# animate-chars  A CLI tool for animating Unicode characters and browsing the entire Unicode space. Written in Rust, ported from the [original bash implementation](https://github.com/phiat/animate-chars). ## Features - **Animate** any sequence of characters as a terminal spinner - **Interactive browser** to explore and select Unicode characters with ratatui TUI - **Navigate** with configurable step sizes (10, 50, 100, 500, 1000) - **Quick jump** to popular ranges (Emoji, Box Drawing, Braille, Hiragana, Cham) - **Save** character collections for reuse - **Inspect** codepoints with hex and decimal values ## Installation ### From Source ```bash cargo install --path . ``` Or build and run directly: ```bash cargo build --release ./target/release/animate ``` ## Quick Start ```bash # Default animation animate # Interactive Unicode browser animate -i # Animate from saved file animate -f selected_chars.txt # Show codepoints animate --show --range 0x1F600:10 ``` ## Interactive Mode ```bash animate -i [START_ADDRESS] ``` ``` ┌─ Unicode Browser ───────────────────────────────── │ Range: 0x0AB20-0x0AB29 │ Step: 10 Selected: (none) └─────────────────────────────────────────────────── [0] U+AB20 ( 43808) ꬠ [1] U+AB21 ( 43809) ꬡ [2] U+AB22 ( 43810) ꬢ [3] U+AB23 ( 43811) ꬣ [4] U+AB24 ( 43812) ꬤ [5] U+AB25 ( 43813) ꬥ [6] U+AB26 ( 43814) ꬦ [7] U+AB27 ( 43815) ꬧ [8] U+AB28 ( 43816) ꬨ [9] U+AB29 ( 43817) ꬩ 0-9:select | n:next p:prev | j:+100 k:-100 | J:+1000 K:-1000 +/-:step size | g:goto | s:save q:quit ``` **Controls:** - `0-9` — Select character (allows duplicates for sequences) - `n/p` — Next/previous by step size (default: 10) - `j/k` — Jump ±100 codepoints - `J/K` — Jump ±1000 codepoints - `+/-` — Adjust step size (10 → 50 → 100 → 500 → 1000) - `g` — Goto specific address (shows popular ranges) - `s` — Save selection (prompts for filename) - `q/Esc` — Quit Always displays 10 characters per screen. Navigation is consistent and predictable. ## Options ``` Options: --range <START:LENGTH> Unicode range (e.g., 0xAB20:7) --chars <CHARS> Comma-separated character list -f, --file <FILE> Load characters from saved file --speed <SPEED> Animation speed in seconds [default: 0.1] --once Run once instead of looping --timer <SECONDS> Run animation for specified duration in seconds --show Print characters with codepoints (no animation) -i, --interactive Interactive Unicode browser <START> Starting address for interactive mode (e.g., 0x1F600) -h, --help Print help ``` ## Examples ```bash # Fast animation animate --speed 0.05 # Custom spinner animate --chars "⠋,⠙,⠹,⠸,⠼,⠴,⠦,⠧,⠇,⠏" # Browse emoji animate -i 0x1F600 # Timed animation animate --timer 10 --speed 0.1 # Unicode range with single pass animate --range 0xAB20:7 --once ``` ## Technical Details Built with: - [clap](https://github.com/clap-rs/clap) - Command line argument parsing - [crossterm](https://github.com/crossterm-rs/crossterm) - Terminal manipulation - [ratatui](https://github.com/ratatui/ratatui) - Terminal UI framework ## License MIT ## Related - [animate-chars](https://github.com/phiat/animate-chars) - Original bash implementation