6 ms·

HTML Canvas in the terminal

78 points by lennoff 12y ago

michaelmior 12y ago
This is very cool. It would be interesting to use this as part of an abstraction layer for HTML5 Canvas games so they could run in the terminal as well as the browser.
thomasahle 12y ago
Would such a thing allow the creation of a complete terminal fronted for webkit or so? I would love to be able to do all my browsing from the terminal.
- jimktrains2 12y ago
  Even if it could the quality of images would be abysmal, if even useful. There are options for browsing in the terminal such as lynx, links, and w3m, obviously they don't have graphics support.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
    It's possible to view images in certain terminals, with w3m. https://mediacru.sh/rML4x537Mf0o https://mediacru.sh/rML4x537Mf0o Screenshot is xterm. Also supposedly works with urxvt, but I can't get it to work correctly.
    - jimktrains2 12y ago
      w3m has always opened images in an external program for me. I'll have to check out how to do this! :)
    - Jasper_ 12y ago
      Put a trigger warning on that anime, please.
  - tomgg 12y ago
    I can't speak for the others, but w3m definitely has graphics support.
    - jimktrains2 12y ago
      w3m has always opened images in an external program for me. I'll have to check out how to do this! :)
- gcb4 12y ago
  phantom already does a full headless web kit browser. with screen shot capabilities.
seanewest 12y ago
TJ Holowaychuk made something like this a few years ago: https://github.com/visionmedia/term-canvas https://github.com/visionmedia/term-canvas
ninjin 12y ago
Absolutely wonderful idea, I hope the author had a lot of fun hacking on this. On a slightly related note, if you have not been exposed to the BB demo using aalib, do not miss out on this gem from the late 90s (if you are on a Linux distribution you can most likely install it using your package manager, e.g. `apt-get install bb`). http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/bb/ http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/bb/
- bnegreve 12y ago
  With aalib, you can even render videos on the terminal. E.g. on Linux: mplayer -vo aa video.mpg Will use aalib to render video.mpg inside the current terminal/console. The quality is not great though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5JLjfCi0mw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5JLjfCi0mw (Here with Vlc.)
  - cben 12y ago
    Use -vo caca for color output via libcaca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3iEHo6rI8#t=25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3iEHo6rI8#t=25

78 points by lennoff 12y ago

This is very cool. It would be interesting to use this as part of an abstraction layer for HTML5 Canvas games so they could run in the terminal as well as the browser.

thomasahle 12y ago

Would such a thing allow the creation of a complete terminal fronted for webkit or so? I would love to be able to do all my browsing from the terminal.

jimktrains2 12y ago
Even if it could the quality of images would be abysmal, if even useful. There are options for browsing in the terminal such as lynx, links, and w3m, obviously they don't have graphics support.
- Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
  It's possible to view images in certain terminals, with w3m. https://mediacru.sh/rML4x537Mf0o https://mediacru.sh/rML4x537Mf0o Screenshot is xterm. Also supposedly works with urxvt, but I can't get it to work correctly.
  - jimktrains2 12y ago
    w3m has always opened images in an external program for me. I'll have to check out how to do this! :)
  - Jasper_ 12y ago
    Put a trigger warning on that anime, please.
- tomgg 12y ago
  I can't speak for the others, but w3m definitely has graphics support.
  - jimktrains2 12y ago
    w3m has always opened images in an external program for me. I'll have to check out how to do this! :)
gcb4 12y ago
phantom already does a full headless web kit browser. with screen shot capabilities.

seanewest 12y ago

TJ Holowaychuk made something like this a few years ago: https://github.com/visionmedia/term-canvas https://github.com/visionmedia/term-canvas

ninjin 12y ago

Absolutely wonderful idea, I hope the author had a lot of fun hacking on this. On a slightly related note, if you have not been exposed to the BB demo using aalib, do not miss out on this gem from the late 90s (if you are on a Linux distribution you can most likely install it using your package manager, e.g. `apt-get install bb`). http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/bb/ http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/bb/

bnegreve 12y ago
With aalib, you can even render videos on the terminal. E.g. on Linux: mplayer -vo aa video.mpg Will use aalib to render video.mpg inside the current terminal/console. The quality is not great though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5JLjfCi0mw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5JLjfCi0mw (Here with Vlc.)
- cben 12y ago
  Use -vo caca for color output via libcaca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3iEHo6rI8#t=25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3iEHo6rI8#t=25