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Turbo Vision
Text user interface

Turbo Vision is a character-mode text user interface framework bundled with Borland’s Turbo Pascal and Borland C++ around 1990, used to build their IDEs. Its applications mimic the IDE look with controls like list boxes, check boxes, and mouse-supported menus. Though later replaced by the Object Windows Library and GUI tools from Borland Delphi, the C++ source code was released into the public domain in 1997 and is actively maintained as open-source software on SourceForge under the GPL license. Meanwhile, the Pascal version inspired the Free Vision project, a free, stable textmode IDE supporting features like code folding.

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Unicode support

One of the factors limiting Turbo Vision's popularity was the absence of Unicode support in the original Borland version. As of October 2020, there are Unicode versions for C++5 and Free Pascal.6

Third-party implementations

Third-party Turbo Vision implementations
Project nameActiveLatest releaseLast updateUnicode supportLanguageGraphicalPlatformsLicense
Turbo Vision (magiblot)78YesNo stable releases (according to GitHub)910As of May 2025, project is active11Yes (UTF-8)1213C++1415NoDOS, Linux, Windows1617MIT18
Free Vision192021YesFPC 3.2.222As of February 2025, project is active23Yes (since February 2022)242526Pascal272829NoMost platforms supported by FPC (tested on Linux and Windows)303132LGPL with linking exception33
TVision port to the GNU compiler34No2.0.33517 November 201636NoC++37NoDOS, FreeBSD, Linux, QNX, Solaris and Win3238GPL39
Port for Virtual Pascal40No2.1 Build 2794113 May 200442No informationPascal43NoWindows, OS/2, Linux44No information
GraphVision4546No2.01474823 April 2001 (file date)49No informationPascal5051YesDOS (graphics mode)5253No information
TVision (Sergio Sigala)54No0.85510 August 200156NoC++57NoLinux and FreeBSD58BSD-like59
Port for TMT Pascal6061NoNot specified18 August 2000 (file date)62No informationPascal6364NoDOS (TMT Pascal)6566No information
Graphics Vision (MKM Software)67No3.0 (DOS/DPMI/Windows), 2.10R2, 2.01 (DOS)689 February 1999 (version 3.0)69No informationPascal70YesDOS, Windows, Linux (GV/FPC), DPMI71Free for individual use, commercial license, DOS libraries - LGPL72
Super Vision73No2.274UnknownNo informationPascal75YesDOS (SVGA)76No information

Applications using Turbo Vision

See also

References

  1. Tvision "What about copyrights? [...] According to a FAQ entry in the Borland's site (was in http://www.inprise.com/devsupport/bcppbuilder/faq/QNA906.html[permanent dead link] when I saw it) the code is public domain. I also asked in the Borland's newsgroup and the TeamB people (not official people but they are who give technical support in the net) said me the FAQ was right." http://tvision.sourceforge.net/ ↩

  2. Turbo Vision - by Borland Developer Support Staff on community.borland.com/ "Question: Where can I find the public domain version of Turbo Vision? Answer: It can be found at ftp.inprise.com/pub/borlandcpp/devsupport/archive/turbovision/" (1998, archived) https://web.archive.org/web/20040119162125/http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,17285,00.html ↩

  3. tvision.sf.net on sf.net http://tvision.sf.net/ ↩

  4. Free Vision on freepascal.org http://wiki.freepascal.org/Free_Vision ↩

  5. "Turbo Vision". GitHub. 26 October 2021. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  6. "Free Vision - Free Pascal wiki". wiki.freepascal.org. Retrieved 2022-02-07. https://wiki.freepascal.org/Free_Vision#Unicode_version ↩

  7. "Turbo Vision". GitHub. 26 October 2021. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  8. "magiblot/tvision: A modern port of Turbo Vision 2.0, the classical framework for text-based user interfaces. Now cross-platform and with Unicode support". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-10-27. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  9. "Turbo Vision". GitHub. 26 October 2021. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  10. "magiblot/tvision: A modern port of Turbo Vision 2.0, the classical framework for text-based user interfaces. Now cross-platform and with Unicode support". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-10-27. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  11. "magiblot/tvision: A modern port of Turbo Vision 2.0, the classical framework for text-based user interfaces. Now cross-platform and with Unicode support". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-10-27. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  12. "Turbo Vision". GitHub. 26 October 2021. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  13. "magiblot/tvision: A modern port of Turbo Vision 2.0, the classical framework for text-based user interfaces. Now cross-platform and with Unicode support". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-10-27. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

  14. "Turbo Vision". GitHub. 26 October 2021. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

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  16. "Turbo Vision". GitHub. 26 October 2021. https://github.com/magiblot/tvision ↩

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