Make Your Python App Interactive With a Text User Interface (TUI)

The Real Python Podcast

Have you wanted to create a Python application that goes further than a command-line interface? You would like it to have a friendly interface but don’t want to make a GUI (Graphical User Interface) or web application. Maybe a TUI (Text User Interface)would be a perfect fit for the project. This week on the show, we have Will McGugan to talk about his projects Textual and Rich.

Rich is a Python library for writing rich text to the terminal with color and style. It’s a great tool if you want to display advanced content such as tables, markdown, and syntax-highlighted code. We talk about how Will started on the project and how it’s developed over the years.

We also talk about Will’s new project Textual, a TUI using much of Rich at its core. He shares how the project is coming along and what are challenges in developing this type of application. We discuss how a TUI has more in common with CSS and web development than command line or graphical interfaces.

We also have a quick announcement at the top of the show from CPython Developer in Residence Łukasz Langa about next week’s release of Python 3.10.

Course Spotlight: Rock, Paper, Scissors With Python: A Command Line Game

In this course, you’ll learn to program rock paper scissors in Python from scratch. You’ll learn how to take in user input, make the computer choose a random action, determine a winner, and split your code into functions.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:02:08 – Python 3.10 Release Party - Announcement
• 00:03:32 – Will McGugan and the background of the Rich library
• 00:10:11 – Moya framework
• 00:21:38 – Sponsor: DataStax Astra DB
• 00:22:10 – The spark that started Textual
• 00:26:31 – Needing AsyncIO for a TUI
• 00:28:07 – Describing a TUI (Text User Interface)
• 00:33:57 – Scrolling, resizing, and similarities with CSS
• 00:36:37 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:38:03 – What areas were difficult in developing Textual?
• 00:39:42 – Similarities to game development
• 00:41:47 – Testing across different terminals
• 00:45:01 – What were you excited to include in the project?
• 00:47:04 – Are there particular uses you foresee for Textual?
• 00:49:21 – Career changes and open source reviewing
• 00:54:21 – Version numbers and Textual
• 00:55:49 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
• 00:58:27 – What do you want to learn next?
• 01:00:57 – Shoutouts and plugs
• 01:01:47 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links

• Will McGugan’s Blog
• Will McGugan’s GitHub
• Rich Documentation
• The Python Rich Package: Unleash the Power of Console Text
• Pygments: Python Syntax Highlighter
• object.__repr__ (self): Python docs
• Regular Expressions: Regexes in Python (Part 1) - Real Python
• Moya: Open source web development platform built with Python
• Building Rich terminal dashboards: Will’s blog
• Textual: A TUI (Text User Interface) framework for Python inspired by modern web development
• The 2021 Python Language Summit: Making CPython Faster
• Episode 69: Planning a Faster Future at the Python Language Summit
• Python 3.10 Release Party Announcement
• Łukasz Langa’s twitter: Developer in Residence
• Pablo Galindo Salgado’s twitter: Python 3.10 and 3.11 release manager
• Will McGugan’s Twitter
• Why I’m working on Open Source full time

Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:

• Grow Your Python Portfolio With 13 Intermediate Project Ideas
• Command Line Interfaces in Python
• Rock, Paper, Scissors With Python: A Command Line Game

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