Modern Python Standard Library Cookbook

How it works...

The message box is based on the curses library, which allows us to draw text-based graphics on the screen. When we use the dialog box, we will enter a full-screen text graphic mode, and as soon as we exit it, we will recover our previous terminal state.

That allows us to interleave the MessageBox class in more complex programs without having to write the whole program with curses. This is allowed by the curses.wrapper function that is used in the MessageBox.show class method to wrap the MessageBox._show method that actually shows the box.

The message to show is prepared in the MessageBox initializer, through the MessageBox._build_message method, to ensure that it wraps when it's too long and that multiple lines of text are ...