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# Alternatives

For programs that do not interact with the user in a continuous loop - programs that simply accept a set of arguments from the command line, return results, and do not keep the user within the program's environment - all you need are sys.argv (the command-line arguments) and argparse (for parsing UNIX-style options and flags). Though some people may prefer docopt or click to argparse.

The textual module is capable of building sophisticated full-screen terminal user interfaces (TUIs) that are not limited to simple text input and output; they can paint the screen with options that are selected from using the cursor keys and even mouse clicks. However, programming a `textual` application is not as straightforward as using `cmd2`.

Several Python packages exist for building interactive command-line applications approximately similar in concept to cmd applications. None of them share `cmd2`'s close ties to cmd, but they may be worth investigating nonetheless.

Click is a Python package for creating beautiful command line interfaces in a composable way with as little code as necessary. It is more geared towards command line utilities instead of command line interpreters, but it can be used for either.

Getting a working command-interpreter application based on Click requires a good deal more effort and boilerplate code than `cmd2`. `cmd2` focuses on providing an excellent out-of-the-box experience with as many useful features as possible built in for free with as little work required on the developer's part as possible. We believe that `cmd2` provides developers the easiest way to write a command-line interpreter, while allowing a good experience for end users.

Historically, Python Prompt Toolkit was considered a powerful but more complex alternative to `cmd2`. However, as of version 4.0.0, `cmd2` utilizes `prompt-toolkit` internally as its REPL engine. This means you get the power and cross-platform compatibility of `prompt-toolkit` with the easy-to-use API of `cmd2`.

If you are seeking a visually richer end-user experience and don't mind investing more development time, we would recommend checking out Textual as this can be used to build very sophisticated user interfaces in a terminal that are more akin to feature-rich web GUIs.