ASCII styles for tty systems

[WatskeBart]

Thanks for the awesome simple app. Could you share how I can add extra styles, so I can create ASCII styles which are compatible with tty terminals?

I'm seeing swift for the first time here and I tried to add a extra style (called spinner) by editing the files ActivityIndicator.swift and ActivityIndicator+CommandArgument.swift and run a swift build.

But running my build with my added style return an error:

Error: The value 'spinner' is invalid for '-s <activity-style>'. Please provide one of 'dots', 'kitt' or 'snake'.
Help:  -s <activity-style>  The style of the activity indicator.
Usage: some-command | progressline
  See 'progressline --help' for more information.

Where do I need to add the extra argument?

[WatskeBart]

Silly me running against the wrong executable.
Though adding some ASCII styles would be great for tty compatiblity 😉

[kattouf]

Thank you for your feedback! I’m really glad you found the program useful.

I’ve also been thinking about adding support for extending styles, but decided to wait until there’s a clear need for it.
1. How you already do (if I understood correctly), you can build a custom version locally. Here are a couple of tips for building swift project:
• To build in release configuration (for better performance), use: swift build --release.
• To find where the executable is located, you can add another flag: swift build --release --show-bin-path.
2. Currently, I’m on vacation and don’t have access to a computer, so I can’t work on style extension functionality at the moment. I’ll revisit it later. For now, I’d love to hear your ideas on what such an API could look like. Here are a couple of options I’ve been considering:
• A style configuration file located in the user’s configuration directory.
• Passing the style as a new argument, e.g., --raw-style "oOo,90", where the animation style parameters are specified directly in the command.
• Embedding all styles directly into the program, although I feel this approach is less flexible and convenient. (I like it less hah)

Let me know your thoughts!

[WatskeBart]

Thank you for the building tips 😄

I really like the --raw-style idea. This way you can prototype styles very quickly.

A style configuration file was on my mind also. I do think, because this is user facing file, this should be in a super simple format. The "heavy" lifting is done inside the application.

I already added a basic ASCII spinner in my forked repo. Shall I create a PR for that?

[kattouf]

I think your case is not will be unique, and this style definitely deserves to be included in the list of standard styles. Please open a PR if you want to, and I’ll review it as soon as I get the chance.

[kattouf]

Implemented in #8

[WatskeBart]

FYI the current console fonts (for my system) only supports these characters in a tty session:

Source:
https://adeverteuil.github.io/linux-console-fonts-screenshots/#eurlatgrpsfu

Currently the prompt character (❯) is also incompatible in a tty session. In my personal build I replaced it with the greater than sign (>).

[kattouf]

Thank you for the information. To be honest, I hadn’t considered this kind of environment before encountering your issue.

I don’t have enough knowledge on the subject right now, but if I gain more insight, I’d like to try adding a runtime check for the environment and use a simpler character set in such cases.