4 ms·

Let me be the devil advocate: why not use ttyrec + seq2gif instead? Or check https://intoli.com/blog/terminal-recorders/ https://intoli.com/blog/terminal-record

by csdvrx 7y ago

Let me be the devil advocate: why not use ttyrec + seq2gif instead? Or check https://intoli.com/blog/terminal-recorders/ https://intoli.com/blog/terminal-recorders/ if you don't like my recommendation ttyrec is a standard format that most people and tools understand. And if you want something fancy that asciinema output, you can use seq2gif which support all the bells n whistles asciinema does, while allowing you to also upload the ttyrec file. However, I would suggest not using unicode or Ansi color in your recordings. You want to demo a feature, not show your cool terminal or the amazing gif you made. The gif is just a byproduct. Keeping to plain text as much as possible makes your recording available to people using text terminals and Braille screen readers. My most recent example: https://github.com/csdvrx/pg_csdvrx/raw/master/pg_csdvrx.ttyrecord https://github.com/csdvrx/pg_csdvrx/raw/master/pg_csdvrx.tty... and https://github.com/csdvrx/pg_csdvrx/raw/master/pg_csdvrx.gif https://github.com/csdvrx/pg_csdvrx/raw/master/pg_csdvrx.gif (in case you wonder why I'm doing a cat /dev/random into a live postgres database block file, this is to show how I can recover the database content from the raw directory. Kids, don't try this at home. Don't try it at your parents work on their production database either. In fact, just don't do that, it is only for when your database ends up in /lost+found)

lol768 7y ago
>Let me be the devil advocate: why not use ttyrec + seq2gif instead? GIFs look poor - they don't capture colours well. They're not accessible. They don't zoom. Copy and paste doesn't work. >And if you want something fancy that asciinema output, you can use seq2gif which support all the bell n whites asciinema does, while allowing you to also upload the ttyrec file. Unless I'm missing something obvious (possible!), seq2gif makes a GIF file. How does this "support all the bell n whites asciinema does"? >However, I would suggest not using unicode or Ansi color in your recordings. It's 2019, there's no excuse for these (and emoji!) not working fine. >You want to demo a feature, not show your cool terminal or the amazing gif you made. The gif is just a byproduct. Keeping to plain text as much as possible makes your recording available to people using text terminals and Braille screen readers. Agreed - how does seq2gif fit in with this? Or are you saying the ttyrecord files are more accessible? It looks like a binary format, I have nothing on my system that can read it. I do have a web browser, though.
- csdvrx 7y ago
  > Or are you saying the ttyrecord files are more accessible? I do. You can edit them like if you made a typo. They are common, so there's an ecosystem of tools if you don't like raw edits. Next to that, asciinema looks like reeinventing the wheel, except it's no longer round, so it requires special tools and roads now. But what's a few extra dependencies? It looks better and it's new! > I have nothing on my system that can read it. I do have a web browser, though. In general, I prefer a standard format supported by many free software tools that lets me create a file in another standard format that I can put on my website without requiring various other dependencies, like javascripts. Especially if I can pacman / apt-get install the tools. > seq2gif makes a GIF file. How does this "support all asciinema #1 use case is to show a recording with color, unicode, etc. I think that's a bad idea for accessibility. You want to show features, not look cool. Still seq2gif gives you that, and the output in a standard format. You can replay the original in a normal term, copy paste etc. If you think copy & paste from the browser showing an animated replay of the terminal is an important use case #2, huh, we have different use cases, but I don't see how it couldn't be done as another target (seq2something_else, maybe seq2svg?) from a well known and accessible format like ttyrec
  - ThaJay 7y ago
    Normal people want things that look cool and can be made with minimal effort. Some people can afford to stay in an abstract backend world without ever presenting anything to non developer people, but I think most of us live in the real world and use modern computers so they'd rather have the cpu run a few more cycles than having to think about the details themselves.
  - faho 7y ago
    >In general, I prefer a standard format supported by many free software tools Which are? This is the first I'm hearing of ttyrecord in the first place. > Especially if I can pacman / apt-get install the tools. asciinema is in the arch repos, "ttyrec" is in the AUR. Both are in the debian repos. > You want to show features, not look cool The use you're talking about is in marketing material. Looking cool is a feature!
skocznymroczny 7y ago
For the same reason people still refer to this reply on Dropbox announcement - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 . Just because you can stitch together several commandline utilities, doesn't mean the endusers want it. This tool looks like it offers convenience, everything is in a single binary, and it's simple to use.
CGamesPlay 7y ago
GIFs are worse in my perspective than Asciinema. You can't select the text in a GIF, you can't pause or seek in them, and they take up more bandwidth as the video gets longer.
panpanna 7y ago
Not sure about seq2gif but I think using ttyrec to capture data instead of asciinema has some benefits. For example, ttyrec is a 33KB standalone binary while asciinema needs python. This might be a problem if you are recording something on a remote machine with limited access or resources. You can upload ttyrec data to asciinema so nothing really changes on that front.
- csdvrx 7y ago
  Unfortunately I guess only a small minority prefers 33KB binaries doing just their the job. At least I learned about the SVG alternatives to asciinema that's both getting a better vectorial results, and saving size compared to a gif output. It is so obvious in retrospect! More kudos to the author for thinking about supporting various input formats, including asciinema.

by csdvrx 7y ago

lol768 7y ago

>Let me be the devil advocate: why not use ttyrec + seq2gif instead? GIFs look poor - they don't capture colours well. They're not accessible. They don't zoom. Copy and paste doesn't work. >And if you want something fancy that asciinema output, you can use seq2gif which support all the bell n whites asciinema does, while allowing you to also upload the ttyrec file. Unless I'm missing something obvious (possible!), seq2gif makes a GIF file. How does this "support all the bell n whites asciinema does"? >However, I would suggest not using unicode or Ansi color in your recordings. It's 2019, there's no excuse for these (and emoji!) not working fine. >You want to demo a feature, not show your cool terminal or the amazing gif you made. The gif is just a byproduct. Keeping to plain text as much as possible makes your recording available to people using text terminals and Braille screen readers. Agreed - how does seq2gif fit in with this? Or are you saying the ttyrecord files are more accessible? It looks like a binary format, I have nothing on my system that can read it. I do have a web browser, though.

csdvrx 7y ago
> Or are you saying the ttyrecord files are more accessible? I do. You can edit them like if you made a typo. They are common, so there's an ecosystem of tools if you don't like raw edits. Next to that, asciinema looks like reeinventing the wheel, except it's no longer round, so it requires special tools and roads now. But what's a few extra dependencies? It looks better and it's new! > I have nothing on my system that can read it. I do have a web browser, though. In general, I prefer a standard format supported by many free software tools that lets me create a file in another standard format that I can put on my website without requiring various other dependencies, like javascripts. Especially if I can pacman / apt-get install the tools. > seq2gif makes a GIF file. How does this "support all asciinema #1 use case is to show a recording with color, unicode, etc. I think that's a bad idea for accessibility. You want to show features, not look cool. Still seq2gif gives you that, and the output in a standard format. You can replay the original in a normal term, copy paste etc. If you think copy & paste from the browser showing an animated replay of the terminal is an important use case #2, huh, we have different use cases, but I don't see how it couldn't be done as another target (seq2something_else, maybe seq2svg?) from a well known and accessible format like ttyrec
- ThaJay 7y ago
  Normal people want things that look cool and can be made with minimal effort. Some people can afford to stay in an abstract backend world without ever presenting anything to non developer people, but I think most of us live in the real world and use modern computers so they'd rather have the cpu run a few more cycles than having to think about the details themselves.
- faho 7y ago
  >In general, I prefer a standard format supported by many free software tools Which are? This is the first I'm hearing of ttyrecord in the first place. > Especially if I can pacman / apt-get install the tools. asciinema is in the arch repos, "ttyrec" is in the AUR. Both are in the debian repos. > You want to show features, not look cool The use you're talking about is in marketing material. Looking cool is a feature!

skocznymroczny 7y ago

For the same reason people still refer to this reply on Dropbox announcement - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 . Just because you can stitch together several commandline utilities, doesn't mean the endusers want it. This tool looks like it offers convenience, everything is in a single binary, and it's simple to use.

CGamesPlay 7y ago

GIFs are worse in my perspective than Asciinema. You can't select the text in a GIF, you can't pause or seek in them, and they take up more bandwidth as the video gets longer.

panpanna 7y ago

Not sure about seq2gif but I think using ttyrec to capture data instead of asciinema has some benefits. For example, ttyrec is a 33KB standalone binary while asciinema needs python. This might be a problem if you are recording something on a remote machine with limited access or resources. You can upload ttyrec data to asciinema so nothing really changes on that front.

csdvrx 7y ago
Unfortunately I guess only a small minority prefers 33KB binaries doing just their the job. At least I learned about the SVG alternatives to asciinema that's both getting a better vectorial results, and saving size compared to a gif output. It is so obvious in retrospect! More kudos to the author for thinking about supporting various input formats, including asciinema.