > > Menu > > 1. Perform some action > > 2. View option list > > 3. Exit application > > > > Enter selection\> \_ > > ----------------------------- > > > > Really I'm looking for skeleton or sample code for a console > > application. A few google searches did return skeleton code for a > > command-line and console applications, but everything I found was more > > geared towards command line applications (that is, skeleton code for > > parsing out parameters, proper help syntax, etc), and not creating a > > menu-driven environment. > > > > I already have the program basically written out and working, but it's > > very hacky with many if-else and when-case checks, so I'm hoping that it > > could be structured and written out in a cleaner fashion--just not quite > > sure where to start, and I'm out of ideas on what other ways (or other > > libraries) are viable options for me. The menus of this application wil > > be multiple levels deep, so that needs to be kept in mind as well. > > > > Any ideas on where to start? I'm willing to start the application from > > scratch if the end result is cleaner, more standard code.