Day 1: React in Terminal 🎨

Ho-ho-ho! The time is finally here and, following the suggested format, the first gift I'd like to share with you is this amazing gem: https://term.ink/.

This library allows you to write terminal interfaces using React!

It works great with node, but the easiest way to try it out and avoid setting up TypeScript is by using Deno.

Install dependencies:

deno add npm:ink npm:react

Create a script, e.g. main.tsx:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from "npm:react";
import { render, Text } from "npm:ink";

const Counter = () => {
  const [counter, setCounter] = useState<number>(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const timer = setInterval(() => {
      setCounter((previousCounter: number) => previousCounter + 1);
    }, 100);

    return () => {
      clearInterval(timer);
    };
  }, []);

  return <Text color="green">{counter} tests passed</Text>;
};

render(<Counter />);

And run with deno run -A main.tsx:

But that's not all! How about something like this?

And the code for it is:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from "npm:react";
import { render, Text, Box } from "npm:ink";

const Counter = () => {
  const [counter, setCounter] = useState<number>(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const timer = setInterval(() => {
      setCounter((previousCounter: number) => previousCounter + 1);
    }, 100);

    return () => {
      clearInterval(timer);
    };
  }, []);

  return (
    <Box borderStyle="double" margin={2} padding={2}>
      <Text backgroundColor="green">{counter}</Text> 
      <Text> tests passed</Text>
    </Box>
  );
};

render(<Counter />);

Good luck with your next command line interface app!

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