See also: Shell UI — Mango · Tools · System-Wide Call

The Mango shell UI was up and running, but it still felt like a form with numbers tacked on — not a real terminal app. I wanted to implement the video pipeline so I can convert video to audio, and I wasn't sure if there was a way to "select" with arrow keys too. That turned into a broader pass: from the start page and all, Mango should allow for arrow entry, so that the "Enter choice" prompt can be deleted completely.

The Problem

Typing 1–6 (or memorizing tool names) works, but it breaks the illusion Mango is going for. The menus looked polished, yet every screen still dumped you into a line prompt: Enter choice. Worse, several tools in the registry — including Video → GIF and Extract Audio — showed as "coming soon" because the underlying bin/ scripts did not exist yet. The UI promised a toolkit; the filesystem had not caught up.

Video & Audio pipeline

Rather than stubbing forever, I wired the first real ffmpeg-backed scripts into the registry:

  • bin/to_gif: Video → GIF via ffmpeg's palette method (defaults: 480px wide, 15 fps).
  • bin/extract-audio: Pull the audio track from a video as MP3 (WAV optional).

Mango only marks a tool ● ready when the script exists and is executable — so creating these binaries immediately unlocked the Video & Audio category for real conversions.

Arrow-key navigation everywhere

Instead of enter a number, Mango now uses the arrow keys and Enter to trigger menu actions — on the home screen, category browsers, Quick Convert, and file picking.

  • ui_menu_select: Unified interactive menu with a ❯ cursor, ↑↓ to move, Enter to select.
  • ui_arrow_select_file: When matching files exist in the current directory, pick from a live list (↑↓ · Enter · P to type a path · Q to cancel).
  • Removed: _mango_read_menu_choice and the numbered "Enter choice" prompt entirely.

Menus redraw in place; the brand panel stays visible on Home. Submenus show the familiar ● ready ○ coming soon legend without asking you to type anything.

Bash 3.2 realities

macOS still ships Bash 3.2. Two gotchas surfaced immediately while building the key loop:

  • local -n namerefs — not available; refactored to stdout-returning helpers.
  • read -t 0.05 — fractional timeouts are rejected; escape sequences are now read one character at a time with integer -t 1.

Mango should feel like navigating an app, not filling out a survey. Arrows first; typing only when you actually need a path.