Mosaic

An experimental tool for building console UI in Kotlin using the Jetpack Compose compiler/runtime. Inspired by Ink.

Jump to: Introduction | Usage | Samples | FAQ | License

Introduction

The entrypoint to Mosaic is the runMosaic function. The lambda passed to this function is responsible for both output and performing work.

suspend fun main() = runMosaic {
  Text("The count is: 0")
}

To change the output dynamically we can use local properties to hold state. Let's update our counter to actually count to 20.

suspend fun main() = runMosaic {
  var count by remember { mutableIntStateOf(0) }

  Text("The count is: $count")

  LaunchedEffect(Unit) {
    for (i in 1..20) {
      delay(250)
      count = i
    }
  }
}

(Note: You may need to add imports for androidx.compose.runtime.getValue and import androidx.compose.runtime.setValue manually.)

That is the most basic sample of Mosaic. From there, the limit is only your imagination.

(Note: graphs in the above have rendering problems due to asciinema/agg which do not appear in the real output)

Usage

Mosaic is a library for Compose, and it relies on JetBrains' Kotlin Compose plugin to be present for use. Any module which wants to call runMosaic or define @Composable functions for use with Mosaic must have this plugin applied. For more information, see the JetBrains Compose compiler documentation.

Mosaic itself can then be added like any other dependency:

dependencies {
  implementation("com.jakewharton.mosaic:mosaic-runtime:0.14.0")
}

Documentation is available at jakewharton.github.io/mosaic/docs/0.x/.

Snapshots of the development version are available in Sonatype's snapshots repository.

repository {
  mavenCentral()
  maven {
    url 'https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/'
  }
}
dependencies {
  implementation("com.jakewharton.mosaic:mosaic-runtime:0.15.0-SNAPSHOT")
}

Snapshot documentation is available at jakewharton.github.io/mosaic/docs/latest/.

Samples

Run ./gradlew installDist to build the sample binaries.

• Counter: A simple increasing number from 0 until 20.

  ./samples/counter/build/install/counter/bin/counter

• Demo: A playground for demonstrating many features of Mosaic.

  ./samples/demo/build/install/demo/bin/demo

• Jest: Example output of a test framework (such as JS's 'Jest').

  ./samples/jest/build/install/jest/bin/jest

• Robot: An interactive, game-like program with keyboard control.

  ./samples/robot/build/install/robot/bin/robot

• rrtop: An example inspired by rrtop.

  ./samples/rrtop/build/install/rrtop/bin/rrtop

FAQ

I thought Jetpack Compose was a UI toolkit for Android?

Compose is, at its core, a general-purpose runtime and compiler for tree and property manipulation which is trapped inside the AndroidX monorepo and under the Jetpack marketing department. This core can be used for any tree on any platform supported by Kotlin. It's an amazing piece of technology.

Compose UI is the new UI toolkit for Android (and maybe Desktop?). The lack of differentiation between these two technologies has unfortunately caused Compose UI to overshadow the core under the single "Compose" moniker in an unforced marketing error.

If you want another example of a non-Compose UI-based Compose project checkout JetBrains' Compose for Web project.

Output repeats with ./gradlew run and/or inside IntelliJ IDEA

Running within Gradle or IntelliJ IDEA will not work. Both tools strip ANSI control characters, which prevent Mosaic from redrawing over a previous frame. The output will likely just render in successive lines instead.

In the future Mosaic will detect this case and do... something. For now, we unconditionally emit ANSI control characters. Run your programs directly in a terminal emulator–no IDE and no Gradle.

License

Copyright 2020 Jake Wharton

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.