ANSI

There are a number of modules and classes provided by the ANSI package. Below is a small sampling of some of these. To get an even better understanding of the available modules and classes and their capabilities, have a look at the QED Demonstrandum.

ANSI::Code

At the heart of all the provided libraries lies the ANSI::Code module which defines ANSI codes as constants and methods. For example:

    require 'ansi/code'

    include ANSI::Code

    red + "Hello" + " " + blue + "World" + clear
  

      Hello World
  

Or in block form...

    puts red{ "Hello" } + " " + green{ "World" }
  

      Hello World
  

Rather than include ANSI::Code, these methods can also be called as module methods. Either as ANSI::Code.red or just ANSI.red.

The methods defined by this module are used throughout the rest of the system.

ANSI::ProgressBar

The ANSI::ProgressBar class is great to convey the progress of long running process.

    require 'ansi/progressbar'

    pbar = ANSI::Progressbar.new("Test Bar", 100)

    100.times do |i|
      sleep 0.01
      pbar.inc
    end
    pbar.finish
  

     Test Bar:  100% |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Time: 00:00:11
  

As with the rest of the ANSI classes, ANSI codes can be used to spice up the progress bar output.

ANSI::String

The ANSI::String class provides a specialized String subclass ideally suited for ANSI color manipulation..

    require 'ansi/string'

    flower1 = ANSI::String.new("Roses")
    flower2 = ANSI::String.new("Violets")

    puts flower1.red + " are red and, " + flower2.blue + " are blue."
  

     Roses are red, and Violets are blue.
  

The ANSI::String class is mostly a String subclass with the ANSI::Mixin module mixed-in.

ANSI::Columns

The ANSI::Columns class provides easy way to create columnar output.

    require 'ansi/columns'

    list = %w{a b c d e f g h i j k l}

    columns = ANSI::Columns.new(list)

    puts columns.to_s(4)
  

      a d g j
      b e h k
      c f i l
  

A block can be passed to the constructor to apply ANSI codes to each entry.

ANSI::Table

The ANSI::Table class makes quick work of tables.

    require 'ansi/table'

    data = [
      [ 10, 20, 30 ],
      [ 20, 10, 20 ],
      [ 50, 40, 20 ]
    ]

    table = ANSI::Table.new(data)

    puts table
  

    +----+----+----+
    | 10 | 20 | 30 |
    | 20 | 10 | 20 |
    | 50 | 40 | 20 |
    +----+----+----+
  

As with the Columns class, a block passed to the constructor can be used to apply ANSI coded to each cell.