PFlashcards

A small, keyboard-driven flashcards program that runs in your terminal. Built on the Python standard library's curses module, with zero external dependencies.

Everything is a file: flashcard sets are plain-text .txt files, and configuration is a plain-text config.txt.

Features

• Flashcard sets stored as easy-to-edit plain-text files in flashsets/
• Animated card flip (horizontal or vertical) when you answer
• Number-key answer selection
• Sequential or shuffled study order
• Live progress and correct/wrong statistics
• End-of-session summary with restart option
• Set selection screen when no file is given
• Resize and small-terminal safe, restores your terminal on exit

Requirements

• Python 3 (uses only the standard library, including curses)
• A normal terminal (works over SSH)

Usage

Run the program with one of your flashcard sets:

python3 flashcards.py flashsets/python.txt
python3 flashcards.py --shuffle flashsets/linux.txt

Run it with no arguments to pick a set from a selection screen:

python3 flashcards.py

Controls

Key	Action
1-9	Select an answer
N/Enter	Next card
B	Previous card
R	Retry the current card
S	Shuffle the card order
Q	Quit

Flashcard format

Each card is a numbered block with a question, two or more numbered answers, the correct answer number, and an optional explanation:

1 {
    question: "What is the capital of France?"
    answers: {
        "1: London"
        "2: Paris"
        "3: Berlin"
        "4: Madrid"
    }
    correct: 2
    explanation: "Paris has been the French capital since the 12th century."
}

Blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored. Escape sequences allowed inside quoted fields: \n, \t, \", \\.

Files are ordinary text, so they work with the usual Unix tools:

cat flashsets/python.txt
grep "chmod" flashsets/linux.txt
cp flashsets/linux.txt flashsets/linux-backup.txt
nvim flashsets/python.txt

Configuration

Behaviour can be tweaked in config.txt next to the program. Currently it controls the flip animation:

animation: horizontal   # card narrows to a vertical line, then widens again
animation: vertical     # card shortens to a horizontal line, then grows again

Uncomment exactly one animation line. If none or more than one is set, the program falls back to horizontal.